We are fast approaching the fiftieth anniversary of two striking reminders of the game-changing potential of great speed and its limited value unless accompanied by other essential skills. As it happens, both of these historic events can be traced back to Kobs Field on the banks of the Red Cedar River, where the Michigan State University baseball team plays its home games.
Pinch-runners were by no means a new concept in 1974. Ever since discretionary substitutions became permissible in 1889, managers have looked for opportunities to replace a slow-footed baserunner with a speedy one, and sometimes a bench player was primarily used in this role. But what was new, and potentially revolutionary, was having a player who was exclusively a pinch-runner. With artificial turf placing a greater emphasis on foot speed, the early 1970s saw colorful Oakland A’s owner Charles O. Finley promote a few players to the major leagues who were almost always used as pinch-runners. Finley went one step further in 1974, signing and placing on the major league roster a 22-year-old sprint star named Herb Washington, who had not even played baseball since high school.
Used solely as a pinch-runner, Washington appeared in 92 games that season and stole 29 bases. Yet the innovation continued to rankle many traditionalists, who found it hard to accept that a player who excelled in only one area of the game belonged on a big-league diamond. Those doubters felt vindicated by a play that occurred in Game Two of that year’s Fall Classic, played on October 13, 1974. With the L.A. Dodgers clinging to a 3–2 ninth-inning lead, Washington was brought in to run in the hope that he could steal a crucial base. Instead, while taking his lead off first base, Dodgers relief ace Mike Marshall unleashed a perfectly timed throw to Steve Garvey to pick off Washington and snuff out the threat.
Remarkably, the three principal figures in this dramatic play — Marshall, Washington, and Garvey — were all former Michigan State University Spartans. Even more remarkably, Washington had once been a student in an MSU course taught by Marshall!
It would be an overstatement to say that this single play doomed this novel tactic. Oakland won the 1974 World Series in five games and the following season saw Washington briefly reprise his unique role as “designated runner.” But the costly pick-off on baseball’s biggest stage had increased skepticism about the merits of devoting a roster spot to a base-running specialist, and in early May, Washington was released, ending his unusual baseball career. For several more seasons, the A’s continued to use players whose primary role was as a base-stealer, but never again was a major leaguer exclusively used to pinch-run.