Baltimore Orioles’ Buck Showalter wins Manager of the Year

Good news everyone; the city of Baltimore is still in tact. I had my doubts as to what the city would look like this morning if somehow Buck Showalter didn’t win the BBWAA’s Manager of the Year award for the American League. The Baltimore Orioles’ manager won the award with 83% of the vote, winning 25 out of 30 first place votes. Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia received four, and Lloyd McClendon of Seattle (who wasn’t even a finalist) got one vote.

Courtesy of Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

This is the third time that Showalter’s won a Manager of the Year award from the BBWAA, and of course also the third team with which he’s won the award. Showalter was barely edged out for the award in 2012, when it went to Bob Melvin of Oakland. Showalter also joins Tony LaRussa as the only manager to win the award with three different franchises. His pattern seems to be on the four’s in a sense; he won it with the NY Yankees in 1994, Arizona in 2004, and now with the Orioles in 2014.

Humble man that he is, Showalter of course paid homage to the organization by calling the award a testament to the Orioles. That’s the mark of a true “winner,” as Showalter realizes that he wouldn’t have won this award had his players not played to the level that they did. That wouldn’t have happened if not for good seasoning years ago in the minors…and so on and so forth.

Ironically, the National League winner was Washington’s Matt Williams, meaning that the two managers of the year both reside here in the Mid-Atlantic region. That in and of itself should put the rest of the league on notice that Baltimore and Washington baseball is here to stay. That aside, on my own behalf and on that of the Fansided Network, congratulations to Buck Showalter and the Orioles’ organization for winning this prestigious award!