If you’ve been reading DFWSportsFans.com for some time, you probably know that I write very few Op-Ed pieces. It’s not that I don’t have opinions, but I generally like to write more objective news-style articles. Game previews, free agent speculation – that sort of thing. However, I’m pretty peeved, and I’ve finally gotten to the point to where I can put my thoughts to paper (digitally speaking) without going into a real tizzy.

Wednesday, the MLB announced its recipients of the Manager of the Year Awards. For those of you who aren’t “in-the-know” when it comes to after-the-season-is-over awards, the MoY goes like this: two writers from every franchised city send in their top 3 nominations for manager of the year. Pretty simple.

This year’s winners include the San Diego Padres’ Bud Black for the National League award, while the American League Manager of the Year was awarded to Ron Gardenhire. Gardenhire, who has been runner-up five times for this award, led his Minnesota Twins to the AL Central pennant with a 94-68 record but were booted from the ALDS in the first round from a sweep by the New York Yankees.  This was the Twins’ second year in a row to win the AL Central pennant. They’ve ended the season with a record over .500 every year since 2008.

Runner-up to Gardenhire in the voting was the Texas Rangers’ manager Ron Washington. My main question – why didn’t the right Ron win?

Gardenhire manages for a small-market club, who just opened the season in a new ballpark, who reached the playoffs a year prior and looked to continue the winning trend.  Washington, on the other hand, was in charge of a team known for slow starts under his leadership. (In 2008, “Wash” was nearly fired for the club’s April-May record.)  He was commissioned to lead a bankrupted team, attempting an ownership change, that couldn’t afford big-name free agents to round out their club.

At the beginning of the season, the starting catcher flamed out, developed the yips and never came back. The Rangers were forced to roll with Matt Treanor as its full-time backstop. Treanor had spent over a decade in the minors and seemed destined to be a career minor leaguer. Due to Texas’ catching situation, plus the fact the team could barely afford baseballs, Treanor was given the gig. Thank God that worked out.

Ron Washington’s top two pitchers, Rich Harden and Scott Feldman, didn’t produce this year. 40% of his rotation – gone. His closer, Frank Francisco, blew three saves in the first two weeks of the season. The club rolled out Neftali Feliz in the closer role, and prayed that the pressure wouldn’t crack the rookie. That’s right – in 2010, the Rangers rolled with a rookie closer.

Injuries to the heart of the batting lineup kept Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler on the DL for much of the season. So much so, that David Murphy played in 150 games this year.

All these problems – the catchers, the pitchers, the injuries, and the closer – could be and would be enough to make any other club throw in the towels and say, “Next year.” Not the Rangers. No. The Rangers battled. They battled hard. They won it on walk-offs, in the 13^th inning, against the Red Sox. They scratched out ways to win. On Opening Day. Off Jarod Saltalamacchia’s last big-league hit in a Rangers uniform.

Wash showed faith in guys like Andres Blanco, who was thrown in as the every-day second baseman when Ian Kinsler went down with a groin strain in the rough middle part of the season. He didn’t give up on Vlad Guerrero when he was slumping.

A manager’s job isn’t necessarily to manage the game. It’s to manage the way it’s played, and who plays it. And that’s just what Ron Washington do(es) – he believes in his guys, he shows faith in them, and in return, they play hard for him. That relationship led to the Rangers winning the AL West. Then the American League. Though they were bounced from the World Series by the world champion Giants, this was the most successful year for the Rangers in franchise history .

So what kept Ron Washington from getting Manager of the Year? Was it the cocaine problem that came out in Spring Training? To me, that makes this season even more spectacular – the players rallied around their manager in a time of desolation, played hard for him and won a pennant. Isn’t that the kind of comeback story that Americans love?

Maybe Gardenhire did deserve to win this award. But, I can’t see how, with everything that Washington had to endure this season, and to see where it ended, Minnesota’s Ron deserved it more than Texas’ Ron.

“That just be the way baseball go sometime.”  True that, Wash. True that.