There aren’t many better people to tell a baseball story than former MLB player and manager Bobby Valentine.
Valentine posted a 1,186-1,165 record across 16 years and three teams during his managerial career. He guided one of the two Mets teams that reached the World Series after the franchise’s last victory in 1986. His 2000 Mets team fell to the Yankees in five games.
Valentine’s connection to the Baltimore Orioles is one that many in the industry don’t easily recognize.
In 2010, Valentine was under serious consideration to take the helm for Baltimore. In the market for a club with a stronger foundation, Valentine knew Baltimore was not the place he wanted to be. Having gone without a World Series title since 1983, the city, fans and ownership were desperate for a leader.
“I was working at ESPN and I had the interview. I felt that Peter [Angelos] was going to give me a call,” Valentine said on Glenn Clark Radio April 22. “I didn’t feel good about it. I didn’t feel like it was the right time for me to go to Baltimore and take on the task at hand. Basically, I told the guy I was working next to, Buck Showalter, to have his agent call down to Baltimore.”
Enter Showalter. Valentine felt strongly that there was no better man for the job given Showalter’s impressive resume.
“We were working side by side, and I gave him the intel on the interview process and told him what I thought about what they were looking for. He went down and did the job,” Valentine said.
Valentine sensed there was a significant amount of work that required a substantial level of dedication to turn things around in Baltimore. He knew he was not prepared to undertake such a commitment at that time.
The Orioles were in the midst of their 13th consecutive losing season at the time of Showalter’s hiring. They had not had a winning season since 1997. They posted a record of 855-1,086 from 1998-2009.
“I really felt that there was a lot of work and there needed to be a major commitment,” Valentine said. “I wasn’t ready to give that commitment. I thought Buck was and it turned out he was. It was a major commitment. … He had to change the locks on the doors and he liked to do that.”
Showalter was a natural fit for the task at hand given his previous work as manager of New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers. Valentine believes Showalter’s extensive experience and expertise was a major benefit to Baltimore as the Orioles built a more successful future.
Showalter took over a 32-73 Orioles club in 2010. After the team struggled in 2011, the 2012 season brought significant success. Baltimore finished the regular season with a 93-69 record, securing second place in the AL East and earning a spot in one of the two American League wild-card positions. This marked the team’s first playoff appearance and winning record since 1997.
The 2014 season brought even greater success. The Birds finished in first place in the AL East and returned to the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. By 2017, Showalter faced the challenge of an outdated infrastructure and aging stars. After the 2018 season, the Orioles decided to move on from Showalter.
Valentine is the first to admit that Baltimore made the right choice with Showalter in 2010 and has no regrets for letting the opportunity to manage the team pass him by.
“Actually, it was a little self-serving because Buck was taking too much time on the ESPN show and I wanted to have it,” Valentine joked.
For more from Valentine, listen to the full interview here:
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