Buck Showalter remembers overhearing David Cone talking to reporters about a recent funk nearly three decades ago, when Showalter was managing Cone and the Yankees.
The former Yankee pitcher, who Showalter would rely on for 147 pitches in a decisive game five of the 1995 ALDS, unknowingly provided the new Mets manager with a perfect explanation for what it was like playing under the bright lights of New York.
“I remember he was outside my office in New York, and he had his third tough outing in a row and [reporters] were all around him,” Showalter told SNY shortly after being formally introduced as the Mets next manager on Tuesday. “I remember David, they asked him about booing him, and he said ‘well, they’re waiting to embrace me. It’s up to me to give them something to embrace me about.’ That really hit home with me.”
Showalter will be back under that spotlight again in Queens, having experienced playoff baseball in New York with the Yanks, when his group ended a painful playoff drought in 1995, only for Showalter to be let go after the Yanks coughed up a 2-0 lead to the Mariners in the ALDS. The demands and expectations of New York will be back again in his return to managing, but Showalter will once again look to use it to his advantage.
“From a managing standpoint, there’s a certain thing that the fans and the people take care of for you,” Showalter said. “Nothing exposes a phony faster than New York. You control that. As long as you’re fair and playing with effort and you care, and you care what your teammates think, you control it. There’s no place that will embrace you quicker if you bring what needs to be brought.”
Showalter hopes the fans at Citi Field will embrace the new era of Mets that will occupy the dugout in 2022, led by a manager who knows all about the expectations of New York, a city that saw him canned after leading the Yankees to a game within an ALCS berth, just one year after finishing the strike shortened season with the league’s best record.
Expectations will be high once again in 2022, and Showalter wouldn’t want it any other way, as he returns to the city where his managing career began.
“Sometimes I think we have a corner on pressure, but the thing I love is the sense of urgency from day to day,” Showalter said. “I try to turn it into an advantage rather than something that someone is worried about.”
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