On October 23, 1995, 119 years later, and most definitely not in Boston, George Steinbrenner asked a Mr. Watson to come and see him. And a dynasty was born.
Robert José Watson was born on June 10, 1946 in Los Angeles, and grew up in the city's South Central ghetto. He attended John C. Fremont High School, helping them win the City Championship in 1963, with future major league stars Willie Crawford and Bobby Tolan as teammates.
Named for one of the founding fathers of the State of California, Fremont High also produced baseball players Bobby Doerr, George "Catfish" Metkovich, Clint Conatser, Gene Mauch, Nippy Jones, George Hendrick, Dan Ford, Chet Lemon and Eric Davis; football players Ricky Bell, James Lofton and David Fulcher; basketball players Joe Caldwell and David Fizdale; Olympic track Gold Medalist Richard Stebbins; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leonard Pitts, Congressman Henry Waxman, and music figures Don Cherry and Dr. Dre.
Bob was signed as a free agent by the Houston Astros in 1965, and remained with that organization for 14 years. He made his major league debut on September 9, 1966, and it was in his hometown, at Dodger Stadium. It didn't go so well for the Astros: They lost 7-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Claude Osteen pitched a 3-hit, no-walk shutout. Wearing Number 38, Bob pinch-hit for pitcher Carroll Sembera in the bottom of the 8th inning, grounded to 3rd baseman John Kennedy, and was not put in the field for the 9th.
That would be Bob's only major league appearance of the season, and he struggled between the majors and the minors until becoming a full-time major leaguer in 1970. This included a couple of mentions in Ball Four, pitcher Jim Bouton's diary of the 1969 season, with his having spent the last month and change of the season with the Astros.
While making the occasional appearance behind the plate, Bob would be mostly a left fielder, also playing some 1st base, through 1974, and wearing Number 27 from 1968 onward. From 1975 onward, he was mostly a 1st baseman. In 1972, he batted .312. He achieved that average again in 1973, and made his 1st All-Star Game. He made another All-Star Game in 1975, and finished the season with a career high in batting average, .324.
That season, with the knowledge that the 1 millionth run in MLB history was about to be scored -- counting only the National and American Leagues -- Tootsie Roll sponsored a prize of $10,000 and 1 million Tootsie Rolls to the player who scored said millionth run. A running tally was kept on the scoreboards of all 24 ballparks then in use.
On May 4, 1975, at 12:32 PM, Watson was on 2nd base at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, when he saw that the counter was at 999,999. Milt May hit a home run. At a time when $10,000 was still big money for a ballplayer, Watson sprinted to 3rd base and then home plate. Dave Concepcion of the Cincinnati Reds had just hit a home run, and had also seen a counter, and also ran. But Watson beat him by 4 seconds, and won the prize.
(Later on, some spoilsport determined that neither one of them actually scored the millionth run, and wouldn't say who did.)
In 1976, 2 movies were filmed at the Astrodome. Murder at the World Series was a TV-movie that premiered on ABC on March 20, 1977. It starred Lynda Day George, Murray Hamilton, Karen Valentine, Janet Leigh, Hugh O'Brian, Tamara Dobson, Joseph Wiseman, Bruce Boxleitner and Lisa Hartman, as a series of kidnapping by a rejected Astros prospect threatens a World Series between the Astros and the Oakland Athletics. No real Astro players were in it, although sportscaster Dick Enberg played himself.
The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training featured the titular misfit ballplaying kids, like Bob Watson did, traveling from Los Angeles to Houston to play at the Astrodome, in their case against a local team, between games of an Astro doubleheader.
Their game runs long, and the NL umpires say that the 2nd game of the doubleheader has to start on time, so the Little League game ends, with the Bears losing. The real Astros were in the dugout, and Bob Watson tells the umps, "Hey, come on, let the kids play!" The fans hear this, and a "Let them play!" chant rings out. The NL umps let the Little League game continue, and the Bears come from behind to win.
"Let the kids play!"
Bob topped 100 RBIs for the 1st time in 1976, and in 1977 reached career highs with 22 home runs and 110 RBIs. But while he remained a good player, the Astros got nowhere while he was there. On June 13, 1979, knowing that he would be a free agent at the end of the season, they traded him to the Boston Red Sox, for Pete Ladd, Bobby Sprowl and cash. Neither team got much out of the trade, and the Red Sox did not try to re-sign him after the season. He did, however, become the 1st player ever to hit for the cycle in both leagues.
The Yankees needed a ctacher to replace Thurman Munson, who had been killed in a plane crash. So they traded 1st baseman Chris Chambliss to the Toronto Blue Jays (who subsequently sent him to the Atlanta Braves in a dumb trade), for Rick Cerone.
Now, the Yankees needed a 1st baseman. Although a righthanded hitter, and thus at a disadvantage playing in Yankee Stadium, Watson was similar to the lefthanded Chambliss: A good hitter for average, with some power, and a good glove at 1st base. Wearing Number 28, he batted .307 in 1980, with 13 homers and 68 RBIs, helping the Yankees win the AL Eastern Division.
