When you manage a crappy team in the toughest division in baseball, you need some motivational material. Just such a situation faced Orioles manager Buck "F." Showalter as his AAAA minions prepared to wing north to Camden Yards. What to do?How about ripping into two icons in the division: Red Sox GM Theo Epstein (he of two rings in the last seven years) and Derek Jeter (he of 5 rings since 1996)? Now, Buck did manage to make the once proud Baltimore franchise respectable in the last half of 2010.
But, please, don't cry poor mouth, when your owner is the tightest wad in baseball. Here is Buck's rant on Theo:
"I'd like to see how smart Theo Epstein is with the Tampa Bay Rays payroll. You got Carl Crawford 'cause you paid more than anyone else, and that's what makes you smarter? That's why I like whipping their butt. It's great, knowing those guys with the $205 million payroll are saying, 'how the hell are they beating us?'"
Chances are there won't be a lot of that questioning by the Red Sox in 2011. Sorry, Buck.
