Thanks, Buck, For Giving Orioles Fans Hope Going Into 2011

The Baltimore Orioles finished their 2010 season today with a 4-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Even though they ended their season the same way it begun, they finished it out much better than anyone expected.

The Orioles were a terrible 32-73 when manager Buck Showalter took over the team, looking to challenge the worst record in the history of baseball. Showalter came into the Orioles' clubhouse with one goal: to win, and that's exactly what he made the team do, managing them to a 34-23 mark under him and a 66-96 record overall. Believe it or not, but the Orioles actually finished this season two games better than their record was last season, a gutsy call that Orioles' President of Baseball Operations Andy MacPhail made in mid-May, right smack in the middle of the downward spiral the Orioles had taken.

The 2010 Orioles are the first team in Major League Baseball history to have at least three managers manage at least 50 games over the course of the season. Buck Showalter became the first manager in baseball history to win more games with the team after his arrival than the team had won during the season overall before he became manager that many games into the season. And considering those two facts, that would also mean that Showalter is the first manager to win more games with a club during the same season as the club's previous two managers combined.

Buck has brought something to the Orioles that they had lacked for so many years. He's brought discipline, determination, hope, and a proven track record. He's brought the total package. There's more light for Orioles fans going into the 2011 season than there has been in recent memory. The teams has it's needs, but we know that Buck will give his all to address those needs the best way the franchise can do. Buck cares, and knows how to turn that care into results.

Thank you, Buck Showalter, for preventing another infamous Baltimore Orioles August/September collapse. Thank you, Buck Showalter, for giving us so much excitement during these last two months of Orioles baseball that we are actually looking forward to next season, and the very good possibility that the club will acquire the best talent out there to make the next push in this rebuilding phase over the offseason. Thank you, Buck Showalter, for bringing back hope to the great fans of the Baltimore Orioles.