Retiring scoreboard operator enjoys finale at Wrigley
honored Washington before a September game, and that was more than enough for the easygoing Chicago native.
It was all a gift, anyway. More than Washington ever expected.
“You never realize that you’re going to meet so many good people,” Washington said, “so many people that had such a bearing on your life. It’s very rewarding.”
Washington had jobs with the Chicago Police Department, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and in railroads before he was hired by the Cubs in 1984 for a security position.
He moved to the grounds crew two years later, and then joined the scoreboard crew in 1990.
“This particular job, it’s kind of next man up,” he said. “People retire, they move on, and somebody has to replace them, and you can’t just walk up like you’ve lived here all your life. It’s like anything else. It’s a learning process.”
Washington’s home away from home these past 26 years was built in 1937. There are three levels in the scoreboard, and as many as four people fill in the numbers for a full slate of games in the summer.
Washington and his partner work on the first floor for the Cubs’ linescore and National and American League games on the bottom level. Darryl Wilson, another longtime scoreboard operator, takes care of the second and third floors along with another colleague. Wilson calls down updates that he gets from a computer.
“We spend an awful lot of time together, and the camaraderie is such that, we’re almost related,” Washington said. “I mean we get along, we get along very well. It’s kind of like we’re brothers up here.”
“It’s a lot of laughter. It’s a lot of joy up here,” he continued, “except when the Cubs lose.”
Wrigley also is where Washington met his wife, Darla. She was friends with one of Washington’s co-workers. They got married in 1989, and the couple’s daughter, Alisha, 21, goes to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.
Alisha visited Wrigley for the first time when her father was recognized last month.
“A 21-year-old’s mind, you don’t hear things like ‘I’m proud of you’ because their mind just don’t work like that,” Washington said. “But when a 21-year-old tells you that they’re proud of you, it’s something to pay attention to and it kind of made my heart kind of skip a beat.”
Washington has seen a lot of bad teams over the years. But his final season has been a lot of fun.
It has been 71 years since Chicago’s last NL pennant, and 108 years since the franchise last won the World Series in 1908.
“For them to be in the position that they’re in now, I really never thought that they would get this far,” he said. “A World Series ring would be, just for them to compete would be a lifelong dream of mine.”