Lennon: Showalter making difference with Orioles

Buck Showalter is famous - or infamous - for his attention to detail, but he laughed this past week while discussing his part in the shaping of the expansion Diamondbacks.

Showalter, who is back again as a franchise-builder, this time with the Orioles, was asked if the uncomfortably high benches at Chase Field really were designed by him, as rumor has it, to force players to stand along the dugout fence.

"I haven't heard that one," Showalter said in a telephone interview. "It's like the uniforms in Arizona - they were there when I got there."

Showalter denied that he was responsible for the infinite combinations of the Diamondbacks' purple-and-teal uniforms back then, but he took credit for establishing a system that made it easier for his players.

"I did finally get a mannequin in Arizona because we had so many uniforms, guys couldn't remember what belts, what socks and what hats to wear,'' he said. "I went down to Macy's, got a mannequin and dressed it every day."

Showalter never had that problem with the Yankees - pinstripes at home, grays on the road - and the uniform is the least of his problems in taking over the last-place Orioles, who have taken their lumps the past decade in the ultracompetitive American League East.

But despite a "51-49" preference for waiting until the end of the season to take over the Orioles, Showalter had no reservations about doing so. Fortunately for the O's, they convinced him to begin immediately.

Without him, they were 32-73, a pace that would have given them a 49-113 final record. With him, they are 15-10 after Saturday night's 5-0 win over the Angels. Showalter piloted his new club to an 8-1 start, the best in history for a midseason replacement for a team at least 20 games under .500.

Though the immediate success - beating the Angels and White Sox, no less - served as a great PR boost for the Orioles, Showalter has no illusions about the daunting task in the division.

Still, he believes that Baltimore is a solid organization, from president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail right on down, and Showalter is confident they can build a winner.

"I know the reality of what we're doing," he said. "I didn't ask if there was going to be realignment or adding a wild card. I didn't ask about payroll. Tampa Bay has eliminated a lot of excuses. You can do it; you've just got to be true to the way you're going to do it and stay the course. And don't cheat the process. If you try to cheat the process, you get burned."

It's a message the Mets would be wise to listen to as they embark on their own restructuring this offseason. It wasn't too long ago that Showalter interviewed in Flushing for the vacancy left by Bobby Valentine's firing in 2002. Showalter wound up taking the Texas Rangers' job before the Mets ultimately decided on Art Howe.

Who knows how things would have turned out with Showalter at the helm back then, but he might have been a better choice now for the Mets as they look to get younger and cheaper for 2011. Showalter also would have brought a hard-core "baseball-first" mentality that has been lacking in Queens recently.

Apparently that's been the case in Baltimore, too. Showalter has had to remind people of the bottom line in this business.

"Somebody said to me the other day that a guy had a save there and you took him out," Showalter said. "I understand the save rule. More than anything, I understand the 'W' rule for the Orioles. That's what it's got to be about. That's not just the Oriole way - that's the baseball way."