Baltimore Orioles Hire Buck Showalter
Perhaps the MLB's worst team, the Baltimore Orioles, have hired ESPN analyst Buck Showalter to be their next manager.
Showalter will manage his first game next Tuesday when the Orioles take on the Los Angeles Angels, when the team opens a seven-game home stand.
The Orioles fired manager Dave Trembley nearly two months ago, as the team is now at a 31-70 record in the basement of baseball.
The Orioles interviewed several worthy candidates for the job, including former Indians manager Eric Wedge, former Mets and Rangers manager Bobby Valentine, and former Orioles catcher Rick Dempsey.
The 54 year-old Showalter has an overall record of 882-833 managing in the majors. He has twice won Manager of the Year, once in 1994 with the New York Yankees, and in 2004 with the Texas Rangers.
Showalter has a history of turning teams around. He helped the all-powerful Yankees rebound after a down-time in 1994, and he started to build the Arizona Diamondbacks team that won the World Series in 2001. He took over the team in 1997 and was fired in 2000, one year before the franchise’s championship, but the triumph had Showalter’s fingerprints all over it.
In his Manager of the Year season in 2004, he led the Texas Rangers to 89 wins, one of the franchise’s best seasons.
Showalter may now have the toughest job in baseball. The franchise has not had a winning team since 1997, when they last made it to the playoffs. Not only that, but they play in the toughest division in baseball with the Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and even the Toronto Blue Jays, who have shown improvement. The challenge doesn’t lie only on the field, but off the field as well with the Yankees and the Red Sox's deep pockets.
Showalter has been a great manager since he started in the minors. He was named the Minor League Manager of the Year in 1989 with the Double-A Albany-Colonie Yankees.
The next year, he was promoted to coach on the Yankees staff and eventually took over as manager in 1992. In his four years as manager, the team posted an overall record of 313-268 and finished first in the strike-shortened 1994 season. In 1995, he led the Yankees to the postseason in a Wild Card spot, but his falling out with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner led to him leaving the team, one year before the Yankees won the World Series in 1996.
The expansion Arizona Diamondbacks hired him in that same season. He built the club for two years before they eventually began play. He developed the eventual roster and their first season began with a 65-97 record.
Thanks to some offseason improvements following that season, including the acquisitions of Randy Johnson, Armando Reynoso, Todd Stottlemyre, and Steve Finley, the Diamondbacks improved to a 100-62 record and won the NL West division. The 2000 season was a mediocre one, and Showalter was fired. In another painful turn of events, the team won the World Series the following year, just like the Yankees had done following his dismissal.
Showalter spent a few years as an analyst on ESPN before he was hired by the Texas Rangers following the 2002 season. After a sub-par season in 2003 and the departure of Alex Rodriguez, the Rangers got off to a fast start and stayed in playoff contention the whole season. As a result, Showalter won his second Manager-of-the-Year award as the Rangers fared far better in 2004 than anyone could have expected.
Now Showalter gets another chance after four years away from managing to show he can build a team from the bottom and bring them to the top. However, it will take patience and a good long-term plan before things get better in Baltimore.
Tags: