Diamond Legacy: A History of Washington University Baseball
The Washington Huskies baseball team, representing the University of Washington in Seattle, has a rich and storied past, dating back to the early days of collegiate baseball. As the varsity intercollegiate baseball team, the Huskies have been a fixture in the university's athletic program, fostering a tradition of competition and sportsmanship. Since 1998, the team has called Husky Ballpark home, a venue that underwent significant renovations in 2014 to enhance the fan experience and playing conditions. Under the leadership of head coach Jason Kelly, who took the helm in 2023, the program continues to strive for excellence, building upon a foundation of achievements that includes multiple conference titles and NCAA tournament appearances.
Early Years and Conference Affiliations
The baseball program at UW first took the field in the 1901 season, marking the beginning of a journey that would span over a century. Under the guidance of head coach Fred Schlock, the team posted a 4-6 record in its inaugural season. After a brief hiatus in 1902, the program was revived in 1903, setting the stage for future growth and development.
During its formative years, from its inception through the end of the 1915 season, the team competed as an independent, without formal conference affiliation. This period allowed the program to establish its identity and build a foundation for future success. The program joined the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) for the 1916 season under Brinker. After not playing in 1917 due to World War II and competing as an independent in 1918, the PCC resumed baseball in 1919. Washington won that year's conference championship with a perfect 10-0 record in Brinker's final season. It won the PCC Championship again in 1922 under head coach Robert L. In 1922, the university adopted the husky as its mascot and athletic nickname.
PCC and Early NCAA Tournament Appearances
The Huskies' journey through the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was marked by periods of both success and challenges. While the team consistently finished near the top of the PCC North Division, it wasn't until 1951 that they achieved a tie for the division title. In the 1959 season, under coach Dale Parker, the Huskies clinched the North Division title outright, earning the program's first-ever berth in the NCAA tournament.
Struggles and Reemergence in the AAWU/Pac-8
Following their initial foray into the NCAA tournament, the Huskies faced a period of adversity in the newly formed Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU), which later became the Pacific-8 Conference. From 1960 onward, the team struggled to find its footing, enduring a 19-season stretch without a winning conference record. This period included five consecutive last-place finishes from 1967 to 1971 under head coach Ken Lehman.
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MacDonald Era and Return to Prominence
The arrival of head coach Bob MacDonald marked a turning point for the Washington baseball program. In 1981, MacDonald led the team to its first division title since 1959, signaling a resurgence in competitiveness. Under MacDonald's leadership, the Huskies qualified for the Pac-10 North Division Tournament in 1985 and continued to make appearances in each of the following five seasons, finishing as the tournament runner-up in 1987 and 1990. In 1992, MacDonald's final season, the Huskies achieved a 39-21 record, capturing another North Division title and securing their second NCAA tournament appearance.
The Ken Knutson Era: Sustained Success
Following MacDonald's departure, assistant coach Ken Knutson stepped into the head coaching role, ushering in an era of sustained success for the Washington baseball program. In his first season in 1993, Knutson led the team to a Pac-10 North title and a 39-19 overall record, although they did not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The following year, in 1994, the team qualified for the NCAA tournament and played in the Midwest II Regional, where they reached the regional finals before losing to Georgia Tech. The program continued to thrive under Knutson's leadership, winning Pac-10 North Division titles in 1996, 1997, and 1998. After a brief dip in performance from 1999 to 2001, the Huskies returned to prominence, qualifying for three consecutive NCAA tournaments from 2002 to 2004. The 2004 tournament was particularly memorable, as the Huskies advanced as the second-seeded team in the Oxford Regional.
Coaching Transition and the Meggs Era
Following the 2009 season, head coach Ken Knutson was relieved of his duties after four consecutive losing seasons in the Pac-10. The university turned to Lindsay Meggs, the head coach at Indiana State and a former college player at UCLA, to lead the program forward. In Meggs' first four seasons, the Huskies' win total peaked at 30 in 2012, and their highest Pac-12 finish was a tie for 6th in 2013. In 2014, the program reached its first NCAA tournament in a decade, going 41-17 and finishing second in the Pac-12. At the Oxford Regional, Washington went 2-2, defeating three-seed Georgia Tech twice and losing to host Ole Miss twice, both games by one run.
