Darrell Woodard

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Darrell Lee Woodard

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Biographical Information[edit]

Darrell Woodard was a teammate of Rickey Henderson on the 1978 Jersey City A's. Amazingly, Woodard had a better stolen base percentage than Rickey that year - he was 53 for 67 in steals (79.1%) to Henderson's 81 for 109 (74.3%). Woodard was used primarily as a pinch runner and defensive substitute in his brief major league career. He made the major leagues before Henderson did, as he was called up to the Oakland Athletics in early August of 1978, while Rickey would wait until partway through the 1979 season to get his first taste of the major leagues. However, Woodard's career in the big leagues lasted all of two months, while Henderson played well into his 40s.

The A's under owner Charles Finley were the biggest proponents of speed and pinch running in major league baseball. Starting with Allan Lewis - the "Panamanian Express" - in 1967, they almost continuously kept a pinch-running specialist on the major league roster, and sometimes more than one. Herb Washington, Matt Alexander, Don Hopkins and Larry Lintz were some of the players who filled the role after Lewis. Speed was valued in the organization, leading to the development of the future Hall of Famer Henderson, but also of other less-heralded but very fast players such as Woodard, Jeff Cox and Miguel Dilone.

Darrell Woodard was born in 1956 in the small town of Wilmar, population 637, in southern Arkansas, but grew up in California. He attended Bell High School in suburban Los Angeles and played four sports. He then signed with the Oakland A's as an undrafted free agent in 1974, starting out with the Lewiston Broncs of the Northwest League, where he was the starting shortstop, hitting .304 in 56 games. The next year, playing in the same league with the Boise A's, he was the circuit's All-Star shortstop, leading the league in fielding percentage, and putting up a .313 batting average and .408 on-base percentage in 64 games. He had started the season with the Modesto A's of the California League. but as an 18-year-old, was clearly overmatched in the higher-level league, hitting a weak .143 in 27 games while waiting for the short-season Northwest League to start its activities. He returned to the California League in 1976 and spent two full seasons there with Modesto, hitting .273 and .282 in 104 and 128 games respectively. By then he had switched to second base and was a teammate of Henderson's for the first time the second year. The two were terrors on the basepaths: Henderson stole a league-leading 95 bases, but Woodard was right behind him with 90 in 97 attempts.

The pair made it up to Jersey City of the AA Eastern League in 1978 and continued with their thieving ways. Henderson stole more, but Woodard, who was called up to Oakland in August, had the better success rate. He was only hitting .254 with no power at the time, so it was clear that his call-up was not to have him compete with Mike Edwards for the starting second base job. On August 6th, in his first game with the Athletics after being called up, Woodard scored the winning run as a pinch runner. He got into 33 games over the remainder of the season, 13 as a defensive substitute at second base, one as a starting second baseman, one at third base as a substitute, and 22 as a pinch runner (he often remained in the game on defense after a running assignment). He went 0 for 9 with a walk at the plate, but scored 10 runs. He attempted to steal 7 times, but was successful in only three of those, in contrast with his prowess in the minor leagues.

After his brief taste of the major leagues, Darrell Woodard was involved in an unusual transaction, as the A's sent him to the Miami Amigos of the newly-formed Inter-American League, in compensation for signing bullpen coach George Mitterwald. The league folded on June 30th with Miami winning the truncated season's pennant, and, now a free agent, he signed with the Chicago Cubs organization. They sent him to Midland of the Texas League, where he hit .344 in 21 games, earning him a promotion to the AAA Wichita Aeros of the American Association. There, he fell back to earth, but still hit a solid .295 with an OBP over .400 in 12 games; between the two stops, he was 13 for 14 in stolen bases. Still only 22, it seemed as though he would be back in the big leagues before too long. Instead, he was released, and in 1980 could only find a job with the unaffiliated Macon Peaches of the Class A South Atlantic League. He played well, hitting .276 with 18 doubles in 125 games, but the drop in caliber was not good for his future prospects at all. All was not lost as he found a job with the Detroit Tigers organization, who sent him to the AA Birmingham Barons. He spent the 1981 and 1982 seasons there, playing regularly at second base and getting into over 100 games both years, but his hitting regressed. In 1981, he batted .249 with no power and a poor on-base percentage, then the next year he fell again, to .232. He did steal 25 and 30 bases, but that was all that was left of his game by then, and 1982 marked the end of the road for him.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Clifford Blau: "Leg Men: Career Pinch-Runners in Major League Baseball", in The Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 38, Number 1 (Summer 2009), pp. 70-81.

Related Sites[edit]

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