Bob turned 35 in 1981, and his hitting dropped off precipitously, batting just .212, losing his job as the starting 1st baseman to Dave Revering, and coming up with just 6 homers and 12 RBIs in the strike-shortened regular season. But he did have a good postseason, helping the Yankees win the Pennant. He hit 2 home runs and had 7 RBIs in the Yankees' World Series defeat to his hometown Dodgers, but he also made the last out, a fly out to Ken Landreaux in center field.
Early in the 1982 season, the Yankees traded Bob to the Atlanta Braves for Scott Patterson, a pitcher who never reached the major leagues, and has since become well-known as an actor. Playing in Fulton County Stadium, "the Launching Pad," gave him a brief renaissance, as he -- and Chambliss, and manager Joe Torre -- helped the Braves win the NL Western Division title. He batted .309 as a pinch-hitting specialist in 1983, and retired after the 1984 season, with a .295 lifetime batting average and 1,826 hits, including 184 home runs.
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Bob remained in Houston after retiring, with his wife Carol, their daughter Kelley, and their son Keith. He went into coaching, and was named the A's hitting coach. In 1993, the Astros named him their general manager. Officially, he was the 1st black general manager in the major leagues. Unofficially, Bill Lucas had the job but not the title, with the Atlanta Braves from 1976 until 1979.
When the Strike of '94 hit, the Astros were within striking distance of the NL Central Division title. Had the season played out, and the standings at the time held to the end, the Astros would have won the NL Wild Card berth.
That got George Steinbrenner's attention. On October 23, 1995, restructuring the team, the Yankee owner moved Gene Michael into an unspecified front office role as "super scout," and made Watson the Yankee GM. Oddly, while the Yankees were only the 3rd MLB team to have a black general manager, in the quarter-century since, they have still never had a black (or Hispanic) field manager.
It was the end of the gloryless Don Mattingly era, and Bob was not afraid to shake things up. On November 2, at Steinbrenner's request, he hired his former Atlanta manager Joe Torre as the team's manager. The New York media, knowing his record as a major league manager wasn't good, mocked this decision. The New York Daily News printed a headline calling him "CLUELESS JOE."
Yankee Fans, remembering Joe's failed tenure as Mets manager, also reacted badly. Full disclosure: I was one of them. We were wrong: Joe turned out to be the right choice. Good call, George. Good call, Bob.
Bob was just getting warmed up. On December 7, he traded Sterling Hitchcock and Russ Davis to the Seattle Mariners for Tino Martinez, Jeff Nelson and Jim Mecir. On December 11, he signed Mariano Duncan as a free agent. On December 21, he signed David Cone, who had played out his contract as a Yankee, to a new contract. On February 6, 1996, he traded Blaise Kozeniewski to the Chicago White Sox for Tim Raines. On February 20, he signed Dwight Gooden as a free agent.
During the season, on July 4, he brought Darryl Strawberry, who had finished the 1995 season with the Yankees, back from an "independent" minor league. On July 31, he traded Ruben Sierra and minor-league Matt Drews to the Detroit Tigers for Cecil Fielder. On August 22, he claimed Luis Sojo off waivers from the Mariners. The next day, he traded Bob Wickman and Gerald Williams for Graeme Lloyd, Ricky Bones and Pat Listach. On August 31, he traded Chris Corn to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Charlie Hayes.
Each of these deals ended up being key in a run into, and through, the postseason. The Yankees won the AL East, beating out the Baltimore Orioles. They beat the Texas Rangers in the AL Division Series, then the Orioles for the Pennant, and, finally, the Braves in 6 games to take their 23rd World Championship. It had been 18 years since the 22nd.
L to R: Bob Watson, Joe Torre and Hal Steinbrenner
He remained the Yankee GM through the 1997 season, but had laid the groundwork for a team that, over a span of 8 years, won 6 American League Pennants and 4 World Series.
On February 2, 1998, he was hired as Major League Baseball's vice president in charge of discipline, rules and on-field operations. In 2000, while keeping the preceding job, he worked with USA Baseball to select the roster for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The U.S. team won the Gold Medal. Bob held his MLB discipline job through 2010, and was succeeded by... Joe Torre, who had managed the Yankees until 2007, and the Dodgers in the interim.
In an official statement, the Astro organization said, "He was an All-Star on the field and a true pioneer off it, admired and respected by everyone he played with or worked alongside. Bob will be missed, but not forgotten."
It is rare, especially since the Astro cheating scandal came to light last year, for the Yankees and the Astros to agree on something. It's also rare when I agree with Bob's successor as Yankee general manager, Brian Cashman. But, for the Yankees' official statement, Cashman, said:
Bob was a gentle giant. He was an incredibly kind person, and a mentor whom I looked up to and admired. He shared his wealth of experiences and deep knowledge of the game freely and with everyone he came in contact with, and I was one of those beneficiaries.
Bob is the reason Joe Torre became manager of the New York Yankees, and the two of them were instrumental in creating a winning culture that led to remarkable achievement. I'm so proud that i had the opportunity to work for someone like Bob Watson. All of his life's successes are richly deserved.
My deepest sympathies go out to his wife, Carol, their two children, and all of his extended family and friends. Bob was a tremendous man, and he will be missed.
Bob Watson made me, Brian Cashman, and the Houston Astros agree on something. That isn't his greatest accomplishment. But it is astounding, and says a lot about the character of the man.
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