Being a manager for a long time in Major League Baseball is a trying occupation. It’s long, grueling, and it’ll make your hair turn grey quick. Answering questions every day before the game and after the game 162 times a year plus the playoffs. For New York Mets manager Buck Showalter, baseball is his life. It’s all he knows for about 50 years both as a minor league player, coach, and eventually a manager.
Showalter became a manager in 1991 with the New York Yankees, winning 313 games in five years, a Manager of the Year award in 1994 and a playoff appearance in 1995. Next stop Arizona with the Diamondbacks from 1998-2000, winning 250 games in total and made the playoffs in 1999. While there were no playoff appearances in his next stint with the Texas Rangers, he still won his second Manager of The Year award in 2004.
He saw the most winning ever in his career as a manager in Baltimore from 2010-2018. 669 wins and the Orioles won more games than any team in baseball in the American League from 2012-2016. Showalter won Manager of The Year yet again in 2014. When Showalter was hired by the Mets in 2022, New York was in desperate need of a guy who could turn the team around after some floundering years, and Buck worked his magic again by winning 101 games and his fourth Manager of The Year.
The first manager to win the award in 4 separate decades. The first Mets manager to win the award.
Congrats to Buck Showalter on being named 2022 NL Manager of the Year! 👏 pic.twitter.com/8eyvyctIWo
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) November 16, 2022
It’s Now or Never for Buck Showalter
For this season however, things are drastically different. Through the first half of the campaign, the team sees themselves at 42-48. Far back from the Atlanta Braves in the National League East division and seven back of a spot in the National League Wild-Card. It’s not just the losing however, it’s the way they’ve lost.
It’s been very un-Buck Showalter kind of baseball. Led by too many mistakes and bad errors. New York is having a very disappointing season in a year where it was World Series or bust and Showalter is taking his fair share of the blame. Some even saying he isn’t taking enough responsibility for the teams’ failures. To make matter worse, there are Mets fans and New York media who are now calling for Showalter to be fired midseason. Owner Steve Cohen reassured at a press conference that Showalter will indeed finish the season.
Steve Cohen says Buck Showalter and Billy Eppler's jobs are safe for the remainder of the season pic.twitter.com/RAIL8mMH6P
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 28, 2023
It’s probably the right call not to fire Showalter. You don’t fire a four-time Manager of The Year award winner midseason with a mostly veteran ballclub. Cohen is trusting Showalter to see this through. Showalter though, is running out of time not just for this season but his career.
Clock Is Ticking on Showalter To Win a Title
Just last year, Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker won his first World Series championship. Like Buck, Dusty is a baseball lifer, and it was a long journey to get his first ring. However, Baker had been to a World Series before in 2002 with the San Francisco Giants and in 2021 with the Astros. Showalter has never been there. Only advancing as far as the ALCS in 2014 for the Orioles. He’s been one and done every other year he’s gone to the postseason, which includes last year.
Overall, Showalter has won 1,693 games as a manager. Putting him at 19th all time and ahead of such Hall of Famers like Earl Weaver and Tommy Lasorda. Those guys however, won championships. Showalter is now 67-years old and is in year two of a three-year contract with the Mets. This Mets team on paper is one of the most talented Showalter has ever managed, and you know Cohen, despite his seal of approval, is not happy with how things are going. Showalter will have to dig down deep to get the Mets out of this hole and his future with the team as well as his career might depend on how this second half goes.
Photo Credit- Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
Managers Mentioned- Buck Showalter, Dusty Baker, Earl Weaver, Tommy Lasorda
