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“I said it when I got here, and I say it today: My door is always open. Always,” Washington said. “And you don’t have to come in here and be politically correct. You can kick in the [expletive] door and ask me what the [expletive] I was thinking when I did this or that. I have no problem with that. And if I’m wrong, I’m wrong. And I’ll take that. But if I’m right, you’re going to sit your [expletive] down and to listen to me for awhile. That type of talk is yesterday.”
I would have loved to see someone do that with Buck.
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
-The Outlaw
Ohhhh, yes sir.
Love that…don’t worry about my feelings ‘cause I don’t worry about your’s either. Just get the fucking job done.
"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"you gonna lose your horse. seriously." FX2
Yes we can! November 04, 2008
I didnt know about the Elvis butt chewing
Good stuff. Must have helped
yeah great stuff
“I told him, ‘You think because they’re no errors on the board you played a good game, but there are errors that show up in the box score and errors that don’t,’” Washington said. "Everybody else can have all the other stuff, what you’re hitting and the major league lifestyle, but if you don’t start concentrating and catching the ball, you’re going to have to deal with my black [expletive]. Because we got No. 13 [Omar Vizquel] … three-time All-Star, 11 Gold Gloves. You keep [expletive] up, and I guarantee you, you will be a seven-inning player.
“You may think I don’t like you. You may think I’m on you because I don’t like you,” Washington told Andrus. “That’s not it. I’m on you because I love you, because of what you can be. You can hit .300 and all that, but if you don’t catch the [expletive] ball, I’m going to be on you again.”
mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.
also love that Wash went and spent time at the DR Acadamy
shows a lot of respect for the whole system and keys to a successful organization, as well as just a lot of caring about these kids who could be the future.
mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.
Word.
I’m glad to hear that. His rep up until now made it sound like he didn’t have nails when he needed them.
Contrary to popular sentiment around these parts, the longer Wash is with the team, the better I’m liking him. Hearing the above makes me think JD may have found the proper balance between the Buck type and the Coach Cupcake type.
Well
hopefully Padilla got the message.
“We offered you to every team in MLB for the price of your contract, and no one would touch you”.
At least we’ve established his trade value. Zero.
"Guillermo Moscoso despite his stunning game yesterday, is not a legit prospect. He is simply too old, too skinny, too weak, and lacks the fastball to make it at the professional level. ." - crops.mlblogs.com
I appreciate
the new posts. It had gone almost 2 weeks since the last one.
"He (Padilla) shouldve gone back to Venezuela and watched on his Direct TV waiting to find out who his new team would be!!. ." - crops.mlblogs.com
Its a pretty terrible post.
This guy doesn’t know what he is talking about. The rangers are not going to release padilla and then spend “his money” on someone else. If we released him, we still have to pay him.
Elvis has "shook up" Arlington!!
Fixed
“[Expletive]! We [expletive] offered you to every [expletive] team in [expletive] MLB for the [expletive] price of your mother [expletive] contract, and no [expletive] one would [expletive] touch you. [expletive].”
by robert_d_wilfong on Jun 5, 2009 2:45 PM CDT up reply actions
Nice article...
My favorite part was what GDawg mentioned above. I love that type of mentality. Just say what you have to say and don’t sugar-coat it. It was interesting all the things he told Andrus early in the season when he was making foolish mistakes. Elvis has obviously responded well to it.
I do wonder if/when this team will start to talk extension with Wash. If this is a 1st place team at the all-star break do you do it then? Do you at least pick up his option for 2010? I can’t see Wash not being back next year unless this team really falters and falls out of the AL West race.
"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."-Socrates
Wash is a smoker
like him more already
mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.
man, that is a good article
Definitely like Wash more and more… I wasnt under the impression that Wash gave many butt chewings, but im glad he does. He definitely does a good job of backing his players publicly at all times, its nice to see that he does get on their asses privately though.
"The House That Ruth Built, 85 years old, goes out as The House That Hamilton Knocked Down"
This is why whiners like Tex and OMFT hated him...
