New 'cool' manager Washington has Rangers thinking positive

Miller: Five things to know

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Perhaps the coolest thing about new Texas manager Ron Washington is that as soon as he was hired last November, he went coast-to-coast visiting 13 of his new players and their wives or girlfriends so he would have a good feel for things by the time spring training started.

Ron Washington is a baseball lifer, once rooming with Kirby Puckett when he was with the Twins. (Getty Images)

Or maybe the coolest thing about Washington is that he has un-mothballed pepper, which the Rangers now play every day -- and will continue to play every day during the season. Pepper? It's so passé you don't even see "No Pepper" signs on stadium walls anymore.

"He asked me about it this winter," says Michael Young, Texas' All-Star shortstop. "I said, 'Yeah, sounds like a good time.'"

Or, maybe the coolest thing about Texas' smart, personable, funky and soulful new skipper is the fact that he is so beloved that Oakland's Eric Chavez once gave Washington one of his Gold Glove trophies. Washington had poured so much of his sweat and heart into Chavez's defense that the third baseman figured, what the hell, the award was half Washington's anyway.

"I wouldn't be afraid to say he's probably the only infield coach a player gave a Gold Glove award to," says Art Howe, now Washington's bench coach after Washington served on the A's staff while Howe was manager there. "First of all, it was a class act on Chavvy's part. And Wash is just wonderful."

Welcome to the dawn of a new morning for the Rangers. For the first time in years, smiles are accompanying the cereal and bagels, and no one is looking over his shoulder.

And it's no coincidence. Former manager Buck Showalter's four-year reign led to high blood pressure and anger management, but not to the playoffs. The Rangers finally reached their breaking point when 2006 ended, and though they have yet to win a regular-season game under their new skipper, if you think a manager can't make an immediate difference, then you don't know Washington.

Let's just say that, among other things, it's no coincidence that Young signed a five-year, $80 million extension earlier this month. Though Young will not address the topic, sources close to him say that last year's All-Star MVP wouldn't even have considered it if Showalter were still managing.

What Young will say on the extension: "In the past, to be frank, we've finished in third place how many years in a row? A lot of guys in here are tired of it. With the attitude shift in the organization, I wanted to hop on board. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that this thing is going to turn around immediately."

When the Rangers sacked Showalter, the betting was that general manager Jon Daniels would hire one of two men he had longstanding baseball relationships with: Don Wakamatsu, who was a Texas coach (and remains the third-base coach) or Trey Hillman, who has been a successful manager in Japan.

When Daniels presented Washington to owner Tom Hicks -- after playing it close to the vest to not color the owner's perception -- it took all of about, oh, three seconds for Hicks to sign off on him. The conversation, as Daniels recalls, went like this:

Hicks: "He's fantastic. What am I missing?"