Just when the Rangers thought they were in the clear after their manager, Ron Washington, apologized to fans and his players for testing positive for cocaine over the summer of 2009.
Well, today new news was leaked to the Dallas media that Washington used amphetamines and pot as his 10-year career as a player. The Fan, 105.3 FM in Dallas, reported that Washington had told a reporter of this but that the news wasn't ever supposed to be leaked.
There is apparent talk of blackmail of either Washington or the Rangers but the club has denied those allegations. Now that they have a reason to doubt their manager that the cocaine use was just a "one time thing," could they possible ask him to step down?
The Rangers currently have a manager in waiting with Clint Hurdle, who took the Colorado Rockies to the World Series in 2007, who is the team's hitting coach.
But what of this rumor of blackmail? What would someone have to gain to blackmail the Rangers or their current manager? Do they want Washington gone that badly to blackmail him in to stepping down?
With the Rangers denying it, at least for now, odds are the allegations are truer than they're letting on. It seems the on air guys at The Fan, Barsky and Gregg , they are of the opinion that Washington won't be able to survive this. I happen to agree with both of them and it might time for the Rangers to save face and part ways with their manager.
Before people go getting all upset and calling this a race issue, it is absolutely not the case. The revelations that have come out over the last 24 hours, whether or not they were supposed to, almost forces the Rangers hand. If they continue to stand by Washington, which I didn't have a problem with after the first admission, and more continues to come out, it's just going to make the team look worse and be more of a distraction to the players.
It's a wait and see process at this point before we know what decision the Rangers are going to make. Whether Washington stays or goes depends on how he comes out of this latest revelation.
There's no question that Ron Washington is a good manager but right now none of that matters. What's done is done. The rest is still to be decided.
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