Baltimore Orioles: Buck Showalter One-Liners

Author’s photo

During the offseason there are not as many interviews of Buck Showalter as during the Baltimore Orioles regular season, where his inimitable one-liners are a daily feature on TV and through the beat writers.

Part of the job of being a baseball manager is being able to appropriately handle the media coverage. Many baseball skippers, both historically and even in today’s era, are not adept at handling these situations. There are dozens of cameras and microphones everywhere you step as a manager in the Big Leagues today.

Of course Showalter had some time working in media, and I believe this has helped him to be especially excellent at handling this important role.

In the past week, Buck has had some great one-liners causing me to LOL – literally!

One that got a lot of attention during the Winter Meetings was this one about the Yankees and Red Sox …

I saw on Twitter where a number of Red Sox fans quoted him with statements like, “That’s why I hate this guy.”  Sorry about your last place team, but this is why we love this guy.

Apparently these folks did not see or hear his further remarks where he said …

"God bless them, that’s the system. If we were in their shoes, we’d do the same thing. What are you going to do, throw your hands up the in the air? That’s all right. It can be done. We just have to be good at some things that allow us to compete with them."

Buck had a couple of great quotes yesterday that Roch Kubatko put in his column. These are in the context of how this offseason seems to be a very inactive time for the Baltimore Orioles – devoid of any significant signings of free agents.

Buck said …

"We’re not coveting everybody’s guys just to say I’ve added a charm to my bracelet. I like the charms that are on the bracelet right now."

Of course, this quote is very similar to one that Showalter made several times last year. Making the same point about not desiring other teams’ players, he said more simply, “I like our guys.” And it became a sort of slogan that was even put on a T-shirt giveaway day.

So what are the Baltimore Orioles going to do with this embellishment of the quote? Give away charm bracelets with individualized charms for each player? Actually, since a big part of my immediate family is in the jewelry and beads craft business, this could be a big moment for The Potomac Bead Company franchise!

In the same paragraph, Buck also made this perspective from a different angle than how fans view an offseason. In referencing the free agents on the market, he said …

"I haven’t seen one yet where I said, ‘Golly, I wish we would have done that.’ I know Dariel Alvarez and Christian Walker and Dylan Bundy, and I could keep going, are pretty happy the way the offseason is going for the Orioles."

Buck is the best.

Next: Is Brian Matusz Close to the Exit?