In his introductory presser yesterday at Camden Yards, Buck Showalter mentioned that when he worked for ESPN he would often discuss the differences between football and baseball with former NFL head coach (turned ESPN analyst) Herm Edwards. That comment in itself reminded me that NFL training camps are starting to heat up, which means that the baseball season is progressing. But that means that baseball will be ending for the Orioles in the not-to-distant future. Some would say that's a good thing; this team and the fans have certainly been through a lot. However speaking for myself, I'm never ready for it to end. Luckily though, we still have two months left to play...
I always liked Buck Showalter because he put tough teams on the field that were very professional about how they conducted their business. He said nothing in his press conference yesterday that dissuaded me from that opinion. The thing that kept ringing in my head during the news conference was that he came across as a very fair person. Working for ESPN, he obviously had "done his homework" (as he put it) on the Orioles over the years, and he seemed very content with the direction in which the organization was headed. When I say he came across as fair, I mean that he didn't come across as wanting to blow the team up and make wholesale changes. It appears that everyone will have the opprotunity to make an impact on the rest of the season and so forth, which again makes me think that Showalter is a fair-minded person. He seems very cognizant of the fact that the players will be somewhat nervous in meeting and playing for him. If you looked close into his eyes, he was probably a bit nervous as well. So everyone's in the same boat in a sense, and they'll have two months to feel each other out.
I suppose I'm looking at August and September (and the first weekend of October) as the 2010A season so to speak. This is a vastly different team than what we saw in April. While the personnel might be the same between the white lines, it seems like so long ago that Dave Trembley patrolled the dugout at Camden Yards. Trembley was a well-intentioned good baseball man that did everything he could to put a winning team on the field. However he was failed by his lack of versatillity, and by injuries that were beyond his control. Looking back, he probably managed games in a tight manner as well, because he knew that his contract was only for a year. Now the Orioles not only have a bona fide skipper in Showalter, but he's signed through the 2013 season. So I'm looking at tonight's game against the L.A. Angels (of Anaheim in the state of California in the United States of America) as another opening day of sorts. I wish I could be there myself in person to see it, however I'll have to wait until Sunday afternoon before seeing the Buck Showalter-led Orioles in person from section 17. But from this point forward, I think that everyone will see 'dem O's with a new sense of urgency. In yesterday's presser, Showalter made it clear that he didn't want to just come in and "observe" for these last two months when he said, "...I'd like to win tomorrow night."
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