Storied franchise looking for an on-field supervisor with good communication skills and ability to work under pressure.
Applicant must be an energetic people person who can deal with stinging criticism, sometimes from thousands at once.
Must be able to make split-second decisions, often while sitting next to a continually rocking employee.
Experience with underperforming millionaires and undefined management hierarchy preferred but not required
Willingness to demonstrate fiery theatrics (dirt-kicking, cap-turning) when employees are unjustly reprimanded a plus.
Salary negotiable (unless represented by Scott Boras).
The Orioles have hired a new manager seemingly every few years for the past decade or so. They've tabbed World Series champions and big names. They've developed their own and dipped into the hot-prospect well.
They've done just about everything but find the right manager at the right time to point them in the right direction in the long term.
So now, in another losing season, the Orioles are again studying their managerial options, hoping this is the year everything meshes, hoping this is the hire that makes everyone forget about past futility.
But the Orioles aren't yet sure exactly what or who they are looking for. Perhaps a mix of energy and attitude from a good, old-fashioned taskmaster could stop the spiral of losing. It would be a change, but in this era of baseball, that style is on the endangered list, if not already extinct.
What's more likely is the creation of a new hybrid, a custom fit that will work in Baltimore, but maybe not in other places. That, however, will take time, research and risk, because as Orioles fans have seen in the past, things don't always go as expected.
When Sam Perlozzo took over as manager in August 2005, players lauded him as a great teacher and coach who deserved an opportunity. By the time he was fired June 18, he had almost no supporters left in the clubhouse.
Perlozzo replaced Lee Mazzilli, a laid-back and popular New York Yankees coach who like Perlozzo had never before managed in the big leagues. His honeymoon period with the players was even shorter than Perlozzo's.
Mazzilli replaced Mike Hargrove, another former major leaguer, but one with a resume boasting past managerial success. Hargrove was edgier than Perlozzo and Mazzilli, but a fatherly quality attracted several young players to seek him out for personal advice. Most of the team liked and respected Hargrove, but his .425 winning percentage was worst in club history for anyone who had managed at least 1 1/2 seasons.
Before him was Ray Miller, the venerable pitching coach who eventually created such a divisive environment as manager that he once told reporters to ask "the millionaires" in the other room to explain why a game went horribly wrong.
Then there was Davey Johnson, a superlative tactician with a contagious swagger who didn't care if he irked players or management. He's the only one of the recent lot to have won here, but he did it with a star-studded roster, not the collection of complimentary players that has defined the Orioles for nearly a decade.
Now, eternal optimist and career dues-payer Dave Trembley gets an extended audition as interim manager. New club president Andy MacPhail said he has been inundated with names of potential long-term replacements, but likely won't be interviewing anyone until at least after July 31's non-waiver trade deadline.
If Trembley doesn't get the job, MacPhail will have to decide what kind of personality he wants for the 18th manager in team history - and ninth in owner Peter Angelos' 14-year tenure.
The club has seemingly shuffled through most types in the past decade. None has clicked with players and management simultaneously. So it's back to the beginning. But, perhaps in today's evolving game, a manager can't afford to be filed under one classification - such as the fabled, and perhaps nonexistent, "players' manager."
"It's difficult to have a `players' manager' in this game, because everything now is already slanted to the players," said Mid-Atlantic Sports Network broadcaster and former Toronto Blue Jays manager Buck Martinez. "A manager more than ever has to be a psychologist. He has to know who needs a kick in the butt, who needs a pat on the back and who needs a hug."
Perlozzo was supposed to be a players' manager; that, too, was Mazzilli's reputation. And because those didn't work out, the inclination is to turn 180 degrees and find a so-called fiery disciplinarian.
Quest for fire?
The Orioles haven't had a screaming, in-your-face general since the most successful manager in club history, Hall of Famer Earl Weaver, hung up his dirt-kicking spikes in 1986.
Because of Weaver's success, however, the perception here is that winning and a fire-breathing leader are as intertwined as hardshell crabs and Old Bay seasoning.
