Buck hunting big game with resurgent Orioles
Last week, with just six games remaining in the Baltimore Orioles’ magical season and the club on the precipice of clinching its first postseason berth in 15 years, manager Buck Showalter sauntered into the auxiliary clubhouse at Camden Yards, styrofoam coffee cup in hand, face furrowed in deep thought. Was he pondering a lineup shuffle? Deliberating over which starter to use in a potential wild-card playoff? Showalter paused briefly before addressing the beat writers seated before him. “What’s the spread in the Ravens’ game?” The 56-year-old, two-time manager of the year had no fear his Cinderella club would collapse under any late-season pressure, despite what most pundits had been predicting for months. He said he was proud of his players and he trusted them to finish the job. They proved him right in the final week, winning four of their last six games and forcing the New York Yankees to sweep their final series to stay atop the AL East. In addition to making the playoffs, Showalter also continued a remarkable trend he has established throughout his 14-year managerial career. With all four teams he has managed, Showalter has turned a losing team into a winner in his second full season. He hasn’t made the playoffs every time, but he has never repeated a sub-.500 season after his first year. In 1993 he improved the Yankees’ record from 76 to 88 wins; in 1999 he boosted the Diamondbacks’ wins from 65 in his first year to100; in 2004 he bumped the Rangers from 71 to 89 wins; and this year, his second full season in Baltimore, he improved the Orioles from 69 wins a year ago to a whopping 93 this year. Of course most of the credit should go to the players, but there does appear to be something of a Showalter effect. But what is that? How is he able to turn losers around so quickly? “He’s a very, very prepared manag- er,” said Jim Thome, the 42-yearold veteran of 22-major-league seasons, who joined the Orioles this year as a designated hitter. “I mean, his life is baseball. He shows it. He loves the game. As a player you get the sense that every day he wants to win. But more than that he wants to put our club in a situation to win. Deep down, as a player, you really enjoy that because then it’s up to us to go out and do it.”
“He’s just a real even-keel person, whether things are going good or going bad, he’s the same person and as a player you really appreciate that,” says Nate McLouth, the Orioles’ left fielder who earlier this season was discarded by the Pittsburgh Pirates for nothing. He has since become an important piece in Baltimore’s unlikely patchwork.
Showalter’s calm is contagious, McLouth said, as is his faith. “It’s nice to have a manager you know has confidence in you even when you might not have confidence in yourself.”
That faith in many ways speaks to the Orioles’ season this year, which has been built on home runs and a strong bullpen, but also good fortune.
Their 29-9 record in one-run games and 16-2 record in extra-inning contests certainly speaks to their bullpen and Showalter’s management of it. But it also shows they have been lucky, which should come in handy for this year’s oneand-done wild-card playoff.
It will be no easy task. Thanks to the surging Oakland A’s, the Orioles must defeat the two-time ALchampion Rangers in Texas if they hope to keep their improbable dream afloat and carry the postseason back to Baltimore.
Showalter, for one, probably isn’t going to lose sleep over it.
“We’ll see what the game has in store for all of us. It’ll let you up off the deck if you stay true to it.”