By GIL LeBRETON, Written for the LSWA
The summer of 1970 was a trying and turbulent time to be young and growing up in America.
The military draft was sending high school and college graduates off to war. Vietnam had become a four-letter word.
The air was yet rife with National Guard tear gas and the memory of students gunned down at Kent State.
The Beatles had broken up. Jimi Hendrix died of an overdose. Ford introduced the Pinto.
And in New Orleans, 5-foot-11, 140-pound Ron Washington was about to go off and become a baseball player.
His measurables are pertinent because Washington, at age 18, reported to the inaugural class of the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy expecting to be a catcher.
The Royals organization had scoured the nation and held tryouts in 41 states for 7,682 kids between the ages of 16 and 21. Washington was one of the 42 selected for the academy’s first class.
“I was well-rounded,” Washington recalled. “I could hit. I could field, I could throw. I could run. And I was cocky. I talked a lot of trash.”
Coming from a family of 10 kids, Washington had learned the power of speaking up.
Now 71 and third base coach of the Atlanta Braves, Wash smiled and shook his head at the memory of the skinny kid from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans who left home to play baseball 53 years ago.
That trip began an incredible career that will bring him into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame during its 2023 Induction Celebration July 27-29. Information and tickets are available at LaSportsHall.com or by calling 318-238-4255.
He was one of three (Frank White and U.L. Washington being the others) from the original Royals Academy who made it to the big leagues.
“I caught. I threw people out. I led off. I stole bases – that’s what I did,” Washington said on a recent visit to Texas.
“I was a bad ass behind the plate. If I could have put on some weight . . .”
In 1973 the Royals decided he was too small to make the big leagues as a catcher.
He became an infielder. And Ron Washington’s life was changed forever.
He is not being inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame because he had a championship or all-star playing career. But rather, he has coached and managed championship teams and helped to make all-stars of so many of his players.
Oakland shortstop Miguel Tejada won the American League MVP award in 2002. A’s third baseman Eric Chavez won six Gold Gloves. He gave one of them to Washington with a note attached — “Wash, not without you.”
He helped turn Michael Young and Ian Kinsler into all-star infielders when he managed Texas to American League championships in 2010 and 2011.
Two seasons ago in Atlanta, Washington finally got his ring as the Braves won the World Series.
Washington gives credit to longtime Dodgers infield coach Chico Fernandez.
“He was pretty hard on us as infielders,” Wash said. “He used to get me out of bed at 7 in the morning. Of course, as a youngster, I complained. Then one day I realized what that was about. None of those other guys were being pulled out of bed. So I realized he saw something in me.
“My mindset changed.”
The lessons learned from his early days with Fernandez have endured. Both his message and methods have largely remained the same.
“A lot of it for me was just the passion he brought every day,” said Kinsler, second baseman on Washington’s championship Rangers teams.
“He loves the game of baseball, and it was evident. He wore that on his sleeve. He was a very hard worker and he brought that instantly.
“Day One in spring training when he was hired here, we were doing early work. We were taking ground balls. He threw batting practice every day. He hit fungoes every day.
“He loved the game. I think that’s how he made all of us better.”
After resigning from Texas in 2014, Washington was out of work less than a year before general manager Billy Beane asked him to return to Oakland to work with young infielder Marcus Semien.
“He wanted me to straighten him out,” Washington said. “When I got there Marcus had close to 30-something errors. But week by week, month by month, he became what he is today.
“He absorbed it all. He came to work every day. He developed because he believed in me and I believed in him. So all he had to do was believe in Marcus — and the rest is history.
“It’s the two Ls – when you listen, you learn. And anyone that learns they’ve been listening.”
Semien headed towards July batting over .300 and playing Gold Glove defense for the Rangers.
Semien was asked to discuss Washington’s secret in dealing with young infielders.
“His secret sauce is something everybody could have in them — it’s work ethic,” Semien said. “It’s how hard you want to work, how often you want to show up.
“He has a good eye to look at players and see what they may be struggling with, and he has certain drills that help them immediately.”
