Fast Break
Baseball
Washington new Rangers manager
Ron Washington has always been a popular coach with players, stressing communication and letting them be themselves.
Now he will get his chance as a manager with the Texas Rangers, who wanted and needed somebody with those characteristics.
“I am very thrilled. I don’t think I can find words to express it right now,” Washington said. “Maybe one day I will find the words.”
Washington, a coach for the Oakland Athletics the past 11 seasons, was chosen over four other candidates to replace Buck Showalter and inherits a team that has had only one winning season since last making the playoffs in 1999.
“Ron is a teacher and winner who brings a great deal of integrity to our organization,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “He is a straightforward, energetic baseball man who we’re excited to have lead the Rangers.”
The 54-year-old Washington is the Rangers’ 17th full-time manager and first black manager.
College football
Surgery won’t keep Paterno out
Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had surgery on his broken left leg and two torn knee ligaments, and plans to coach next weekend – possibly from a box above the field.
The 79-year-old coach underwent surgery Sunday and was resting comfortably Monday at Mount Nittany Medical Center.
Paterno’s son and quarterbacks coach, Jay, said the 80-minute procedure went well and that his father was working from his hospital bed, getting ready for Saturday’s game against Temple.
Paterno fractured the top of his tibia after two players ran into him during the Nittany Lions’ 13-3 loss to Wisconsin. The school said Monday that Paterno also tore ligaments in the knee.
Doctors inserted several screws into his leg and fitted Paterno with a temporary brace. Paterno could put weight back on the leg in about six weeks, the doctors said.
The younger Paterno said he spoke with his father and there was “no thought whatsoever of not coming back this year. … It’s not even in the discussion.”
The elder Paterno is in his 41st year as Penn State head coach and under contract through the end of 2008.