Allen Watson

Allen Watson
Pitcher
Born: November 18, 1970 (1970-11-18) Jamaica, New York
Batted: Left	Threw: Left
MLB debut
July 8, 1993 for the St. Louis Cardinals
Last MLB appearance
August 10, 2000 for the New York Yankees
Career statistics
Win–loss record	51–55
Earned run average	5.03
Strikeouts	589
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (1993–1995) San Francisco Giants (1996) Anaheim Angels (1997–1998) New York Mets (1999) Seattle Mariners (1999) New York Yankees (1999–2000)
Career highlights and awards
2× World Series champion (1999, 2000)

Allen Kenneth Watson (born November 18, 1970 in Jamaica, New York) is a high school baseball coach and former left-handed starting pitcher in professional baseball. He is a graduate of Christ The King Regional High School in Middle Village, New York and attended New York Institute of Technology

Baseball career

Allen Watson was picked by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round of the 1991 amateur entry draft. He spent the next two years in the Cardinals' minor league system, making his major league debut on July 8, 1993.

In 1995, he was traded, along with Doug Creek and Rich DeLucia, to the San Francisco Giants for Chris Wimmer and Royce Clayton. At the end of the 1996 season, he and Fausto Macey were traded by the Giants to the Anaheim Angels for J. T. Snow. He pitched with the Angels in 1997-1998, obtaining a career high twelve wins as a starting pitcher in 1997. On June 14, 1997, Watson gave up the first-ever grand slam in interleague play to Rich Aurilia of the San Francisco Giants

Over the next three years, he played for the Seattle Mariners, New York Mets and New York Yankees, mostly in a relief role or as a spot starter, retiring after the 2000 season.

Post baseball career

Watson is currently working as a personal pitching coach for prospective athletes in the Queens area. He works primarily out of The Cage located on Metropolitan Avenue in Ridgewood.

Allen Watson is also currently running baseball clinics for all ages in Oceanside, NY at South Shore Sports Complex. He helps children of all ages with the fundamentals of baseball from fielding to hitting.

Grimsley affidavit

On December 20, 2007, Watson was named in Jason Grimsley's sworn affidavit as having used performance-enhancing drugs. Watson and Grimsley were teammates on the 1999-2000 New York Yankees. In a statement released by his agent, Watson denied these accusations by stating:

"I at no time over my professional baseball career used steroids or any performance-enhancing drugs. Not then, not now, not ever."

Bagel Incident

In their baseball memoir The Yankee Years, Joe Torre and Tom Verducci recount an incident where Watson was horsing around in the Yankee clubhouse and threw a bagel towards a clubhouse attendant, just as Yankee owner George Steinbrenner walked in. When the bagel hit Steinbrenner, he demanded to know who threw it. When Watson confessed, Steinbrenner remarked "I figured it was you, Watson. That's why it didn't hurt."

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube