Monday, September.17/2012

Showalter was never given a fair shake after the 1994 year. He had guided the Yankees to the best record in the AL during the 1994 Strike Shortened Season. After the 1995 ALDS loss to the Mariners, he was let go in favor of Joe Torre.

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer): Follow @chuckbooth3024

Buck Showalter has a knack of coming in when a franchise is down and rebuilding the team within 2-3 years after.  He started with the struggling Yankees back in the early 90’s and almost brought them to the promise land a couple of times.  The Players Strike cost him a chance in the 1994 season and he was on the back-end of a hot 1995 Seattle Mariners club, (who were left for dead and caught lightning in a bottle with the emergence of Randy Johnson.)  Showalter was blamed for not being able to reach the stars on the club even though he was a master tactician with young players.  Don Mattingly quickly retired and a new wave of young players were meshing with the old stars .  The Yankees went onto hire Joe Torre, while Buck was left to view the club win 4 World Series in 5 years and make 6 out of 7 World Series Appearances overall.    Showalter’s managerial record was 313-268 with the Yankees.

Joe Torre was a great manager, however I am of the belief that if Buck Showalter was given one more chance with the PinStripers, that he would have succeeded.  So Showalter went to the Arizona DiamondBacks 2 years before the franchise was even playing  so he could hit the ground running,  From the get go, the D’Backs brass were willing to sign premier free-agents.  In the second year of the club’s existence, Showalter took the team to a playoff appearance with a 100-62 record- and was was named NL Manager of the Year.  He left the club after the 2000 season.  Bob Brenly swept into the fray and reaped the benefits of all the hard work put forth by Showalter, by winning a World Series with the D’Backs in 2001.  Showalter was left to watch from a distance yet again.  Actually it was his two former teams in the World Series of 2001 as the D’backs ousted the Yankees in 7 games.  Showalter left the Arizona franchise with a 250-236 record. Read the rest of this entry →