Washington is hired to manage the Rangers

Ron Washington was hired as manager of the Texas Rangers after 11 seasons as an Oakland Athletics coach, inheriting a team that last made the playoffs in 1999.

When Buck Showalter was fired after an 80-82 season with three years left on his contract, General Manager Jon Daniels said the Rangers needed a different perspective.

“I’m going to be a players’ manager. My job is solely to make sure that every player on the Texas Rangers feels like they are part of everything going on here,” Washington said Monday night at Arlington, Texas, where he was introduced at a news conference. “As a manager, I’m no good if the players don’t get it done. If the players get it done, I’m great.”

Chosen over four other candidates to succeed Showalter, 54-year-old Washington inherits a team that has had only one winning season since 1999. He is the Rangers’ 17th full-time manager and first black manager.

Daniels wanted to hire a winner, an optimist and a communicator.

“Work ethic, professionalism, respect of the game,” Daniels said. “I didn’t think we were going to find all of those characteristics in one person. [Washington] proved me wrong.”

Washington also was a candidate in Oakland to succeed fired manager Ken Macha. Washington was popular with Oakland players, many of whom wanted him to be their new manager. The A’s have yet to name Macha’s successor.

Washington played in 564 games over parts of 10 seasons for five teams, including the Dodgers.

After four decades with the Angels as a player, coach, manager and scout, Moose Stubing has left the organization.

Stubing, 68, has joined the Washington Nationals as a special assistant to General Manager Jim Bowden.

“I was happy where I was,” Stubing said, “but this came out of the blue. It was a tough decision after 40 years there. It’s a shock to my kids. They’re in their 40s and they’ve known nothing but the Angels.”

Stubing was one of the Angels’ five major league scouts. His major league career consisted of five at-bats for the 1967 Angels.

He coached and managed in their minor league system from 1968-84 and coached on the major league staff from 1985-90, including an 0-8 record as interim manager in 1988.

-- Bill Shaikin

Minnesota Twins left-hander Francisco Liriano, his brilliant rookie season cut short because of arm soreness, had Tommy John surgery on his left elbow.

Liriano will miss the 2007 season as he rehabilitates from the ligament transplant procedure.

First baseman Carlos Delgado decided against filing a trade demand, the New York Mets said, preferring to stick with the team that took him to the playoffs for the first time in his big league career.

As a veteran traded during a multiyear contract, Delgado can file for a trade demand through Saturday. Delgado signed a $52-million, four-year deal with Florida after the 2004 season, then was sent to the Mets after one year with the Marlins.

SOCCER

L.A. area selected

as a site for InterLiga

The Los Angeles area, Houston and Frisco, Texas, will stage the fourth edition of soccer’s InterLiga from Jan. 3 to 13 to determine Mexico’s representatives in next year’s Copa Libertadores.

InterLiga will begin with doubleheaders Jan. 3-4 at Houston’s Robertson Stadium before moving to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco for doubleheaders Jan 6-7.

The last group games will be played as doubleheaders Jan. 9-10 at the Home Depot Center in Carson before a final doubleheader pitting the group leaders at the Home Depot Center on Jan. 13. Cruz Azul, Monterrey, Necaxa and Tigres will face off in Group A, and America, Jaguares, UAG Tecos and Morelia will play in Group B.

UCLA was seeded second for the NCAA women’s tournament and will play host to Nevada Las Vegas at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Drake Stadium. The Bruins were seeded eighth for the NCAA men’s tournament and will play host to Binghamton or Harvard at Drake Stadium on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.

MISCELLANY

Freestyle snowmobiling added to X Games

ESPN will announce today that it will add freestyle snowmobiling to the Winter X Games, which will be held Jan. 25-28 in Aspen, Colo.

As with freestyle motocross, the centerpiece attraction during the Summer X Games, snowmobile freestyle, as it will be called, will feature 10 riders and involve a course set up with ramps over which participants will launch their 500-pound machines and perform various aerial tricks. Some of the jumps will span 100 feet.

-- Pete Thomas

Paul Tracy will miss the Champ Car World Series season finale because of a broken shoulder. Tracy’s withdrawal from the Gran Premio Telmex in Mexico City will end his streak of 136 consecutive starts.

British cyclist David Millar and nine others, including six current or former riders for the Cofidis team, went on trial at Nanterre, France, for their alleged roles in a doping scandal.

Millar was banned for two years and stripped of his 2003 world-time trial title after admitting to a French judge that he used the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO three times.

He returned to competition this year after completing his suspension.