But they bucked the trend and kept Showalter until they had dismantled the roster in 2018, a teardown from which they have just emerged. It stands to reason that if the Orioles had fired Showalter at that point, they would have won the World Series the next year. In his fifth year, Baltimore advanced to the ALCS but got swept by Kansas City. Two years later, he had his team in the playoffs. He took over a team in 2010 that was 32-73 and led them to a 34-23 finish. The pattern finally broke itself with the Orioles, partly because they were the first team to let Showalter stick around more than four years. Still, many of the core players from that team, such as Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, and Nelson Cruz, got their start under Showalter. It took Washington five years, and the only reason he didn’t win a World Series was that his bullpen blew a 7-4 lead in the eighth inning and a 9-7 lead in the tenth inning of Game Six against the Cardinals. In 2006, Showalter was fired by the Rangers and replaced by Ron Washington. In both of those cases, the manager who got fired just before the team won the World Series was Buck Showalter. This miraculous achievement was followed the next season by the inevitable regression to the mean, to which the front office responded by firing the manager. During the 2001 season, with Bob Brenly as manager, the Diamondbacks played in the World Series for the only time in their history and upset the heavily favored Yankees in a seven-game thriller. In 1999, in only their second season of existence, the Arizona Diamondbacks won 100 games and the NL West title. The next season, with Joe Torre as manager, the Yankees won the World Series, and proceeded to win in 1998, 1999, and 2000. By Yankees standards, even with a smaller postseason field, this was a long drought, and the front office celebrated by firing the manager. In 1995, the New York Yankees reached the postseason for the first time since 1981. New York Mets manager Buck Showalter is due.
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