October 13, 1974: Herb Washington, "Designated Runner"

The only baseball card that Topps has ever produced

where the position is listed as "Pinch Runner."

October 13, 1974: Game 2 of the World Series is played in Los Angeles. A 6th-inning home run by Joe Ferguson gives the Dodgers a 3-2 win over the Oakland Athletics. Don Sutton gets the win over Vida Blue.

The big story, though, is Herb Washington. A track star at Michigan State University, he said his greatest regret was not qualifying for the 1972 Olympics in Munich. A's owner Charlie Finley signed him to be a "designated runner." After all, baseball now had a designated hitter for the pitcher, a change he liked; so, he thought, why not a designated runner?

Wearing Number 3, Washington made 92 appearances in the 1974 season, all as a pinch-runner, stealing 29 bases and scoring 29 runs, without ever coming to the plate, or appearing in the field. He was also caught stealing 16 times, so it was hardly a done deal when he took off. If you believe in WAR (Wins Above Replacement), which I don't, his WAR for 1974 was -0.4, making him less valuable than a replacement player.

In Game 2 of the 1974 World Series, in the top of the 9th inning, Joe Rudi singled home Sal Bando and Reggie Jackson, to close the A's to within 3-2. A's manager Alvin Dark sent Washington in to pincy-run for Rudi. Mike Marshall, who set a major league record with 106 pitching appearances and became the 1st reliever to win the Cy Young Award, embarrassed Washington (and Finley) by picking him off 1st base. Marshall then struck out the man at bat at the time, Ángel Mangual, to end the game in the Dodgers' favor.

This would be the only game the Dodgers would win in the Series, as the A's took the next 3 straight in Oakland. Washington would make 3 more appearances the next season, before Finley released him. He started buying McDonald's franchises, and is now one of the most successful black fast-food restaurant owners -- as is later A's World Champion Dave Parker, an operator of several Popeye's in his native Cincinnati and environs.

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October 13, 1974 was a Sunday. These NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants lost to their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, 35-7 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The New York Jets lost to the team that would one day be their arch-rivals, the New England Patriots, 24-0 at Shea Stadium.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Baltimore Colts, 27-14 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Miami Dolphins, 20-17 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Chicago Bears, 13-10 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium the next year.)

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 34-24 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 17-6 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Houston Oilers, 51-10 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys, 31-28 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 34-24 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the New Orleans Saints, 33-17 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the San Diego Chargers, 14-10 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Detroit Tigers beat the San Francisco 49ers, 17-13 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

The NBA season wouldn't start for another 4 days; the ABA season, the day after that. There were 5 NHL games played: 

* The Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 2-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Kansas City Scouts, 3-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. This was only the 3rd regular-season game played by the Scouts, who became the Colorado Rockies in 1976, and the New Jersey Devils in 1982.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the California Golden Seals, 7-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Like the A's, Charlie Finley owned the Seals from 1970 to 1974, and dressed them in green and gold uniforms. In the 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons, he also owned the Memphis Tams of the American Basketball Association, named for the 3 States in the Memphis metropolitan area: T for Tennessee, A for Arkansas and M for Mississippi. In those seasons, they also wore green and gold.

But Finley sold the Seals in January 1974, and the Tams later in the year. They had been the New Orleans Buccaneers from 1967 to 1970, the Memphis Pros until 1972, and the Memphis Sounds in 1974-75. They tried to move and become the Baltimore Claws, but went bankrupt before the 1975-76 season started. And the Seals became the Cleveland Barons in 1976, and merged with the also-bankrupt Minnesota North Stars in 1978.

* And the Atlanta Flames beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium.