To Fire, Or Not To Fire?

With the National Health Care Debate going on and the start of college basketballs March Madness, it is understandable that certain news stories might get glanced over or be soon forgotten. One of those, was the story of what is going on down in Texas with Rangers manager Ron Washington.

In case you've missed it, it was revealed earlier this week that Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington tested positive to a random drug screen last year just before the All-Star break. As the story goes, in a moment of weakness on a road trip, a friend offered Ron some cocaine and he took it and used it....just the one time. At the end of this road trip, Ron was informed that he was chosen to take a random drug screen.

And this is when I find the story gets very interesting.

Instead of denying that he was going to test positive, instead of saying "it must be that additive that made me test positive", Ron called team president Nolan Ryan, told him what happened, apologized for what happened taking full responsibility for it and then offered his resignation. Nolan Ryan and team GM Jon Daniels, admitted they were very angry for what Ron did and they had every right to fire him or accept his resignation and definitely discussed doing just that. I know that would have been my first reaction, "fire him".

But Ryan and Daniels did the unexpected, they sought to get Ron help through MLB's drug counseling program, supported him, let him keep his job and kept the whole thing quiet until a reporter dug up the story and leaked it this past week--9 months after it had happened.

I am not sure what the right answer is to this story, should he have been fired or should he have been able to keep his job--only time will tell on that. But I do like to look at things a little differently. There seems to be a consensus on the side that thought that Ron should be fired that says, "look at the example this sets for kids, it says you can do drugs and get away with it" and those people have a solid point. But I think that firing him would also say to kids "Don't ever screw up, if you do, you'll never be forgiven" and that is not a good message either. A message that says "when you are winning and doing well personally, we like like you a lot, but screw up once and we want nothing to do with you". None of us knows what would have happened if he had been fired. But if he had been, and the firing put Ron into a self destructive path that led to more and more drugs, then that would have been equally as bad a message, wouldn't it?

Let's not forget too, the hypocritical side of this. For years and years MLB has let players get away with Steroids, PED's and illegal drugs. Anybody remember Steve Howe and that sad story? MLB just spent millions of dollars on researching which players have done PED's and which front office personnel knew about players taking PED's, only to turn a blind eye to the results. And don't fool yourselves, there were front office people that knew this was going on (San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox), just read that Mitchel Report and you'll see.

In the 70's, it was common to walk into a clubhouse to find a bowl full of "greenies" sitting in the open for the players to take before heading onto the field. So, it was no great surprise to me when asked this week, Ron admitted to using these "uppers" back in his playing days--most players did back then.

Like I said earlier, my first reaction would have been to fire him as well, but I think it is very cool how grace has been shown by the front office of the Texas Rangers. They are taking a road less traveled by, and I hope that it works out well for all involved. Stories of redemption are always nice to hear about. By the way, Ron has been subjected to 3 random drug tests per week since he tested positive, and has not failed a single test.