Baseball History: Herb Washington

Baseball History: Herb Washington

He is perhaps the most unusual player in baseball history. He played in 105 major league games, yet never touched a bat or a mitt. He was a track star (he ran a 9.3 hundred in high school), hired by the notable maverick owner Charles Finley to be a professional pinch runner.

Hurricane Herbie turned out to be much better at business than he was at baseball. He was the owner/operator of several McDonald's franchises, starting in my home town of Rochester, NY and branching out to 25 locations in the Northeast. He later held several prestigious positions in the Urban League, the United Way and the NY Athletic Commission. In 1992, he became the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Buffalo branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and later was named Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.