Note: As spring sports have been canceled this semester, the athletic communication office will be adding a weekly Washburn Wednesday to the website. Today it's a look at Ichabod baseball All-American and 16-year major league baseball veteran Davey Lopes.
 
Many people know Davey Lopes the All-Star second basemen for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but not as many know Lopes as a two-sport standout for the Ichabods, a 16-year Major League Baseball veteran, and someone who would later be enshrined in the Washburn Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988 graduating from Washburn with a bachelor of education degree in 1969.
 
In one year on the Washburn baseball team Davey Lopes put together the kinds of credentials that led to a very successful Major League career. In 1967 Lopes batted .380 for the Ichabods and slugged .793 with nine home runs, three doubles and four triples.

Lopes earned all-conference honors that year and the following winter he earned the same honors as a guard on the basketball team. He shot 50 percent from the field and averaged 7.6 points a game.

Lopes was drafted in the 1968 amateur draft in the second round by the Los Angeles Dodgers and he made his big league debut in 1972. By his second year he was an everyday player and in 1974 he went 5 for 5 with three homers against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. In 1975 he led the National League with 77 steals, including 38 in a row, then a record.

In 1978 he played in his first of four straight All-Star games and the next year he hit a career-high 28 homers, then the third most ever by a second baseman. In 1980 he was the top vote getter for the All-Star game.

In 1982 Lopes went from LA to Oakland. He played there for three seasons and teamed with Rickey Henderson in 1982 to steal 158 bases, the most by a pair of teammates.

He then finished his career with the Cubs for parts of three seasons and the Houston Astros for parts of two seasons. In 1985, at age 40 he hit a career-high .284 for the Cubs. He stole his 400th career base and hit his 100th homer that year.

In 1987 shoulder injury ended his playing career.  He finished with 557 stolen bases, 155 home runs and a .263 batting average.

Lopes went on to coach with the Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres before managing the Milwaukee Brewers from 2000-2002. He had a record of 144-195.
 
Lopes rejoined the Padres as first base coach from 2003 to 2005 and then held the same position with the Washington Nationals in 2006 and the Philadelphia Phillies from 2007 to 2010.
 
In each of his Lopes' three seasons with the Phillies, the team led the majors in stolen base percentage, including the best in MLB history in 2007 – 87.9% (138-for-157). They finished second or third in total steals each of those seasons.
 
On November 22, 2010 he was named the first base coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a position he held through the 2015 season. On November 5, 2015, he was named the first base coach of the Washington Nationals. His contract expired after the 2017 season.
 
Lopes retired from coaching after the 2017 season.