Somewhere along his 53 years in the game, Washington said, somebody has taught him something that helped to mold his teaching foundation. His confidence in that has never wavered.
In his season-ending press conference after his first season with the Rangers – a 75-87 season, good for fourth place – Washington was asked to give a grade to the managing job he had done.
Unabashedly Wash gave himself an A.
“Well, that caused a stir,” Washington remembered. “But what am I supposed to say? That I did a C or a D job?
“I came in an A and I’m still an A. I believed in what we were doing.”
Three seasons later, the Rangers were in the World Series.
“See the word ‘belief’? It’s powerful,” he said.
A knee injury cut short his Dodgers career and led to a trade to the Minnesota Twins. It took him four years, but Wash made it back to the big leagues in 1981.
His modest playing career ended in 1989 with a career .261 batting average.
By then, though, he already knew that he wanted to remain in baseball.
He was an instructor in the New York Mets organization for five seasons before joining manager Art Howe’s coaching staff with the Athletics.
His 11 seasons in Oakland were the Moneyball years, memorably titled by author Michael Lewis and forever made infamous by Brad Pitt and Hollywood.
The movie version of Washington was played by actor Brent Jennings. On a recruiting visit to sore-armed Scott Hatteberg, Billy Beane’s character (Pitt) brings Wash along to convince Hatteberg to sign with the A’s and play first base.
A skeptical Hatteberg had never played first base.
“Oh, it’s not hard,” Beane says. “Tell him, Wash.”
To which Washington promptly replies: “It’s incredibly hard.”
The line, as with a lot of Wash-isms, has become part of baseball’s lexicon.
Washington’s offensive philosophy: “You see ball, you hit ball. You get on base. You run base.”
Reflecting on the game’s sometimes unfair turns, Washington remarked one night, “That’s the way baseball go.”
The phrase turned into a T-shirt and a mantra for the Rangers’ first World Series teams.
He remains a beloved figure in north Texas. His Rangers teams had four consecutive 90-win seasons and six times finished either first or second in the American League West.
On a recent trip back to Texas, Wash reflected on his time as Rangers manager.
“It fits high on everything I’ve ever done in this game,” he said. “It started with a lot of talk. But you’ve got to believe. If you are a leader and you believe, the next thing is your followers have to believe. Those players believed because I believed.”
He admits he wishes he could have won a championship in Texas instead of a sudden resignation.
“But you know sometimes in life things happen that you wish you could take back,” Washington said. “You look at it and you say, ‘Why?’ But you can’t take it back.
“I’ve been blessed, though … I’m still blessed. I’m still making a difference. And to be honest with you, that’s all I want to do in the game of baseball – to make a difference.”
In 2017 he was in the mix as the Braves searched for a new manager. The job instead went to Brian Snitker. Washington became Atlanta’s third base coach.
“I would like to manage again,” Washington said. “It might not happen now. I’m 71 years old.
“But you know if opportunity presents itself, I’m still interested. And if it doesn’t, I’m still happy.”
San Diego spoke with Washington about its managerial opening after the 2021 season. Kansas City came calling last year, as did the White Sox.
“Toronto called and offered me to come interview for the bench coach job,” Wash said. “But if I can’t get the managing job, I’m comfortable here.
“I’m not going to chase money. I’m only chasing a managing job. Other than that, I’m settled here in Atlanta. I’m good.”
Washington still calls New Orleans home.
His wife Gerry, whom he met in 10th grade at John McDonogh High, comes from a family of 14 kids. Wash himself is one of 10. Their families are in New Orleans, and so home is New Orleans, Washington said.
His house in New Orleans East, at the corner of Dorcester and Perth, was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. But Washington rebuilt, patiently overseeing the work himself in the off-seasons.
Sitting in the dugout recently before a game in Texas, Washington said he is humbled by his selection to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
“It was certainly a surprise to me,” he said. “I was just a young kid in New Orleans, running behind a baseball because I loved it. I love baseball. I just love baseball.
“I never dreamed or even thought of being in anybody’s Hall of Fame. I think I was just blessed to be someone who informs, who teaches, who believes that he can help.”
Belief. Such a powerful word.
–LSHOF2023–