Rest In Peace, U L Washington

A few thoughts on the passing of this site's namesake.

As you may have heard by now, the namesake of this site, U L Washington, passed away Sunday morning at the age of 70 after battling cancer.

I wish I could say I knew Washington. If you didn’t know, the idea for the name came from Greg Schaum back when we both wrote for the old Pine Tar Press site, when I decided writing about Royals history was my interest and forte. It was such a good idea that I carried it forward to Baseball Prospectus Kansas City and then to my own site. But sadly, I never actually got to meet the man who inspired the name.

I always hoped I would get that chance. I would imagine the conversation. Me casually bringing up the blog name. Asking if he’d heard of it. Him laughing and saying sure and he loved the idea.

On the other hand, I hoped he wouldn’t be offended by the name. A guy who had more than 700 hits in the majors and started for a World Series team ought to be remembered for more than playing with a toothpick in his mouth. “Hey, you’re the toothpick guy!” might get old after a while. Washington was a coach, a husband, a father. In all those roles, he probably touched more lives than we can imagine. I’m sure those people will remember him fondly. That makes anything he did on a baseball field pale in comparison.