Astros’ legend Bob Watson battling kidney failure at age 70

Bob Watson is currently working with a local baseball training program called Program 15.

Bob Watson is most known for his time as the Yankees GM. He started his career as a Houston Astros outfielder/first baseman. In his 14-year career with the Astros, Watson batted .297 with 139 homers while driving in 782 runners. He has become an Astros legend with his tenure with the Astros. Following his career playing baseball, Watson became the first African-American GM in the MLB with the Astros in 1993.

His stay as the Astros GM was short as he joined the Yankees as GM in October of 1995. He was the Yankees GM as they won their first World Series since 1978 in 1996. Many people believe that he was able to build that team that finally return to the World Series. Watson left the Yankees after the 1997 season to go work in the MLB office as the VP of On-Field Discipline.

What’s up with Watson?

The Yankees had a twenty-year anniversary celebration of the 1996 team recently, but Watson was not there. Chuck Modiano from the New York Daily News sought out the 70-year-old Watson to ask about the 1996 team and see why he did not make it to the celebration.

“I really wanted to be there,” Watson said via Modiano, “but my health won’t allow it. I am battling Stage 4 kidney failure. Not too many people know about it.”

Watson has already fought off cancer in the early 90’s. Unfortunately, he has now been informed by doctors that he has 2-10 years left. To try to fight off the kidney failure, he has to do seven hours of Nocturnal dialysis three times a week according to Modiano. Watson is optimistic that it will be closer to the ten years, and I think we all hope so as well.

Though I did not get to watch Watson play baseball, the stats on the back of his baseball card are very impressive. He sure has made his imprint on Astros history as well as the Yankees and baseball in general.

What is Watson up to these days?

Today, Watson is still looking to make a difference in baseball by taking on an advisory role with Program 15. Program 15 is a Houston based training program started by Jeremy Booth where they focus on the individual player. They do a scouting report for the participant and focus on improving what’s needed for that player to achieve his goals.

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Watson is serving as a special assistant to the president. After announcing Watson’s role back in June, Booth said, “We are extremely fortunate to have Bob Watson, the man who many credit with building the Yankees empire, helping us in our mission. It’s not often that kids at the high school or even college levels have the chance to benefit from this kind of track record. Having access to Bob’s experience and desire to impact all levels of today’s player through proper development and scouting really makes what we are doing at Program 15 unparalleled.”

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From any baseball fan out there, we hope that Watson can fight the good fight for many more years. Maybe we can get Watson on Talking Stros soon, stay strong Bob!

***Stats from Baseball-Reference***