Ron Washington

Ronald Washington (born April 29, 1952 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is a former infielder in Major League Baseball and the current manager of the American League's Texas Rangers. Prior to managing the Rangers, Washington coached in the New York Mets and Oakland Athletics organizations.

Playing career

Washington's playing career began with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977, and he then played for the Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, and Houston Astros respectively from 1981-89. He was primarily a middle infielder for most of his career. On May 28, 1988, while playing for the Indians, Washington broke up Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Odell Jones' no-hit bid after 8 and 1/3 innings with a pinch-hit single.

Coaching career

Following his retirement as a player, Washington worked in the New York Mets organization for five years. After being hired as the A's first base coach in 1996 under his former Astros manager Art Howe, Washington then served as infield and third base coach for the last A's between 1997 and 2006. As infield coach Washington has been credited for developing much of the A's young infield talent in the last decade, including six-time Gold Glover Eric Chavez, and former MVP and A's shortstop Miguel Tejada. In 2004, Chavez expressed his appreciation by giving Washington one of his Gold Glove trophies, signed "Wash, not without you." [1] Washington plays a major role in the events of the book Moneyball, a book detailing how the A's have been successful despite a small budget. Washington is shown in a positive light for the way he trained Scott Hatteberg to field first base for the first time in his career. Washington is also, however, portrayed as too old-fashioned and traditional in his unacceptance of general manager Billy Beane's sabermetric strategies.

On November 6, 2006, the Texas Rangers announced that Washington had accepted their offer to manage the team [2]. Washington replaced Buck Showalter, who was fired a month earlier after failing to lead the team to a playoff appearance in four years. Washington beat out four other candidates for the job: Rangers bench coach Don Wakamatsu, then New York Mets third base coach Manny Acta, Nippon Ham Fighters manager Trey Hillman [3] and former Rangers catcher John Russell [4]. The A's also had a managerial vacancy after the firing of Ken Macha at the end of the season, but it is suspected that Washington's independence eliminated him from consideration by Beane [5].

At the beginning of the 2007 season, it was rumored that there was a rift between Washington and Rangers star Mark Teixeira. Asked about the rift, Washington responded,

A lot of times we make three outs on four or five pitches... I just can't see that late in the game when you're four or five runs down. You're at the point where the starter is out of the game, you're in the middle (of the bullpen), these are the guys you want to get to. I've never asked him (Teixeira) to do it when the closer is in the game. But the middle guys, you want to make 'em throw... He feels like he's going to only get one pitch in that type of situation to do something with. He wants to take advantage of it. I've got no problem with that. But can you guarantee with that one pitch that you're going to do something with it? I don't think any ballplayer on earth can guarantee that. You might pop it up, miss it, roll over it, jam yourself. Then you make one out on one pitch. I want to see him get a pitchers' strike right there.[6]

Teixeira was traded to the Atlanta Braves in July 2007. He had been rumored to have been on the trading block before reports of tensions with Washington, as his agent, Scott Boras, had refused to negotiate a contract extension beyond the 2008 season.

Similar reports rumored tensions between Washington and catcher Gerald Laird. Questioned about the rumors, Washington conceded that the pressure he put on Laird was "a lot to put on a young kid... (But) that's what we've got. He's got to grow up fast."[7]

On August 6, 2007, Washington was ejected for the first time of his managerial career after arguing with umpire Bill Miller after a questionable third called strike to Michael Young, who also was ejected. The Texas Rangers exercised their option to extend Washington's contract in September of his rookie season, ensuring he would manage the team through 2009.[8]

Managerial record

Through August 12, 2008:

Team	Year	Regular Season				Postseason
		Won	Lost	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Win %	Result
TEX	2007	75	87	.463	4th in AL West	-	-	-
TEX	2008	79	83	.488	2nd in AL West	-	-	-

See also

• List of Major League Baseball managers in 2007
• List of Major League Baseball managers in 2008

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs