50 Years Later, A Champion At Last
Ron Washington has dedicated himself to baseball. He’s finally a World Series champion.
There’s no crying in baseball, sure, but the World Series is the lone exception. When the final out is secured, the dogpile has cleared, and the confetti has all fallen, nobody is ashamed of shedding a few tears of joy; that’s part of the reward for becoming a world champion.
Atlanta Braves third base coach Ron Washington didn’t cry Tuesday night. Maybe that’s because after over 50 years of dedicating his life to baseball, his tear ducts are forever stuck in the off position. After the win, Washington smiled. He smiled and smiled. I hope he’ll forgive my eyes for watering on his behalf.
“All the years I put into this game,” Washington said Tuesday night, “I finally got one.”
Washington’s baseball life began 52 years ago, when he first reported to the Kansas City Royals minor leagues as an 18-year-old. He grinded his way through a scrappy decade-long MLB career where he never became a star on the field but was always valued off of it. His teams—and he bounced around often—would lean on him to teach youngsters how to play the game “the right way.” When the New York Mets called up super-prospect Darryl Strawberry, Washington became his roommate on the road, leading by example. But he never won a championship.
To the coaching ranks, then. That’s where Washington might find glory. He became one of the most respected instructors in the league for developing infielders and a mainstay in the Moneyball-era Oakland A’s. Third baseman Eric Chavez so valued Washington’s coaching that he inscribed his Gold Glove Award, “Wash, not without you,” and gave it to the man he believed deserved the credit. After Oakland, Washington became the head man for the Texas Rangers and led them to two straight World Series. In 2011, the Rangers were a strike away from clinching the title three separate times in Game Six. Washington’s team lost the game and the series. And a few years later, as off-the-field issues mounted, Washington resigned to take time away from the game.
He couldn’t stay away for long. He joined Atlanta in 2016 and immediately became a favorite in the clubhouse, cracking jokes constantly. Before every game, he hits exactly 570 one hoppers to the infielders during their warm ups. “When you have a 69-year-old man out there outworking us, it makes us all want to work harder and that’s the key,” said star first baseman Freddie Freeman, who won a Gold Glove a year after he started working with Washington.
And now, finally, Washington can claim a World Series of his own. Standing on the field with a victory cigar in one hand, Washington said, “This game is all about love. This game is all about commitment. This game is all about attitude.”
“I’m a world champion now,” he said a little later. “And it doesn’t matter if I did it as a coach or a manager. I’m a world champion.”
He just kept smiling. No tears.
Coming Soon: Man In The Arena
Ten episodes. Ten Super Bowls. Tom Brady dissects the greatest underdog story in sports history and shares how he went from the 199th pick in the draft to the best athlete of his generation. He mines his victories and defeats to show how small improvements, when added up over time, can lead to epic results.
Our new documentary series premieres later this month on ESPN+.
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