The Texas Rangers have been synonymous with explosive firepower ever since they emptied 130 rounds into Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in 1934. - Alyssa Milano
I think so too
Teixeira seems like the guy he might have been talking about when he lamented the “white collar” approach of handling disagreements with the manager in this day and age. He doesn’t strike me as the type of guy who wants to a) take instruction from a politically incorrect, grammatically incorrect crusty old baseball man and b) get chewed out by that guy when he doesn’t do what he’s told.
I’ll take more Worsh mindset and less Teixeira mindset.
"wORLD sEIRES HERE WE COMER!!!!!!!!!"by bigsteve on May 29, 2009 10:21 PM PDT
"Elvis Andrus has just performed a miracle." -Eric Nadel
It looks like Wash and the team have tried keeping all the butt chewings out of the press
The only times we’ve heard about it really were with Tex and Laird where the players didn’t seem to take responsibility for what they did wrong.
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
-The Outlaw
Yeah, there's plenty of evidence of this
Word may get out about behind the scenes meltdowns, but it will never come from Worsh. I’m convinced the players play for him the way they do because they know he always has their back, even when they don’t deserve it.
That is one of the most interesting, and well written articles i have read in a long time.
Especially about the Rangers! I am definitely no the biggest Wash fan and I think he lacks many of the important facits to be a GREAT big league manager. But I will admit, I love the way he treats the players, not taking their BS but “loving” them at the same time. its no wonder these guys truly want to play for him and win with him. He has a lot to learn but i can admit that he HAS LEARNED a lot over the past year and is a better manager for it. Maybe he can just give all “pitching” decisions and bullpen management decisions over to Maddox, then we would be in real good shape!!
Elvis has "shook up" Arlington!!
He can be incredibly frustrating at times,
especially within a game… but there’s not a person on the face of this earth that I wish success on more that Ron.
Sometimes, his moves perplex me
but, all in all, I’m a Ron Wash fan, and I’d like to see his career with Texas extended beyond 2010. I think we’re seeing things finally clicking with the club, with the winning percentage right now and the way our guys are playing for him.
Good job, Wash. Hope you stick around.
She say she are the manager.
Good article
I kind of love Wash.
"Was this really necsarry?" - cowpoke/hurler hurley
I don't love Wash
but he is doing a better job then people would like to give him credit for.
"I can wake up out of the bed and play outfield. It's easy." --MOB
Eh, as do I...
"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"you gonna lose your horse. seriously." FX2
Yes we can! November 04, 2008
I don't 'love' him as a manager
But he’s alright. I really like him as a person and want him to succeed. I think the Rangers are set up for a lot of success, regardless of who manages them. I’d like for Ron to be here for it.
Pretty good article.
Enlightening, which is surprising that it came from ESPN and not the local press. Or maybe it’s not.
Well I’ve come around a bit on Washington this year. Not totally, but somewhat. He has plenty of positives like the throw back thing and all that.
What I can’t understand is why it took two full years for this team to get good defensively. At least they finally did buy it. The hitting approach — and maybe this isn’t all or even much of his fault — is terrible. And sometimes the in-game moves are just plain weird.
But they’re playing well overall, that’s for sure. Record doesn’t lie. The reasons for it are pretty obvious. I say if they keep playing this way, they should extend him. If they don’t, it depends on how they fall apart.
That was a good article.
One thing that surprised me though was that it says Ryan isn’t supportive of Wash, and as far as I can tell he has been. He hasn’t been effusive but i’ve never gotten that he was on the hot seat from Ryan.
Rec'd to that special place.
I like this guy. I’d like to see him surround himself with more wise in game guys. It seems like he handles pre and post game stuff really well, but some of his in game decisions are questionable. I think Ryan can’t ignore how well the team is doing and if they continue this way I think Wash stays.
It made him look cold...
and calculating maybe… not an asshole. It was definitely tilted to benefit RW.
