Enough About Buck Showalter

As a former resident of Dallas and big time Texas Ranger fan, I am sick and tired of hearing how Buck Showalter is a great manager. I could not have been happier when the Ranges fired him a few months ago. Showalter is nothing more than a control freak and macho man that lets his ego get in the way of everything. He was neither a good baseball player nor was good manager on a professional level.

Showalter played college baseball at Mississippi State University. He was drafted in the fifth round of the 1977 draft by the New York Yankees. After seven years in the minor leagues they Yankees released him. Showalter never played in the major leagues. Although he will tell you the reason he never played in the big leagues is because he played first base the same position as Yankee great Don Mattingtly. This is could not be further from the truth. The reason why he never made it to the show is because he could not hit professional pitching. He only managed to hit 17 homeruns and collect 36 RBI´s his entire professional career. After his playing career, or should I say sitting the bench career was over he became a minor league manager.

He spent the next five years managing in the minor leagues. In 1990 Showalter finally made it into Yankee pinstripes as an assistant coach. I guess he did not find winning in the minor leagues very difficult with the talent rich Yankee farm system. And in 1992 he replaced Stump Merrill as the Yankee skipper. Even though he finished 20 games back of the Toronto Blue Jays that year, Showalter managed the Yankees for the next three years. After only making the playoffs once during that time he was fired. Although he will claim like many Yankee managers before him, there was personal animosity between himself and team owner George Stienbrenner. His managing statistics do not lie or have personal animosity. His replacement Joe Torre went on to win 3 world series rings with virtually the same team.