Mets manager Buck Showalter has been in good spirits and breaking out the humor in is first spring training camp as a manager in four years, and he had a little fun at the Yankees expense on Thursday.
Speaking with reporters after New York’s spring training game, Showalter was asked about new reliever Adam Ottavino, a former Yankee and New York native who grew up rooting for the Bronx Bombers.
“Well, forgive him for that," Showalter said, via Newsday. “Not everybody has the great fortune of being a Mets fan. Somebody’s got to pull for [the Yankees], right?”
Showalter managed the Yankees from 1992 to 1995, being let go in favor of Joe Torre just before the Yanks went on a run that many consider to be the last true baseball dynasty. Showalter has had fun with the Yanks ever since, including during his nine years with the division rival Orioles, who were a strong competition for the Yanks in 2012 (though it wasn’t always in good fun, notably his 2013 comments regarding Alex Rodriguez’s suspension, and he once got into it with Yankee manager Joe Girardi). He was briefly an analyst for the YES Network before joining the Mets, where his playful trash talk towards his former team will be even more fun now that he is leading the Yankees’ crosstown rival.
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