Buck Showalter

Last night, after the Orioles dropped their eighth consecutive game, manager Buck Showalter admitted that his players were pressing. "Of course they are," he said. He then turned the attention to the reporter who asked the question and made an analogy about him pressing to produce stories with new-fangled technology. “You’re pressing to come up with a great … whatever you call it," Showalter said at the post-game press conference . "I mean, that’s what you’re assigned to do. You know, whatever.

Buck Showalter had initially said that top pitching prospect Dylan Bundy was seeing renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews on Tuesday, but the manager told reporters after Wednesday's game that he misspoke about Bundy's schedule. Showalter said Bundy is scheduled to see Andrews in Florida on Monday for a second opinion on his right arm tightness, and he will see Orioles team orthopedist Dr. John Wilckens on Thursday. Wilckens evaluated Bundy and read an MRI back on April 4 before the right-hander was placed on the seven-day minor league disabled list.

We all know about the redemptive nature of baseball. If you didn't, you got a major dose of it yesterday. Orioles manager Buck Showalter is a poster boy for baseball's second chances. He's been dismissed from three different managerial jobs. And he found a fourth -- because he is a proven winner -- in Baltimore. And, suddenly, he has his team, this organization that has lost 14 consecutive seasons, competing for the lead in the American League East in June. The Orioles lost Monday at Citi Field, 5-0, to the New York Mets.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter seemed prepared for a question today regarding his feelings toward New York Jets coach Rex Ryan's belief that the Orioles should have played an extra game on the road to accommodate the Ravens' proposed home opener on Sept. 5. Because the Orioles already have a scheduled night game on Sept. 5, the Ravens aren't opening at home, which is the tradition for Super Bowl champions. The Ravens will instead will kick off the NFL season that night in Denver.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly first met Orioles manager Buck Showalter 22 years ago as 20-year-old minor leaguer. They were teammates for the Yankees' Double-A team in Nashville. Tonight, they will manage against each other for the first time in the opener of this weekend's interleague series at Camden Yards. Mattingly said he noticed Showalter's ability to gauge talent once Showalter became a coach and eventually managed Mattingly with the Yankees from 1993-95. “You really see it as a manager,” Mattingly said.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter spoke to the media before tonight American League Division Series Game 1 at Camden Yards, the first postseason game in Baltimore since 1997. Here's a full transcript of Showalter's pregame news conference: Would you start by giving the lineup today? BUCK SHOWALTER:  Let's say, we've got McLouth leading off, Hardy, Jones, Wieters, Reynolds, Machado, Davis, Ford and Andino.  Hope I got that right. We just got the roster for the series, and the decision to leave off Steve Johnson, Arrieta and Britton obviously, you had to add some of the starters, but was it a difficult decision, particularly with Johnson because he has been a starting option for you?

Even as they watch their team limp toward an all-but-inevitable 13th consecutive losing season, Orioles fans are cautiously optimistic that the hiring of Buck Showalter as manager Thursday will finally get the club moving in the right direction. Those fans, many of whom have long criticized the Orioles' ability to get production out of veteran players and ensure that their prospects realize their potential, believe Showalter can reverse that trend. "The Showalter hire is definitely a ray of hope for the Orioles," Greg Arnold of Westminster said.

Left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada, a former Japanese All Star who signed a two-year deal with the Orioles last offseason but didn't pitch because of an elbow injury, threw off a full mound again Saturday. And manager Buck Showalter was there to watch the side session. “Pretty impressive. He's throwing the ball, fastball and changeup, and that's pretty fun to watch him throw because it just reminds me of what he can be for us,” Showalter said of Wada, who had Tommy John surgery in May. “He's got a chance to be pretty good.

Buck Showalter is in need of some coffee. The Orioles manager pops a plastic cup into the well of a newfangled instant coffee maker in the visiting clubhouse at Tropicana Field, not hesitating to say it pales in comparison with the old-school percolating coffee pot back in his office at Camden Yards. The season is long, and he's tired. His right knee hurts, and in a few moments he will have an ice wrap on it the size of large melon as he hobbles around on the second-to-last day of baseball's grueling 162-game regular season.

Some more comments from Orioles manager Buck Showalter on the late Earl Weaver: "I'm so thankful for the time I had with him. Spring training last year, especially, we had him down speaking, basically having a classroom with our coaches and managers and minor leagues and everything. Riding around a cart talking about baseball and listening to him. We went through a drill and he said 'Ah, we were doing that 40 years ago. You've guys just got more fungoes and more coaches and maybe different machines, but we're all trying to accomplish the same things.'  He gave me his time, and that's the most important thing.