The Baltimore Orioles may not win a World Series Championship with their current manager Buck Showalter, but they are a much improved ball club. Showalter has a history of getting teams to the threshold of greatness, but he hasn’t been able to finish the deal. Showalter was a part of The New York Yankees turnaround in the early 90s, but he was fired one year before the team won The World Series in 1996. Showalter was the first manager in the history of The Arizona Diamondbacks. In his second season in Arizona the team won 100 games and they qualified for the playoffs. Showalter was fired in 2000 and The D’Backs won The World Series in 2001. In 2003, Showalter was named manager of The Texas Rangers. The Rangers never made it to the postseason under Showalter during his four-year stint with the team, but he laid the foundation for the two-time defending American League Champions that The Rangers have currently become.
Now Showalter is in the process of making The O’s a contender in The AL East. When Showalter became the manager of The Orioles midway through the 2010 campaign, the team’s record was 32-73 which was the worst record in Major League Baseball. The Orioles made a drastic improvement under Showalter which saw the team go 34-23 under him to finish the campaign with a record of 66-96.
The Orioles finished 2011 in the cellar of The AL East, but they showed The Boston Red Sox that they would no longer lay down for them as they knocked The Sox out of playoff contention on the last day of the season. Now Baltimore is seven games behind The Yanks for first place in The AL East while they are currently tied with The Detroit Tigers for the second AL Wild Card.
One of the jobs of a manager is to get the most out of his players. Orioles All-Star center fielder Adam Jones is a prime example of that as he is in the midst of a career season with a .296 batting average along with 24 home runs and 61 runs batted in. Jones is a five-tool player with unlimited potential as is evident by The Orioles rewarding the 27-year old with a six-year, $85 million contract extension.
2001 was the final season for Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. with The Orioles and since that time Baltimore has generally only had one representative every year on The American League roster for The All-Star Game as each team is required to have at least one representative by MLB. This season saw The Orioles have three representatives at The Midsummer Classic. Jones along with catcher Matt Wieters and closer Jim Johnson all represented The O’s in Kansas City last month which is a symbol of the changing of the guard. Baltimore has already won 13 games this season against The Yankees and Red Sox while going 24-20 overall within The AL East. Showalter stared down Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine during Thursdays night’s loss at the hands of The Sox when he came out to check on Jones after he was “intentionally” plunked by Red Sox pitcher Clay Bucholz. This rivalry is far from over with these two teams scheduled to square off for six more games this season.
The Orioles last qualified for the postseason in 1997 and since that time they have failed to record a winning season. One of the toughest things to do as a manger is to walk into a clubhouse and change the culture when a franchise has been accustomed to losing consistently. When you look at the statistics, The Orioles are not near the top of the leader board in most categories as a team or individually, but only The Yankees, Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago White Sox have won more games in The American League this season which tells me that this team has a ton of heart and resolve which comes from Showalter.
Yes Showalter has been fired three previous times by MLB teams, but each time that he came back he was able to make minor adjustments which allowed him to still be successful at each stop. Showalter showed resolve as he has never given up and he has instilled this in The Orioles. Come October this team has a puncher’s chance to still be around. The Orioles may not win The World Series, but they definitely have their eyes on dancing with the prom queen.
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