No.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
I swear, human interest stories are the whorehouses of journalism
Here is yet another sob story pitting the hard-working, everyman Washington against the organized shrimp-cocktail-semi-criminal organization of corporate America headed by bald, fat old guys and represented by their cronies in a setup reeking of entitlement. Let’s go ahead and forget about facts, truth, and objectivity – these things are inconsequential in the face of such great injustice.
No, Wash does not have a contract in place after this season, but how does that make him a lame duck? If the team continues to performs well, not only does he have a very good chance to be back as the manager next season, he’ll probably be doing that for the next few years. Oh, but that’s not important – he will be forced out of a job because he rubbed the evil Hicks, and his crony, Nolan the unready, the wrong way since he didn’t do thing the corporate America way. Nevermind that Nolan is an old-school baseball man just like Wash.
Sure, his recommendations for pitching coach and his preference for bench coach was not the final choice, but if he would make all the decisions, why do we need GMs in the first place? Right, the article makes sure to remind us that it’s better when GMs didn’t exist and managers made all the decisions. Do teams generally make better personnel decisions nowadays? Do they award more reasonable contracts and make better player evaluations? Do they hire more competent scouts and coaches? Who cares, the old ways is better by definition. What about the perceived improvements in pitching from the pitching coach that Wash did not recommend? Did they hire Maddux because they didn’t trust Wash, or was it because they thought Maddux would be better?
Yes, people have questioned whether Wash is a good manager or not, but where does this come from?
One of the reasons Washington had not often been considered “manager material” was because of his impolitic, independent characteristics. Washington was thought of in some circles to be, in the words of one observer, the “best baseball man who will never get the chance to be a manager.” He was too honest, not corporate enough, too demanding for today’s generation of player.
Who complained about him being too honest? Who complained about him being too independent? When was he considered too demanding for today’s generation of players? Who are these players? Laird? Tex? Are they still with the team? What about his questionable in-game decisions? Head scratching bullpen management? His team is doing well this year, and the author made sure to point out that his team played above .500 ball after a horrible April last season. Why should we not talk about why the team was 7-16 in April? Why not ask why the team made so many mental mistakes and looked fundamentally unready? Is it so unjust to wait before giving a contract extension to a manager whose team finished below .500 in the only 2 seasons that he held that title? He was hired as a player’s coach, because he could form a good relationship with them, and they will respect him. Would anyone argue that he has not done well in that regard? Are we not allowed to question his in-game logic? His player management?
From all that I have seen, Wash is a great human being and a wonderful coach, but he is inexperienced as a manager. He has made questionable decisions that hurt his team’s chances to win games, and may continue to do so. He does certain things well – his players love him, but he does other things poorly. He is not a fucking managing saint who never errs, never compromises, and whose aura of general awesomeness incite such jealousy and spite from the denizens of the corporate hell that they purposely torture him by hanging him on a cliff to be eating by an eagle and not giving him a contract extension as the article seem to suggest. Neither is Nolan the evil, overbearing Chinese mother type who enjoy kicking little puppies and ripping wings off butterflies.
If you wanted to, you can write a story like this for just about every manager or coach who gets fired from his job. “He was never given a fair chance to show off his managing brilliance, because the big bad GM, to spite him, gave him high school players to work with. No man can turn stone into gold.” or, “He tried his hardest, worked to the point of exhaustion in order to find the problems troubling his pitchers, but those bastard kids, who never had to work a day in their life, never listened to him.” It’s always somebody’ else’s fault.
It’s not just Wash, or any managers for this matter. It’s an incessant stream of nostalgia from folks convinced that the old ways is always better and the new, greedy, unscrupulous corporate entities who are cut out to suck the entire world dry. It’s the sentiment that all trouble in the world is caused by somebody else.
Cut this shit out.
Well said, Telegraph.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
Don't hold back, now
Tell us how you really feel.
"You got a guy coming up there who can’t hit water if he fell out of a boat." - Tom Grieve on Richie Sexson, 5.8.2008
"I’ve been a Rangers fan all my life and I can tell you there’s been plenty of fucking crying in baseball…" - WhipSmart, 6.3.08
"When it comes to Jeff Mathis, the story ends with us putting one in his earhole." - AJM, 7.7.08
Well then.
