Tuesday a.m. things

My Sunday afternoon visit was prompted by last week's reports from multiple clubhouse sources that sometime last month Washington called Mark Teixeira into his office after a game and that the discussion quickly escalated into a full-bore screaming match. At issue, I've since learned, was Tex supposedly ignoring a "take" sign late in a game in which the Rangers trailed by several runs.

There was also a report about veteran starting pitcher Kevin Millwood intervening when Washington was berating second-year catcher Gerald Laird in the dugout during a game.

I'm on record as saying getting into a fight with your star player really isn't smart, and humiliating a second-year catcher in front of his peers is simply wrong. Johnny Bench couldn't make better pitchers out of these guys. But the Rangers' official take is that these were minor dustups that came and went in a day.

Maybe so, but they run counter to Washington's advertised strengths of being able to communicate and handle players. What we hadn't heard is Washington's version of the events.

"I'm not the only manager that ever screamed at a player," he said defensively when I asked him about the meeting with Tex. "I'm not the only manager who ever called a player in his office.

"It never was a thing where we were up in here screaming. I read where somebody said they passed the door and I'm screaming. I've never screamed at a player since I've been here, other than in the dugout."

The dugout incident involved Laird.

"Yeah, I've been hard on Gerald," Washington admitted. "Gerald is the catcher. He handles our pitching staff. Yes, I've been hard on Gerald, and I don't deny that. But it's not like it's been written, that's for sure."

Washington later apologized to Laird, Millwood and pitcher Joaquin Benoit in front of the whole team, saying he stands by his message but should have handled it differently.