Baltimore Orioles’ Buck Showalter: A manager par excellence- MLB Manager Profile
William Nathaniel "Buck" Showalter III, better known as Buck Showalter is a successful Major League manager currently associated with the Baltimore Orioles. As a player, he was a first baseman in the New York Yankees Minor League System but could never get
a chance to play in the Majors.
Buck was born in DeFuniak Springs, Florida in 1956. He grew up in a nearby city of Century, where his father was Principal of the Century High School and was an athlete himself.
He started his playing days for the Chipola Junior College located in Marianna, Florida and later moved to Mississippi State University. He posted a phenomenal batting average of .459 in 1977 and was an All-Star.
He was drafted by the New York Yankees the same year in the fifth round of the Amateur Draft. The same year he made his debut in the Minors with the Class-A Fort Lauderdale Yankees. He had a great opening season with a .362 batting average and a whooping
.458 on-base percentage.
Showalter continued his journey in the Minor Leagues until 1983. During his seven year career, he played for numerous farm teams. All of these teams were Double-A and Triple-A standard after his first year and Buck often had a split season.
When he called it quits, he had a career batting average of .294 and a .369 on-base percentage in 793 games. Buck had 841 career hits including 132 extra base hits and drove in 336 runs and also hit 17 home-runs. All of his seven seasons were played in the
Yankees farm system.
He started his managerial career with the Single-A Oneonta Yankees in 1985. After two successful seasons, he became the manager of Fort Lauderdale Yankees in 1987 and posted a 85-53 record in the first season with the team he had made his Minor League Debut
with.
Earning his stripes, Showalter became the manager of the Double-A Albany-Colonie Yankees and was names as the Minor League Manager of the Year by Baseball America.
Rewarded for the good work, he was promoted to the coaching staff of the New York Yankees in 1990. He ended up succeeding Stump Merrill as the manager in 1992 and was in charge of the New York ball club for four years.
Buck did well in his first stint as a Major League manager and posted a 313-268 record. During this period, he won the American League Manager of the Year Award from the Associated Press as well. In 1995, he helped the Yankees in making it to the play-offs
for the first time since 1981. He was, however, not rehired as a manager by the Yankees after 1995.
He was hired in 1996 by the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was two years prior to the team starting to play as the management wanted Showalter to build a team with ample time at hand. The first season was not the best has the team had a 65-97 record.
However, the team made a turnaround and posted a 100-62 winning record in 1999 and lost in the National League Division Series to the New York Mets. With a mediocre 2000 season following, Buck was once again not offered another contract. Strangely like the
Yankees, the Diamondbacks won the World Series the year after firing Showalter.
Buck gained a reputation of building teams into contenders in little time. He became the manager of the Texas Rangers in the end 2002. Although in the 2003 season the Rangers finished last with a 71-91 record, they staged a comeback in the 2004 season and
almost made it to the post-season. For his good work, Buck was named as the American League Manager of the Year for a second time.
With the team unable to finish better than third in a group of four in the four seasons that he managed, Buck was fired in October of 2006.
He had a stint as a senior advisor to baseball operations for the Cleveland Indians and then worked with ESPN as an analyst.
In July 2010, Buck was hired as the manager by the Baltimore Orioles. The team at the moment was in dire straits and nothing much changed as far as results are concerned in 2011 season, Showalter’s first full season in charge.
The 2012 season proved to be a breakthrough for the ball club. In May, Buck won his 1000th Major League game against the Yankees. The team went on to have their first winning season since 1997 and made it to the post-season after the same amount
of time, ending the season with a 93-69 record.
The team eventually fell in the American League Division Series to the New York Yankees in Game 5. Buck won the Sporting News AL Manager of the Year Award. The Orioles extended Buck’s tenure as the manager as well.
Overall, Buck Showalter has a 1079-1018 winning record as a Major League manager. He has helped teams rise from poor performances and helped them in transforming them into serious contenders of post-season. He is considered to be a player friendly manager
and his good work shows on the record that he has as a manager.
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