Texas manager Ron Washington tested positive for cocaine use during the first half of the 2009 season, but it didn't cost him his job.
Instead he went through nine months of drug rehabilitation after he told Major League Baseball executives, Rangers general manager Jon Daniels and club president Nolan Ryan of his transgression after taking a drug test but before the results of the test were known.
Daniels and Ryan considered Washington's offer to resign but ultimately opted to treat it as a one-time failure on Washington's part.
On Wednesday, with SI.com telling the Texas organization it was going ahead with a story on the failed drug test, the Rangers called their players in for an emergency meeting at which Washington told them of what he called a one-time lapse.
When Washington, who was in tears by the end of saying his piece, was done, third baseman Michael Young was the first of about a half dozen players to stand up and voice support.
"I've got his back,'' Young told the group, according to sources. "Anybody who doesn't feel that way isn't a Texas Ranger.'' Ron Washington, the manager of the Texas Rangers, tested positive for cocaine in 2009, according to Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman. “I did make a mistake and I regret that I did it. I am really embarrassed and I am really sorry … Any attempt to try to explain it is going to sound like excuses. There is no right way to explain something wrong, and I did wrong. Was it tension? Maybe. Anxiety?” The Rangers knew about the positive test, then decided not to fire him. Washington’s star outfielder, Josh Hamilton, is a recovering drug addict. [SI]
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