Husky Ballpark: A Modern Home
The Washington Huskies baseball team has enjoyed several home venues throughout its history. While a 1931 source mentions the team's home venue as the "Husky ball lot," later sources from 1936 refer to it as Graves Field, named in honor of Tubby Graves, the program's head coach from 1923 to 1946. Graves Field was situated north of Hec Ed Pavilion and east of the present-day Graves Hall.With the construction of the Intramural Activities Building in the late 1960s, a new baseball field was built at the northeast corner of the UW campus. During the 1990s, plans for a new stadium to replace Graves Field were announced. Ground was broken in 1997 and the $4.75 million Husky Ballpark hosted its first regular season game in late February 1998.
Plans were announced in 2011 for a $15 million building project on a new Husky Ballpark. The new stadium, over a decade overdue, was completed the start of the 2014 season; the new concrete grandstand will have a capacity of 2,500 spectators. While Graves Field was renovated during the 1973 season, the Huskies used Sick's Stadium as its home field.
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Notable Figures and MLB Draft Picks
Throughout its history, the Washington baseball program has been guided by a number of influential coaches, each of whom has left their mark on the team's development and success. Ken Knutson stands out as the program's most successful head coach, amassing 584 wins during his tenure from 1993 to 2009.
The Washington Huskies baseball program has also produced a number of talented players who have gone on to play professional baseball, including several who have been selected in the Major League Baseball (MLB) draft. In the 2012 MLB draft, four Huskies were selected: 3B Jacob Lamb (Arizona Diamondbacks, 6th round), P Aaron West (Houston Astros, 17th round), OF Chase Anselment (Atlanta Braves, 17th round). In the [[2013 MajorDraftP Austin Voth (Washington Nationals, 5th round), P Tyler Kane (Miami Marlins, 38th round), and SS Ty Afenir (New York Yankees, 39th round).
A Transpacific Exchange: The 1908 Tour of Japan
Links between Japan and the Seattle area are nothing new. They were first forged in the late nineteenth century when Japanese began immigrating to the Pacific Northwest, and they’ve strengthened over the years. In 1905 a team from Japan’s Waseda University toured the American West Coast and played against various US teams. That led to a trip to Japan three years later by a group of a dozen University of Washington players, and those two journeys set the stage for frequent travels by Japanese and Seattle teams. The 1914 Seattle Nippon was the first Japanese American club to go to Japan, and the 1921 Suquamish Tribe became the first Native American team to do so. Teams from the University of Washington also made trips to Japan in 1913, 1921, and 1926 (and then returned 55 years later, in 1981). Before World War II, 13 clubs from the Pacific Northwest traveled to Japan, and about a dozen Japanese university teams made the reverse trip. The 1908 University of Washington tour was the first US collegiate tour of Japan and the first by a mainland US team. It was made possible by arrangements completed by Professor Isoo Abe, a Japanese college athletic instructor who had been the driver behind Waseda’s trip to the United States in 1905. Professor Abe-known in Japan as the “Father of University Baseball”-had been impressed by the hospitality shown by the University of Washington and the Seattle residents during the 1905 visit. Abe had persuaded his university to subsidize the 1905 tour, despite the fact that Japan was fighting a war with Russia at the time. Baseball historian Kerry Yo Nakagawa said, “From a baseball standpoint, [Waseda was] the best team in Japan, and they wanted to test the water of American baseball at the university level.
Washington did not send its official team, but all 11 players making the trip had played for the Huskies and were from the state of Washington. They included first baseman Webster Hoover of Everett, pitcher Huber Grimm of Centralia, right fielder Byron Reser of Walla Walla, second baseman Arthur Hammerlund of Spokane, catcher Roy Brown and pitcher Earle Brown of Bellingham, third baseman Ralph Teats and center fielder Leo Teats of Tacoma, and shortstop Walter Meagher, pitcher Ed Hughes, and left fielder Percy Logerlof of Seattle. The team had been scheduled to leave Seattle on September 1. Instead, it left on the vessel Tosa Maru on August 18, and docked in Yokohama on September 3, much earlier than expected and 16 days prior to the first scheduled game, so there were few Japanese there to greet the team.
