New 'cool' manager Washington has Rangers thinking positive

Daniels: "Nothing. He's the guy I clicked with. He's my recommendation."

Hicks: "You could have fooled me."

Washington is 54, a native of New Orleans and a baseball lifer. He has been married for 34 years (Gerry), signed with Kansas City in 1970 as a free agent out of the Royals Baseball Academy and cobbled together a 20-year professional career.

He learned the game from some of its greatest minds: Syd Thrift, Harvey Kuenn, Steve Korcheck, Jim Lemon and Steve Boros, among others, at the Royals Baseball Academy. Chico Fernandez, the slick-fielding shortstop who played with Brooklyn, the Phillies, Detroit and the Mets between 1956 and 1963. Lyman Bostock, Jorge Orta, Steve Ontiveros and Jeffrey Leonard, with whom he played in the minors.

The Royals Baseball Academy?

"At the age of 17, I knew where everybody was supposed to be when the ball was put in play," Washington says. "You could go to major leaguers today, and they don't know."

Chico Fernandez?

"He taught me my infield stuff," Washington says. "He used to have me out on the fields at 7, 7:30 in the morning. I thought it was punishment. I'd tell the guys in the room, why in the hell does he have me out there alone? But I passed it on to the Oakland team for 11 years."

All those years in the minors stitched in front of, in back of and in-between his 564 career major league games?

"You might have two coaches back then -- the manager and the pitching coach," Washington says. "You had to talk about the game among each other. We were like our own trainers, our own teachers. My first year of winter ball, 1976, that's when I realized I had figured some things out about the game of baseball. I could come up with a plan, and if there were some bumps in the plan, I could adjust."

Though his playing skills were limited, others figured out early that Washington knew some things about the game of baseball, too. He was in the majors with Minnesota in 1984 when the Twins summoned a future Hall of Famer named Kirby Puckett from the minors.

Guess who they hand-picked to room with Puckett?

"I didn't teach Kirby about the game," Washington says. "I taught him how to be a professional. I taught him how to let the game flow, how to let it come to you. I helped him with maturity. He liked to sleep all day. I used to make him get up, go get something to eat and move around. Then go take a nap in the afternoon, if you want. I'd make him get up for breakfast."

Washington has been managing people for a couple of decades. What was Hicks, Texas' owner, missing? How about what have others been missing while Oakland monopolized Washington in its third-base coaching box these past 11 years?

His winter tour went from Young's home near Palm Springs to third baseman Hank Blalock's in San Diego to pitcher Rick Bauer's near Baltimore.

What left the Rangers brass amazed was that Washington didn't just zero in on stars like Young, Blalock and Mark Teixeira. He also included non-marquee players such as Bauer and pitcher Josh Rupe on his itinerary as well, wanting to learn before camp what made them tick.

"We talked two, three hours," Bauer says of that freezing cold day in Baltimore. "It was nice to get to know him before coming into camp. It made things easier."

"She thought he had good manners," Blalock says the warm day in San Diego when his wife, Misty, met Washington. "He opened doors for her, was really polite."

Near Palm Springs, Washington also met Young's wife and sister-in-law.

"Both got a great vibe," Young says.

Get the wife, get the player?

"See," Young says, grinning. "He's got it all figured out."

"The players loved it," Washington says. "We got on the right page right away. We connected. They know I'm the manager. I ain't got to walk around here pretending like I'm the man. I'm not the man because I don't play. I'm the head honcho because it says 'manager' next to my name, but if they don't get it done, I'm worthless."

Judging by the clubhouse vibe, the Rangers, who haven't finished higher than third in the AL West since 1999, will be doing everything they can to prevent that.

"He gave me this opportunity," says Howe, the bench coach and former manager. "I'm just hopeful I can do half for him of what he did for me."

Says Young: "I love him. Love him. It's been an incredible spring."