Let's Get This Show on the Road

Buck meets and charms the media..

It’s already been a tremendous offseason for the New York Mets. Tuesday was just another patch in this magnificent quilt. Better yet, early returns indicate that this one pulls the whole thing together.

After much internal deliberation and external speculation, this past weekend owner Steve Cohen announced the Mets had finally landed on longtime field general and three-time American League Manager of the Year Buck Showalter to helm the ship moving forward.

This is a unique job with similarly high expectations. There aren’t many MLB teams going weighted-balls-to-the-wall to win these days. Not only are the Mets fully committed to turning that corner themselves, but they’ve also got the motivation and bankroll to get it done.

New York’s treasure trove of roster upgrades this winter is clear evidence of those intentions, as was the team’s meticulous process in selecting a skipper. Getting things right on paper is half the battle. Getting the most out of the group that’s been assembled is another task altogether.

And though only words were spoken during Showalter’s introductory press conference on Tuesday with a lot more work to be done, it appears the Mets’ procedural playbook played out perfectly.

“We wanted to assess how the candidates problem-solved, how they communicated, and most importantly, how they would shape a culture with high operational standards,” Mets GM Billy Eppler said. “It was Buck’s ability to connect to a wide range of people, his drive to compete, his curiosity blended with his experience, and his overall adaptability that led us to naming him the manager of the New York Mets.”

Showalter, 65, and his wife Angela spoke with the team’s media corps for nearly an hour. We strongly suggest taking the time to watch the whole presser (YouTube). Gems throughout.

Buck was forthcoming. Affable. Genuine. Sincere. And funny! Even Mets vice president of communications Harold Kaufman had a hard time keeping the smile off his face amid Showalter’s anecdotes and one-liners.

Of course, dealing with the media is only a sliver of an MLB manager’s job description, but, wow, this guy is very good at that aspect of his job.

Naturally, a faction of fans are more concerned with Showalter’s dugout demeanor than his media room magic, and that’s fair. But, even despite an ever-changing landscape with respect to today’s data-infused game, Showalter seems prepared for the overall challenge.

“There’s no magic sprinkle dust. It’s about winning baseball games,” Showalter said. “There’s a lot of common denominators of teams that win consistently […] It’s so hard to do, especially winning when you’re expected to win.”

As for adjusting to today’s data-fueled era of the game, Showalter seems ready for that call, as well.

“If somebody thinks that I’m gonna go back to the hotel or the house and think that maybe we got beat because somebody else had better or used information better than we did, you don’t know me very well,” he said. “I’ve always been very spongeful with information, to a fault.”

With a revamped research and development department being built in Queens and conduits being inserted to relay this abundance of information from the front office to the clubhouse, that willingness to learn and adapt should play well.

Big day in Flushing. Onward…

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