Angels' Ron Washington Receives Hall of Fame Induction

The term "baseball lifer" gets thrown around often. Ron Washington, who has played, coached, or managed at some level of professional baseball every year since 1977, is a baseball lifer.

As such, Washington has called many cities home. Norfolk, Virginia was home to the New York Mets' Triple-A affiliate in 1979. Washington played 83 games there during his lone year in the Mets organization, and it's where he returned to begin his coaching career in 1991.

Washington was the Tidewater Tides' hitting coach for two seasons before he took his first managing job, with the Mets' Class-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League in 1991.

That brief stint in Virginia, along with the career that followed, were enough to land Washington in the Tidewater Baseball Shrine, a local Hall of Fame for baseball luminaries who have passed through the region.

Washington was inducted on Friday along with former Angels pitcher Daniel Hudson, Norbert Wilson Jr. (a local high school baseball coach and amateur scout), and local umpire/scout Clyde "Ducky" Davis.

Washington grew up in New Orleans attending John McDonogh High School. After high school, he attended the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy, a pioneering development program for amateur players from the U.S. Washington was a part of the initial class in 1971 and was one of only 14 players in the history of the academy to make the majors before the program was discontinued in 1974.

Washington slashed .264/.317/.352 with one home run for Tidewater and got the bulk of his appearances at third base rather than shortstop, where he would spend the bulk of his big league career. His .323 batting average on balls in play ranked eighth in the International League.

After appearing in 564 MLB games from 1977-89, Washington played for the Rangers' Triple-A affiliate in 1990 before hanging up his cleats for good. He returned to the Mets organization for his first post-playing job as a coach.

The Tides went 77-55 (.542) in Washington's first season as Tidewater's hitting coach in 1991. That was good for second place, seven games out of first. The Tides would graduate Todd Hundley, Chuck Carr, and Tim Bogar to full-time major league duty before long.

As a result, Washington's second year in Tidewater saw the team fall in the IL standings in 1991. By 1992, Washington was a first-time manager for the first time, though he did return for one more season (1995) when the team was known as the Norfolk Tides.

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