The Jiji Shinpo newspaper wrote, “We usually think that most American baseball teams are professional teams. However, they are college students and do not play baseball for money. Probably because of that, those twelve men are very graceful youngsters with high spirits. Some 2,000 spectators watched Washington’s first practice. Writing in the 1910 university yearbook, the Tyee, shortstop Walter Meagher said the players were surprised to see so many people at the initial practice. “We were so stage-struck that we didn’t practice as long as we intended. Ticket prices ranged from 20 sen to 50 sen (a currency demonetized at the end of 1953) and were sold at seven locations in Tokyo. A sen was worth one one-hundredth of a yen. Between 1897 and December 1931, the yen’s value was frozen at 50 US cents. Therefore, the most expensive tickets cost a half-yen, or 25 US cents. The Japan Times also reported that “[u]ncommon interest is aroused by the baseball match to be played on the Waseda ground between Waseda and [the] Washington University team. Tickets for spectators have been issued to the number of 15,000 for that day; still the number is considered inadequate to meet the demand.” Even “the Americans resident in Yokohama will come up to town by a special train to Mejiro to see the baseball game at Waseda. Poor weather unfortunately kept many fans away when the series got under way on September 19, but many people-variously reported as 6,000 or 7,000-showed up despite clouds and drizzling rain. Washington got a run-scoring triple by center fielder Leo Teats, an RBI single by Reser, and an error by Waseda left fielder Moriichi Nishio. The visitors’ other run had come in the third inning when Webster Hoover scored on a passed ball by Masaharu Yamawaki. According to the Seattle Daily Times, “Captain Edward F. Hughes, of the U of W team” wrote that “Washington won … but had to keep moving all the time. The University only obtained three hits off the Waseda pitcher and these came in a bunch in the same inning, netting three runs. A reporter for the Jiji Shinpo overheard two students talking after the first game. One said that Washington had lost badly to the University of Santa Clara, which had easily defeated Keio in an exhibition game. “Now I understand why they didn’t play as well as we expected. … They are not as good as St. Louis [the Hawaiian semipro team that had toured Japan in 1907], for sure.
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Game 2 was scheduled for the next day, but heavy rain forced its postponement to September 23. When the game finally commenced, Washington scored single runs in the third and fifth innings, while Waseda got one in the fourth, so the Huskies carried a 2-1 advantage into the last half of the eighth inning. Then Waseda broke through with five runs en route to a 6-3 victory. The Japan Times observed, “One fault of the American boys is that they become easily confused when the game is unfavorable to them. But they have many strong points. They talk boisterously when in the field, while Waseda boys are very silent. Game 3 of the series matched Washington against Keio on September 26 and was “an interesting game” before “a large assembly of spectators,” according to the Japan Times. Each team scored a run in the first inning. Eizo Kanki’s fly out for Keio scored Katsumaro Sasaki, and the Huskies countered with Grimm’s double that drove home Hoover. Keio went ahead 2-1 in the fourth inning when Kanki stole home-or, as the Japan Times story put it, “Kanki made an adventure and got home.” The article further revealed that “Washington made strenuous efforts to recover arrears, but their efforts were frustrated by the excellent fielding of Keio. Game 4 the following day again matched Washington and Keio, and it was the polar opposite of the previous day’s low-scoring affair. This time, Keio took a 6-1 lead after four innings and then scored five more runs in the fifth inning en route to a 14-3 victory. The Japan Times reported, however, that the “Washington boys … endured the defeat with good grace and admirable fortitude. Pitcher Grimm when deposed to center went thither with quite amiable good humour.
By then standing 1-3 on its tour, the Washington team had a four-day break before playing its next game, against the Yokohama Cricket & Athletic Club, a team made up of Americans, on October 1. Each team scored twice in the first inning, but Washington took control with a three-run third inning, as Leo Teats, Grimm, and Meagher crossed the plate. Yokohama got a run in the sixth inning, and UW scored once in the seventh to account for the final 6-3 score. Two days later came a rematch between Washington and Waseda, with the Huskies taking a 4-1 victory to even their record on the trip at 3-3. Hoover, Leo Teats, and Meagher scored in the fourth inning for Washington, and Hammerlund crossed the plate in the seventh. Yamawaki scored Waseda’s only run in the fourth inning. The next day Washington again played Keio and again lost, this time by 3-2, making the Huskies 0-3 against Keio on the tour. Kanki, Denji Murakami, and Ryokichi Sawahara scored for Keio in the first, fourth, and seventh innings, respectively. Hoover singled and later scored for UW in the sixth inning. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted that Keio was a “stumbling block” for the “tourists. … The Keio players had returned home from a ballplaying tour of the Hawaiian Islands and were in perfect training.