If a player has a complaint, it’s widely known that he will take it to his agent. Especially if that agent’s name is Boras.
Whether new or old, that’s a stupid and as the author puts it circuitous way of doing things.
I don’t think either one of Daniels and Ryan were vilified. The author didn’t go into it, like you said, but if Ryan has concerns about Washington he has good reason to be. Some of the shit the guy does just doesn’t make any damn sense. And about coming out of camp playing poorly, I called for Washington’s head two years in a row for that. This year when they were 7-13 it wasn’t due to the same kind of play. Well it was bad play, but what they did the previous two Aprils was beyond ridiculous for a MLB team. 4/09 wasn’t the same thing. Even I have to admit that.
And there’s something to be said for the guys liking the manager. If Washington can be both a disciplinarian and a player’s manager, that’s a hell of an accomplishment. It seems these days that you can’t bee too permissive, but you certainly can’t be Buck Showalter, either.
Anyway I think the article was pro-Worsh for sure, but it was also somewhat informative when it comes to how he deals with the players. Interesting to read about that.
by Black Francis on Jun 5, 2009 4:32 PM CDT up reply actions
Where was Howard Bryant last year on this story?
The truth is, this team will play hard for Ron Washington but they’re also trying to overcome his inability when it comes to the nuts & bolts of managing actual games.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
Where was the national press on Rangers coverage in general?
The Rangers weren’t on the main stage then.
Yeah, it's informative in that it had information we did not know before
but the intended purpose of the article, or at least the way that author tried to convey the message and support his idea, pisses me off.
I understand your point.
But I think it is misplaced. All I heard from Wash in that article was accountability for everyone he manages and accountability for himself. I didn’t get the impression at all that the author was saying that Wash should never be criticized. Frankly the, “oh so we’re not even allowed to criticize so and so” is an intellectually dishonest argument that is designed to make the person complaining about whatever appear to be the voice of reason defying misguided majority opinion.
The story is what it is—an inside look at a relatively unknown manager in charge of a team that doesn’t typically find itself winning who, like his team, is striving to prove himself in the hopes of establishing long-term success. I really don’t see why that is so offensive—even if you don’t particularly like Wash.
I like Wash, and everything in this article makes me like him more.
I do, however, have a beef with the author, the point that he is trying to make, and the way that he goes about making it.
I like Wash too, but...
He is a great guy and I think he is getting better at the job. I think I have trouble recovering from some of his comments when he was hired. He said: “I’m going to be a player’s manager and we’re going to have each other’s backs. There hasn’t been enough back having around here.” Cringe…
Foolish consistency is the hobgobblin of little minds - Emerson
As a manager in any business
you are going to have to go with what you inherited when you get there. What were everyone’s expectation the first 2 years with the 40 man he inherited? Was it really expected for him to win with that group of guys? Add the fact the front office went into straight rebuilding mode and what more could you really expect from the guy. A first time manager at that.
I believe the calculated move to make Wash a manager was to see what he could do with young guys and learn on the job the in-game stuff while the team wasn’t completely competitive with the expectation that Wash would be ready and have the team ready for 2010. The team ended up being ahead of schedule (to Wash’s and others credit) and I think many of your positions about the in-game management is on the 2010 schedule.
Basically, we are talking about bullpen management and when to pull your starters. I contend, that managing our bullpen over the last 2 1/2 years, has been one of the toughest tasks asked of any manager in baseball. The lack of talent, injuries, inconsistency, turnover, and working the kids from the farm all played their part in making it a mine field to manage.
My view is if he can pull it off this season, he is ahead of schedule just like this team is, much to his credit. The patience of the front office and their overall plan to let a guy who might have been “the best baseball man to never get a shot” get his licks with a young team and coming around at the same time the team is hitting its first stride is kinda like a well played chess match.
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