Ron Washington is able to take his crew again to the Stone Age … no less than within the locker room.
Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic reported on Wednesday that the Los Angeles Angels supervisor Washington has applied a no-cell-phones coverage within the clubhouse for the 2025 season. Washington mentioned he hopes that the coverage will permit his crew to focus extra on baseball.
“It isn’t punishment,” Washington was quoted as saying. “I simply need some focus.
“That clubhouse is for the veterans on this crew to run it the way in which they need to run it,” mentioned Washington. “We simply dropped what we wish to have occur [with cellphones] and we would like them to make sure it occurs contained in the clubhouse … “ I slot in too. If I’m outdoors [my office] within the clubhouse on the telephone, I would like them to ring my butt up, too.”
Washington famous that Angels veterans Mike Trout and Kyle Hendricks will probably be in control of implementing the rule. Whereas Washington prompt a $500 superb for a violation, he mentioned that he’s leaving the precise quantity as much as Trout and Hendricks. Ghiroli additionally notes that Washington applied the same no-cell-phones coverage again when he was managing the Texas Rangers from 2007-14, which got here with a $500 superb for each violation.
The 72-year-old Washington took over as Angels supervisor earlier than the 2024 season however has failed to realize success as far as the crew went 63-99 final season and missed the playoffs for a tenth straight yr. Now Washington is hoping that some tradition adjustments can get his crew on monitor in 2025.
Cell telephones are arguably far more prevalent in on a regular basis life than they had been when Washington managed the Rangers over a decade in the past. However there may be some precedent in relation to the success of those sorts of insurance policies. Within the NBA, a head coach applied the same old-school rule earlier than this season and has since remodeled his crew from a laughingstock right into a professional playoff contender.
