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Nuggets: The wit and wisdom of Buck Showalter


tntoriole

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We are truly blessed to not only have the best manager in baseball, but also a truly wise and insightful human being. I thought it would be good to collect his quotes and sayings in a thread (if there is already one of these, please merge). Today, when asked about the World Series,

Buck said "It is why we get up every day. We are not here to kiss babies and have parades."

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The #1 job of any manager is to get more production for his team than the sum of the individual talent. People look to the in game strategy and often use that to prove that managers don't make that much of a difference. Why? Because you can attempt to measure it. Where great managers like Buck truly make a difference is the psychological aspect of the game. A lot of people who never played pooh pooh this. How can it be important if you can't put it into a formula? Well, it is and this is where Buck excels. How many times have we heard "these guys have a good time playing with each other"? That comes from the manager. How many times do you hear that there isn't a lot of ego in the Orioles dugout? Again, that comes from the manager. It is extremely complex to manage 40 massive egos and get most players to buy into the team concept. Buck has succeeded in that and that's a truly amazing feat.

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The #1 job of any manager is to get more production for his team than the sum of the individual talent. People look to the in game strategy and often use that to prove that managers don't make that much of a difference. Why? Because you can attempt to measure it. Where great managers like Buck truly make a difference is the psychological aspect of the game. A lot of people who never played pooh pooh this. How can it be important if you can't put it into a formula? Well, it is and this is where Buck excels. How many times have we heard "these guys have a good time playing with each other"? That comes from the manager. How many times do you hear that there isn't a lot of ego in the Orioles dugout? Again, that comes from the manager. It is extremely complex to manage 40 massive egos and get most players to buy into the team concept. Buck has succeeded in that and that's a truly amazing feat.

Well said. :thumbsup1:

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