[4][5] In September 1883, Watkins was hired to take over as manager of the Bay City, Michigan club for the 1884 season at a salary of $2,000.

The Cincinnati Enquirer described the incident as follows:With two out, Watkins came to bat and fell a victim to one of the swift curves of Shallix.

He was half carried, writhing nervously with pain, to the directors' room, where it was found that though the shock to his system had been great, no bones were broken.

[3][12] Newspaper stories published in 1912 in the Indianapolis Star and in 1937 in The Sporting News claimed that Watkins' hair turned prematurely white in 1884 due to the injury sustained when he was struck on the head.

[2][13] In his biography for the SABR Baseball Biography Project, Bill Lamb wrote that the story about Watkins' hair turning white appears to be "folklore", as "post-beaning photographs" (including the image displayed above) "show Watkins with reddish-brown hair and mustache until he was well into middle age.

Detroit sent two representatives (Marsh and Maloney) to Indianapolis, principally to sign the Hoosiers' battery of Larry McKeon and Jim Keenan.

The Wolverines were outbid by the Cincinnati Reds for McKeon and Keenan but wound up with Watkins and the rest of the team's starting lineup.

We lived on the best in the market, and spent the rest of the time in fishing and playing poker, chips having very thoughtfully been provided.

[17] Late in the 1885 season, Detroit acquired four players from the Buffalo baseball club (Jack Rowe, Dan Brouthers, Hardy Richardson, and Deacon White) who were known as the "Big Four."

The pitching staff was led by "Pretzels" Getzien, a curveball specialist who compiled a 29–13 (.690) win–loss records and a 3.73 earned run average.

The Wolverines won the National League pennant with a 79-45 record and then defeated the St. Louis Browns in the 1887 World Series.

[22] After parting ways with the Wolverines in late August 1888, Watkins was hired in early September 1888 as the manager of the Kansas City Cowboys of the American Association.

[29] In June 1891, with the Apostles continuing to struggle financially and on the field, the club was sold and moved to Duluth, Minnesota.

[30] Two months later, in August 1891, the club disbanded, and Watkins was left with financial responsibility for half of the Duluth team's unpaid player salaries.

In April 1892, Watkins was hired as the manager of the Rochester Flour Cities in the Eastern League and was described by The Sporting Life as "a cuckoo" who "will not be handicapped by meddling directors.

"[12][32] By the end of the season, the Rochester correspondent for The Sporting Life commended Watkins for his efforts with a "misfit team" that had a "scarcity of good men", was "badly crippled", suffered "internal dissension", and drew small crowds.

The correspondent noted that Watkins had turned the club around with his emphasis on discipline: He has been as watchful of his men in the dark hours of the night as any man with self-respect could be, he has been always safe in his financial policy, his judgment of players has never gone wrong, he has been a stickler for finished team work ...

Under owner Chris von der Ahe, the Browns had gone through five managers during the 1892 season, finishing in 11th place with a 56–94 (.373) record.

Four of his regular players (Lew Camp, Frank Genins, Lefty Marr and George Hogriever) hit .350 or higher, and pitcher Bert Cunningham won 35 games,[34] but the Sporting Life gave much of the credit for the Huskers' championship to Watkins:Watkins' success as a manager is largely due to the discipline which he enforces and to his knowledge of the intricate points of the game.

With the diamond in front of him every correct move of the men on the field is quickly discerned, and with the signals used so advantageously he is always in communication with the captain and players.

Many of the Husker victories this season have been won by the silent man on the bench ...[35]By 1894, Watkins had won pennants as a manager in St. Thomas, Port Huron, Detroit and Sioux City, and had led teams in Indianapolis and Bay City to first place in seasons that ended prematurely; the Sporting Life at the time asserted that Watkins had "the distinction of piloting more pennant winners than any other manager before the public to-day.

His iron-bound policy of directing plays of course cannot be popular with players, but if dictation is absent and appeal impossible the method may be pushed to success.

In late 1901, Watkins led renewed, and this time successful, efforts to re-establish a 20th-century version of the American Association with teams in Indianapolis, Louisville, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Columbus, Toledo and Minneapolis.

The exuberance of his eye, the thrill of enthusiasm in his voice and the general air of conquest surrounds him, told eloquently that Watty was happy.

He leaned back in his mahogany chair in the pennant office in the Majestic building and illuminated every part of the room with his sunny countenance.

Taking baseball so seriously threatened injury of a lasting nature to his nervous organization ...[47] In October 1905, Watkins authored a lengthy article for The Minneapolis Journal outlining his views on the value of baseball as a game wherein "brains must be combined with skill", a game that "demands temperance and proper living", and "as an element of great good in American life.

The Indianapolis Morning Star reported that local baseball fans were "rejoicing",[50] and that Watkins was "regarded as the most competent manager in the American Association.

[13]While Watkins was generally regarded as a good judge of talent, he and manager Charlie Carr were criticized in hindsight for having sold Grover Cleveland Alexander (later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame), Marty O'Toole and Buck O'Brien for a mere $750 while they were president and manager of the Indianapolis club.

[58] In February 1914, Watkins was hired, at a salary reported to be $8,000, as the business manager for the Indianapolis Hoosiers team in the newly formed Federal League.

[4] After retiring from baseball, Watkins lived in Port Huron, Michigan, and worked as an executive at banks and land development and manufacturing companies.