T.R.’s Memoirs: How Jon Daniels came to lead Rangers’ most successful era (Part 2)
(AP photo/D.J. Peters)
Editor’s note: T.R. Sullivan covered the Texas Rangers over 32 years for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and MLB.com and is sharing his “memoirs” with this newsletter. In this six-part installment, Sullivan covers Jon Daniels 17 years as Rangers general manager. In Part 2, the Rangers have a new manager in Ron Washington.
Buck Showalter is an outstanding major-league manager. That he has been selected as Manager of the Year four different times speaks for itself. So does the fact that he won those awards for four different organizations. He should have won a fifth one with a fifth organization (Arizona, 1999), but that’s another story.
Showalter is not only an excellent manager, but he is a skilled architect of championship teams, often forced to get far more involved in that part of the process than the average field boss.
He just couldn’t overcome the Rangers’ pitching problems. The Rangers tried for one year under Daniels and Showalter to put together a championship team, and it just didn’t work out. The possibility also existed Showalter had worn out his time in the Rangers’ clubhouse, especially with the young players who chafed at his intense demeanor.
Whatever. What is undoubtedly true is the magic that worked in 2004 was no longer there in 2005. Two days after the season ended, Showalter met with Hicks and Daniels, and was dismissed as manager.
His successor was obvious: Don Wakamatsu.
Hamilton was one of the best players in Rangers history, along with Alex Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, and Palmeiro. It’s quite sad how my last memories of him were quitting on the team the last 2 months of the season in 2012 and of him being released. It is quite amusing, though, how the Angels ended up keeping him for just 2 seasons, and he was their highest paid player without even playing for them (at times, against them). I love how much they got this deadline, though. The Tex trade lives on through Andrus being dealt for Heim, and I am so glad they didn’t trade CJ Wilson. Why? The Rangers drafted Joey Gallo as compensation for losing CJ Wilson as a free agent, so they not only got 2 elite years as a started out of him, but they also got Gallo and the 4 prospects they now have due to him. If one of them gets dealt for a player, this could result in them further extending the CJ Wilson lineage. How great!