There are six former Dukes currently managing in the major leagues, including Ron Washington of the American League champion Texas Rangers. (The other five are Milwaukee’s Ron Roenicke, the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Scioscia, Philadelphia’s Charlie Manuel, Arizona’s Kirk Gibson and the New York Mets’ Terry Collins.)

In 1977, I had the privilege of serving as one of the Albuquerque Duke batboys. I have to admit that although it was exciting, 1977 was not the greatest Dukes team. With a record of 60-78, they finished 20 games behind the first-place Phoenix Giants.

The Dukes had a team that set standards for hitting, setting club records for average (.306) while swatting 131 home runs. The problem was the pitching staff struggled with a league-high ERA of 5.96, and their fielding set negative marks with only a .955 percentage and 240 errors.

Danny Walton, a switch-hitting slugger, belted 42 home runs to break an Albuquerque record set in 1956, and drove in 122 runs. Don Cardoza captured the batting title on the final day of the season, edging out the nearest competitor by .000456 of a point to finish at .355, while Henry Cruz finished third with .354.

Collins was also on that team, and even then it was known that he was being groomed more to be a coach than for his potential as a player.

As a batboy, I didn’t have much work two of every three home games during batting practice. The other game, I’d be assigned to sit on the lava rocks beyond the outfield fence and shag batting-practice home run balls.

My favorite opportunities came when I’d get to play shortstop during batting practice. When the season started, I noticed that nobody was hanging out at that position, and I was granted permission to play there as long as I didn’t get in the way of the players. Since none of the regulars wanted it, I got to take grounders and pop-ups to my heart’s content.

Then just before we neared the halfway mark of the season, the Dodgers demoted the starting shortstop for the Dukes to San Antonio, and the shortstop from San Antonio came to Albuquerque.

I met Ron Washington for the first time when I was out on the field during batting practice. To my dismay, he came out to the shortstop position. I greeted him and then started scooting off to the outfield.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he said. “We can take turns here.”

“I’m just the batboy,” I replied.

“That makes no difference to me. Get back over here!”

With that began the best coaching experience I was to have. From that point on, at nearly every single batting practice, Ron taught me more than I’d ever known about the shortstop position. He showed me how to field backhanded. How to make a good crow’s hop to make the throw to first base.

For this 14-year-old, it was a sports experience to always be remembered, not only for the fun of playing on the field at the old Albuquerque Sports Stadium, but also to look back and see that some of the same traits that have led to Ron’s success as a manager were already part of who he was.

He didn’t look down on me as “just a batboy,” but rather he saw me as a person with potential.

I noticed this in Wikipedia’s listing for Ron:

After being hired as the Oakland Athletics first base coach in 1996 under his former Astros manager Art Howe, Washington then served as infield and third base coach for the A’s between 1997 and 2006. As infield coach Washington has been credited for developing much of the A’s young infield talent in the last decade, including six-time Gold Glover Eric Chavez, and former MVP and A’s shortstop Miguel Tejada. In 2004, Chavez expressed his appreciation by giving Washington one of his Gold Glove trophies, signed “Wash, not without you.”

Sorry, Ron — this early prospect of yours didn’t make it in the big time like the others did. I never did learn to hit. But I’ve gone on to enjoy a life in Christian ministry along with my current career as a programmer at PNM, trying to do my part to keep the lights on. I’m very happily married and enjoy my life the way it has turned out.

And I am rooting for a former Albuquerque Duke to enter that elite class of managers to earn a World Series ring!
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal