Buck Showalter, 2015 Topps Heritage #229

Every time Buck Showalter opens his mouth, he just makes me like him more. He's just mastered this blend of self-effacing folksiness and wisdom, and it's a joy to listen to him. In yesterday's post-game press conference, Buck was asked what his advice would be for the black youth of Baltimore. Instead of staring at the questioning reporter as if he or she had sprouted a second nose, the O's manager responded thusly:

“A lot of times, you hear people try to weigh in on things they really don’t know anything about. I tell guys all the time — I’ve never been black, OK, so I don’t know. I can’t put myself there. I've never faced the challenges they’ve faced.

So I understand the emotion. It’s a pet peeve of mine when somebody says, ‘Well, I know what they're feeling, why did they do this, why doesn’t somebody do that?’ You have never been black, so just slow down a little bit.

I try not to get involved in something that I don’t know about, but I do know that it’s something that’s very passionate, something that I am, with my upbringing. It bothers me and it bothers everybody else, but can we understand — we have made quite a statement as a city, some good, some bad. But now, let’s get on with taking the statement we've made and creating a positive.

We talk to players — I want to be a rallying force for our city, and that doesn't mean necessarily playing good baseball. There are some things I don’t want to be normal, you know what I mean? I don’t. I want us to learn from some stuff that’s gone on, from both sides of it.

I could talk about it for hours, but that’s how I feel about it.’’

Imagine if the mayor of Baltimore had reacted with that sort of perspective and empathy rather than tossing around incendiary terms like "thugs".

Buck Showalter, 2014 Topps Heritage #323

Buck Showalter, who looks completely at home on a 50-year-old card design, is now a three-time Manager of the Year. The O's manager has done it in his own quirky style, of course, by winning each of his MOTY honors a full decade after the last: the first came in 1994 with the Yankees, the next in 2004 with the Rangers, and now the 2014 Orioles. He joins Tony LaRussa as the only managers to ever win the award with three different teams. There's something about Buck pulling 96 wins out of a team that got a combined 235 out of a potential 486 games played from Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, and Chris Davis that resonated with the voters, who put him atop 25 of the 30 ballots cast. He's the first Baltimore skipper to be named tops in the American League since Davey Johnson, whose personality clashes with owner Peter Angelos led to his hasty exit after piloting the club's last American League East Champion in 1997. Luckily, Showalter seems to have a much more complementary relationship with the big boss. The Orioles were a few fortunate bounces away from a World Series this year, and I have a lot of confidence that they'll get another shot at it in 2015. I'd forgotten that such a feeling was possible.

Buck Showalter, 2011 Topps Heritage #121

I'm back home and resting my tired bones after putting in five hours at Orioles FanFest. You might remember that I had bought a voucher for an autograph session with Troy Patton, Buck Showalter, and Brian Roberts. Of course, Roberts is still struggling with the post-concussion symptoms that have sidelined him since last May, so he was unable to make an appearance. His chances of playing again just keep getting worse, and at this point I just hope his personal life isn't impaired in the coming years. The O's made up for Roberts' absence by adding pitchers Alfredo Simon and Jim Johnson to the session. While I waited in line for the 2:00 start time, my sister took a seat behind the stage and did some reading. She sent me a text message to let me know that the O's manager and players were waiting back there while the Nick Markakis/Matt Angle/Al Bumbry/Mike Bordick session finished. Buck even jokingly made a dash for the emergency exit. Everyone was very gracious, and Patton in particular seemed to enjoy interacting with the fans. An older woman in line ahead of me had clear pockets on her bag with pictures of several Orioles on display. Troy told her, "You're missing the best-looking dude on the team". I've already shown off Buck's autograph above. The other three cards I got signed were ones that I've previously featured on the blog, so I'll show off the autographed versions in this same blog post. Enjoy!