Longtime big league catcher and manager John Wathan announced Wednesday that he will retire after this season, ending a career in professional baseball that included 47 of 51 years spent with the Kansas City Royals.
Nicknamed “Duke,” Wathan was a first-round pick of the Royals in 1971 and eventually spent 10 seasons behind the plate for them. That included his memorable 1980 season in which he hit .305 and helped Kansas City win the AL pennant, and their 1985 season when he helped the club win its first World Series title in his final year before retiring as a player.
Wathan went into coaching and managed the Royals from 1987 into the 1991 season before spending part of the 1992 season managing the Angels. He also did some broadcasting work for Kansas City before returning to the Royals in a player development role, eventually helping the club win two more AL pennants and the 2015 World Series.
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