John David Wathan (; born October 4, 1949) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player, coach and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

. He played his entire career in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

as a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

for the Kansas City Royals from 1976 to 1985. Wathan was a member of the world champion 1985 Kansas City Royals team. After his playing career, he worked as a coach before serving as the Royals manager from 1987 to 1991. He also managed the California Angels in 1992. Wathan is notable for setting the single-season stolen base record for catchers in 1982 when, he stole 36 bases to break the previous record set by Ray Schalk in 1916.

Baseball career

Wathan, nicknamed "The Duke" for his dead-on impersonations of John Wayne, was drafted in the first round, fourth overall in the 1971 MLB Draft from the University of San Diego, where he played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

for the Toreros in 1968–70. Wathan played ten seasons with the Royals from to where he played in 860 games, averaging a career .262

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

with 21

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s, 261

RBIs A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

, and 105 stolen bases. Wathan had his best season in in which he played in 126 games, and had a .305 batting average with 6 home runs and 58 RBI. After he retired, Wathan coached for the Royals in 1986 before becoming the manager of Kansas City's AAA

Omaha Royals Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...

farm club In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

. He was promoted to manager for the big-league Royals on August 28, . He managed five seasons in Kansas City, having two winning seasons in and and finishing second in the

American League West The American League West is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. The division has five teams as of the 2013 season, but had four teams from 1994 to 2012, and had as many as seven teams before the 1994 realignment. Although its teams curr ...

both times. He was fired early in the season after a 15–22 start.Royals fire John Wathan
/ref> In , Wathan began the season as the third-base coach of the California Angels, but he was named acting manager midway through the campaign when

Buck Rodgers Robert Leroy "Buck" Rodgers (born August 16, 1938) is a former catcher, manager and coach in Major League Baseball. He managed three major league teams: the Milwaukee Brewers (1980–1982), Montreal Expos (1985–1991) and California Angels (19 ...

was badly hurt in a bus accident and took a medical leave of absence. Wathan led the Angels to a 39–50 record until Rodgers was well enough to return. He spent as a

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

coach, worked as a color analyst on Royals telecasts in and , and has worked as a scout and minor league instructor for a number of organizations since. In - 07, Wathan was a roving baserunning and bunting instructor in Kansas City's farm system, and in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

he served the Royals as a special assistant to the director of player development. Two of John's sons, Derek and Dusty, played professional baseball. Derek played minor league baseball from 1998 to 2008, while Dusty played briefly for the Royals in 2002 and is the current third-base coach of the Philadelphia Phillies.

References

External links

John Wathan
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
The 100 Greatest Royals of All-Time- #41 John Wathan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wathan, John 1949 births Living people Baseball players from Iowa Boston Red Sox coaches California Angels coaches California Angels managers Jacksonville Suns players Kansas City Royals announcers Kansas City Royals coaches Kansas City Royals managers Kansas City Royals players Kansas City Royals scouts Major League Baseball catchers Major League Baseball bench coaches Major League Baseball bullpen coaches Major League Baseball third base coaches Minor league baseball managers San Diego Toreros baseball players Sportspeople from Cedar Rapids, Iowa Tiburones de La Guaira players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela University of San Diego alumni

Baseball career

See also

References

External links