Texas Rangers: Ron Washington Tests Positive for Cocaine

It is being reported by a few different news outlets that Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington tested positive for cocaine during the 2009 baseball season. As with any positive drug test in the major leagues Ron Washington has had to undergo more regular drug testing. The Texas Rangers clearly decided that Ron Washington’s positive test for cocaine was something that he could overcome otherwise the would have probably let him go last year.

This sheds more light on the speculation that Ron Washington was going to be let go last season. We all thought he had been under a lot of scrutiny for the teams record, but now it would appear that his job was pretty secure if he used cocaine and tested positive. Also how much was he using if he tested positive for his only drug test of the season? We will probably never know, but it makes you wonder.

The Rangers are going to hold a press conference today to address Ron Washington’s positive test for cocaine.

Here are some of Ron Washington’s quotes from the SI.com article on Ron Washington positive test for cocaine.

“I did make a mistake and I regret that I did it,” Washington told SI.com by phone from Surprise, Ariz., on Tuesday night. “I am really embarrassed and I am really sorry.”

Washington declined to discuss the specific circumstances surrounding his decision to use cocaine because he didn’t want his family to hear about it in the media. “Any attempt to try to explain it is going to sound like excuses,” he said. “There is no right way to explain something wrong, and I did wrong. Was it tension? Maybe. Anxiety?”

It also appears that Ron Washington brought his cocaine use to the attention of the Rangers front office and the MLB execs. Washingtons extension was given to him 1 month prior to Ron Washington’s failed drug test.