Ron Washington, Musical Muse

There have been many songs over the years about baseball, but none come to mind that were about baseball managers.

Given the life of a manager, it would make sense that if there was such a song it would be a country song. Lots of time on the road, plenty of decisions to look back on with regret and the chance for the next big win is always right around the corner.

Thanks to Ron Washington, the time for baseball managers to get their musical due has arrived.

Starting today, you can download Merle Haggard's "That's the Way Baseball Go" from iTunes. The tune was inspired by Wash's go-to phrase when discussing what went down on the field earlier in the evening. Haggard recorded the tune last month and debuted it at Friday's Rangers game.

Technically, it's not an entirely new tune. It is a reworking of Haggard's 1983 song "That's the Way Love Goes" into a song about baseball. The lyrics don't delve too deep into the details of the game -- "Cloudy days, skies of blue, some you win, some you lose" -- but Haggard's voice works well at evoking an image of a manager sorting through the events of the day.

The song was thought up by Rangers co-chairman Bob Simpson, who also picked up the costs of the production. He worked on the new lyrics with his wife and two others and his share of the proceeds will go to the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation. According to a release issued by the team, he came up with the song as a tribute to Ron Washington and Rangers fans.

"I thought it was awesome," Washington said. "They gave me a box of them. I thought it was wonderful what the Simpson family did. When I first said it, people made fun of me, but there was a message in it. It wasn't politically correct, but there was a message in it. Things happen in the game of baseball, and there's nothing you can do about it. That's the way it go."