“We Can Play This Motherf#@king Game, Ain’t No Doubt About It.”

There were rumors that Ron Washington, my favorite cokehead coach in all of baseball, gave an epic speech before Game 7 of the 2011 World Series.  I was intrigued, mainly because he had declared to ESPN that he wasn’t going to give “any kind of pregame speech.”  Instead, he had planned to “let them go out and play and see what happens.”  Even though his team, on the verge of winning the championship, lost a heartbreaking Game 6, Ron riffed that already knew “what’s at stake and what we have to do.” Still, I was intrigued. There were rumblings. A photographer friend told me that the Game 7 pre-game speech was almost as monumental as the Rangers’ Game 6 loss.  I searched around to see if anyone had posted it, but found nothing.  And then I gave up, convinced that Washington had told the truth about not needing a “rah-rah speech.”
But this was Ron Washington.  A cartoon character of the most amusing levels that lives for moments like this.  I could not accept that he would simply let the moment pass.  And then a week ago, I found it.  Thankfully, the guys at JoeSportsFan obtained an audio copy of the speech from an unnamed clubhouse employee.  It was worth the wait.

You should listen to the whole thing for yourself, because it is not just Ron working his pre-game magic.  But some of my favorite quotes of his include:

“I just wanted to take a minute and, um, this is what we waited for all fucking year, to uh get to this point.” 
“I told you guys last night, it’s seven games, that’s seven fucking games. We believed in each other throughout the whole goddamn year. And there’s no reason to not do it now.”
“You know, there were two champions out there last night.  Those fucking guys over there are champions too.  And good champions also. They’re fighting for their lives. And they ended up pulling it off last night.  Tonight, this is what it’s about. You’re going to go back out there tonight and I don’t expect you guys to stop doing anything different than what you’ve been doing all fucking year. Enjoy yourselves, have fun, do what you gotta do.”
“We can play this motherfucking game, ain’t no doubt about it. And we can beat those motherfuckers over there, no doubt about it. But I can tell you this. They over there saying the same motherfucking thing.  Why? Because they’re champions, too.  And we’re motherfucking champions.  But we know we can beat those cocksuckers.”
“Anyone have anything else?”

In the end, there is nothing overly shocking about the speech(es).  There is a lot of cursing, a lot of laughing, and a lot of ego stroking.  It sounds like a gathering of pirates, gushing about the booty and women they will soon plunder.  But I like the secret glimpse into the locker room.  I like that we can hear a moment in history we were never supposed to hear.  Sort of like Watergate, but not.  And it is just Ron being Ron.  Like Samuel L. Jackson, Washington is simply explaining that there are “some motherfucking champions on this motherfucking field.”  And he was right.  It just wasn’t his team. 
I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings and have even better holiday weekends.  Do not get trampled in any stampede on Black Friday and please check back next week.