Did The Rangers Leave Michael Young's Locker Open Out Of Respect, Or Does Ron Washington Just Think They Did?

Our pal Drew Fairservice at Getting Blanked spotted this bit of weirdness concerning the status of Michael Young's former space in the Texas Rangers' locker room. This morning, baseball writer Bob Nightengale tweeted the following:

We know that the Rangers and Ron Washington had a deep love affair with Michael Young and all of his "intangibles," but keeping his locker open would be way beyond the pale of normal respect-paying. I mean, it's not like Michael Young died. He was just traded to the Phillies.

But then, a few minutes later, it appeared that the depth of the Rangers' sentimentality had been overblown when Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star Telegram tweeted this:

Ah, so it was all just a big misunderstanding. But no! Back comes Nightengale with quotes from Ron Washington:

We can only draw one possible conclusion out of this mess: Ron Washington was told by his players that Young's locker was left open in order to pacify him, as one would a crazy grandpa who has to keep being told that the grandkids are coming to visit any day now. OK fine, so that's probably not what's actually going on, but it sure is fun to imagine. Sure, coach, we left Michael's locker just as he left it. Yeah, see it's way over there in the corner. What's that? Oh yeah, I'm sure he'll be coming back any day now. Now let's get you a juice.

[ Getting Blanked]