Buck Showalter lives in Dallas, but only “for now” as he told Carton & Roberts when he joined them shortly after his introductory press conference, as he and his wife Angela are looking forward to coming to New York.
“I told my kids that when we came here with the Rangers, I would stay here,” Showalter said about his now 20-year residency in the Lone Star State. “My one son went to high school here and then went to TCU, and so now we’re good.”
Now that his son, William Showalter V, is an adult, Buck can pick up and move as needed – but not without his “rock,” Angela.
During his introductory press conference earlier in the day, Angela Showalter sat next to her husband for the full hour, and after the Mets’ brass was asked how close to being a “10 out of 10” Buck was for their managerial search, Buck turned to his wife and said, “I think we all know the only 10 is sitting right here.”
Loving father, loving husband, and now, Mr. Angela Showalter is the manager of the Mets.
“She’s got no choice, right?” Buck joked about moving to New York, before giving his wife incredible praise. “No, she’s been the rock. They asked her if she wanted to come on (the press conference) and she stuck it out.
There’s a reason you stay married for 38 years guys; it’s not always perfect but it’s about commitment. And I tell players all the time the hardest thing you’ll ever do in your life is be a good father and husband.”
Family is everything to Showalter, and it seemed he was impressed in meeting Steve Cohen’s wife, Alex, as much as he was the Mets’ owner, praising Alex Cohen as someone who “will be a force for us.”
It’s not easy being the wife of a baseball manager or executive, surely, but Buck knows Angela is up to the task.
“She understands timing is everything. No one is going to want the Mets to win more than her, and she’s had her share of tough trips to the store when the cashier is not happy with last night’s game,” Showalter said.
His family was the one who would keep him abreast of managerial rumors, and things that were being said about Buck – because as he told Craig & Evan, it’s not about him, and whether or not he has “unfinished business” managing in New York, the goal is to make those trips to the store much happier.
“It’s not about me guys – from a professional standpoint, what I want to see is the New York Mets win a World Series,” he said. “I don’t think my whole life is going to be defined by that, and how I feel personally doesn’t matter. The goal is to win, and to help some young people along the way to not make the same mistakes you did.”
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It’s clear Buck has already done that, given how he felt when he heard that Adam Jones, whom he managed for nine years in Baltimore, endorsed him a the best candidate.
“It’s humbling when things like that come back to you. Adam and I had some tough love early on, when I told him he would be one of my best players and how he had to be,” Showalter said. “Adam embraced that, and no one played the game harder. For him to say that, knowing some things we went through together, that meant a lot to me.”
A family affair for the Mets all the way down, and hopefully one that will have a family float come one of these next few Octobers or Novembers.
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