On October 7 Washington and Waseda again played, with UW winning 5-3 in 15 innings. Washington opened with a run in the first inning. Waseda scored twice in the second inning to take a 2-1 lead, but UW tied the game in the fourth inning. The score remained tied, 2-2, until each team scored a run in the 12th. Washington finally got the game-winning runs when Ralph Teats and Hoover crossed the plate in the 15th inning. The Washington team concluded its 10-game tour on October 9 with a 14-5 victory over the Yokohama Cricket & Athletic Club. Yokohama scored four runs in the first inning to take a 4-0 lead, but UW scored three times in the second inning, once each in the third, fifth, and sixth, and then twice in the seventh for an 8-4 advantage. Then came a six-run rally in the eighth inning that put the game out of Yokohama’s reach. The Washington team began its 15-day trip home on October 10. As reported by the Japan Times, “The baseball team from the University of Washington … who has given such a splendid series of baseball games in Tokyo and Yokohama[,] left Yokohama for home by the … steamer Tosa Maru yesterday. … Teams from Waseda and Keio Universities … and others saw the party off. The Washington boys looked very brilliant and happy in their school uniform. When the ship was to weigh anchor, Waseda and Keio college yells were given, and [the] Washington team replied with their college yell.
In his master’s thesis, “Seattle and the Japanese- United States Baseball Connection, 1905-1926,” Ryoichi Shibazaki writes that “when Ichiko defeated the Yokohama Athletic Club in 1896, the Japanese people took it as the victory of the Japanese over Americans, rather than a simple win in baseball. In so doing, the Americans were treated like the enemy by the Japanese media. However, the Japanese people and media treated the Washington team fairly and warmly. Indeed, between their arrival and their first game, the Washington players were squired around Tokyo and visited temple sites, attended a theater performance, and met politicians. The trip was considered a rousing success. “We arrived home Oct. Gillette, the Washington manager, said, “The Japanese boys played better ball than we thought they would, and our work was hardly up to standard. In the same article, the Seattle Evening Star fully acknowledged the Japanese baseball prowess, though in a manner that indicated Americans’ prevailing attitude at the time toward Asians and Japanese in particular-“It is an indication of the Jap’s adaptability that he defeated the Americans four times out of ten. Gillette added, “Our reception by the Japanese from the hour we left Seattle could not have been more cordial. Meagher, the team’s shortstop, wrote that “We … took a short trip to Nikko, the great temple site of Japan. … This was one of the finest visits we had while in Japan. … We attended a Japanese theatre a few nights afterwards. … Ushers conducted us to chairs in the first balcony, prepared especially for us.
Shibazaki wrote that while the impact of the UW tour “on Japanese baseball, culture, and politics was almost invisible,” it did “set a precedent for other American colleges such as the University of Wisconsin, University of Chicago and Stanford University.” Teams from those schools, as well as the University of Washington, visited Japan in later years “and became main figures in the Japanese-United States baseball connection during this decade.” Additionally, since the 1908 tour, bonds between UW and the Waseda and Keio universities have steadily grown. There are currently four programmatic relationships between Washington and Waseda. As well, Washington and Keio have “inclusive exchange programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Washington University in St. Louis Baseball
The Washington University in St. Louis baseball program started in 1892. Warren Gill was the first former Bear to the Major League level. Other notable Washington University in St. Did you know that there were sixteen former Washington University in St. Louis ballplayers who made it to the majors?
During his career at WashU, (Caleb) Durbin played in 93 games and finished with a career batting average of .386. He made 365 plate appearances, scoring 117 runs, recording 141 hits including 10 home runs and 89 RBIs. He had a career on-base percentage of .477 and stole 39 bases. He was a three-time All-UAA Selection, UAA Rookie of the Year, and the D3baseball Central Region Rookie of the Year in 2019. Durbin Gets Called Up to the Big Leagues by the Milwaukee Brewers.
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