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LOS ANGELES — The phone vibrated with a FaceTime request, and the old coach grinned. He touched the screen and the face of the star second baseman was revealed.
If this scene was out of season, it might look normal. But Atlanta’s third base coach, Ron Washington, was sitting in his team’s bunker. Second baseman Ozzie Albies was getting a massage upstairs in the coach’s room. And batting practice was approaching before Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
Yet they were there, facing their device. Albies explained that he would be downstairs in a few minutes to begin his daily exercises with Washington. Washington accused him of softening the massage. Finally, wearing yoga pants with shorts over them, Washington asked Albies to bring him uniform pants.
This was a look at one of the most special and entertaining corners of the postseason baseball universe: the loving, vibrant and unique relationship between Washington and the group of home players, especially the Albies.
Albies colorfully suggested to Washington to run his own business.
“Get my pants from the bunker, Washington,” he said.
Moments later, Albies arrived at the bunker with a pair of white baseball pants and a belt on duty.
“I didn’t want a belt!” Washington scolded.
“Someone took the stuff and gave it to me!” Albies backed away, both men unable to hold back their laughter any longer.
Within minutes, they were each on their knees and facing each other just meters away from the grassy area in front of the bunker: 69-year-old Washington jumps single hopper on Albies with his ever-present fungo stick, 24, signed as an international free agent from Curaçao .
“It’s like this every day,” said Atlanta Manager Brian Snitker. “Every day. But you know, you’re going to drive yourself crazy if you don’t have that attitude every day in this sport. These guys have fun playing. That’s great.”
The results were evident as Atlanta improved in September and October, with Washington’s coached group of infielders playing airtight defenses, receiving some acclaim for successfully swaying the runners.
Washington garnered much attention for his Oakland Athletics “Moneyball” reputation and twice led the Texas Rangers to the World Series before off-court problems resulted in his resignation. He admits that his own mistakes – a positive test for cocaine use in 2010 and resigning as Rangers manager four years later after having an extramarital affair – may have cost him the opportunity to return to managership.
But for now, Washington is fully committed to coaching with Atlanta. The elaborate daily exercises, in which he trains six fielders, are like watching a tightly choreographed dance group prepare for a performance.
Six infielders – first baseman Freddie Freeman, Albies, short back Dansby Swanson, third baseman Austin Riley, and backups Ehire Adrianza and Johan Camargo – each work with the coach before batting practice. According to Washington, sessions last 4 minutes and 35 seconds, with each player hitting 95 single hoppers during that time. In other words, 570 single hoppers per day with about half an hour of work.
With Washington hitting various angles on either side of each player, the idea is to simulate the final bounce of the ground balls. “Because that’s the only jump that matters,” said Washington, long considered one of the best home coaches in the game.
“When you have a 69-year-old man out there who works harder than we do, it makes us all want to work harder, and that’s the key,” Freeman said. “We have a routine every day. Just to wake up your hands, to make sure everything is okay.”
Players are so hooked on these workouts that Snitker loves to tell the story of the last day of the 2017 season. The team was in Miami that day, with nothing left to play, about to go home for the winter, but the home players were out to practice with Washington before the game.
“I don’t think they feel like their day is complete unless they do it,” Snitker said. He has a great relationship with all of them, he loves them to death, he will do anything in the world for these guys and they know it.
“Private. The man is a baseball mouse.”
Washington’s true nature and contagious way with people first emerged during his days as a backup infielder for five organizations from 1977-89. In 1984, when the Minnesota Twins called in worthy minor league contender Kirby Puckett, they placed him in a room down the road with Washington so that Puckett could develop good habits.
After retiring in 1990, he became a coach in the Mets system. The team had hoped to move Tim Bogar, their eighth-round pick in 1987, from short stop to second base. Washington raised his hand and said he could help.
“Bogar was my first disciple,” he said.
Eric Chavez, a third base defensive lineman at Oakland, was Washington’s most famous student, as Chavez gifted Washington the third of six consecutive Golden Gloves as a gesture of gratitude for the hours-long tutelage. It is still on display at Washington’s home.
Players like the results, but are also interested in Washington’s approach.
“You have to develop a relationship, and the way you develop it is by letting them say that in everything you do,” Washington said. “Whatever you teach, two people must be learning. As an instructor, I must learn what is right and wrong about the person I am working with. And he must be learning what I taught him.”
This pack of talent led him to the executive chair with the Texas Rangers from 2007-14. He led the Rangers to the 2010 and 2011 American League pennants, and St. They went on a strike to win the World Series in ’11 before being stunned by Louis.
It was so valuable tested positive for cocaine useThe Rangers hired him and helped him in 2010. resigned in September 2014, by declaring that she had to mend her marriage after the affair.
He hopes to run again in seven years, but there are no offers.
Whatever the reason, it is well known that opportunities for Black executives are scarce. Arizona State’s Global Institute of Sports recently worked We examined hiring and firing patterns from 2010 to 2019 and found that non-white managers were less likely to be fired and rehired than their white counterparts.
Washington did not get a second chance before him, as did Willie Randolph, Davey Lopes, Jerry Royster, Cecil Cooper and Larry Doby. A handful of Black managers have found a second job, and the notable exception is Houston’s Dusty Baker, who manages his fifth club.
“When it comes to peace, number 1, I made peace with myself. Number 2, I made peace with my family. 3, what else can I do?” Celebrating 48 years with his wife Geri this year, Washington said. “I am at peace. I was sent into the world to do this, to make a difference in people’s lives. I did it. I continue to do it.”
His team will testify.
“Being on the court with Dansby, Ozzie and Freddie, it’s like I need to step up my game to keep up with these guys,” Riley said. “As she works with Wash every day, she watches every little thing. Every ball he hits makes sure you make the right moves.”
After watching other home players of his team work with the new coach in 2017, Freeman signed up to join them in 2018. He eventually won a Gold Glove.
“It’s all because of Ron Washington,” Freeman said. “You never stop learning in this game and Wash helped me understand that.”
Sometimes learning extends beyond the field. The familial relationship is obvious as Washington and the Albies chatter to each other incessantly.
“I’m going to say a word and ask him what it means, and it’s just something he’s heard, and I make him look for it,” Washington said. “The next day will come and I researched it myself to find out what it was. And it started helping his vocabulary.”
Two of those last words were “decorate” and “keep going,” Albies said.
“He’s the best,” Albies said. “Early, late, cold or hot, it’s always there.”
Atlanta is two-three games ahead in the NLCS going into Game 6 on Saturday night, hoping to beat Los Angeles for its first World Series appearance since 1999, Washington is there, keeping everyone ready and keeping them loose at the same time.
“What a new idea,” Snitker said. “For fun playing baseball.”
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