Control Freed

Buck Showalter is returning from two years in the Elba of the ESPN analyst’s booth to manage the Texas Rangers, tantamount to being exiled in the American League West, baseball’s toughest division.

He is returning as a proven winner, having helped restore the New York Yankees’ pride and presence and having helped turn the Arizona Diamondbacks into the game’s most successful expansion team.

If, in his return, “he is the best thing that could have happened to us,” as Texas shortstop Alex Rodriguez put it, he also is returning with the albatross of a reputation that tailed him out of his firing by the Diamondbacks after the 2000 season. He was accused in stories and shadowy suggestions of sapping the life out of the clubhouse and organization with a smothering obsession to control ... well, just about everything from the color of the conference room furniture to the clubhouse ketchup bottles, glass being preferred over plastic.

Showalter was given a seven-year contract and hired two years before the Diamondbacks played their first game, and seldom does a manager have that amount of time and input into a team’s preparation, as managing general partner Jerry Colangelo pointed out.

“Buck was involved in every aspect of the infrastructure -- from the design of the uniforms, ballpark and training complex to the scouting and selection of the players,” Colangelo said. “It made sense on paper, but in retrospect, we put too much on his plate, especially considering that it’s Buck’s nature to be involved in minutiae.”

In the camp of the Rangers, it is a reputation thrown at him almost daily by visitors with notebooks and microphones. The intense Showalter -- reminiscent in carriage, conversation and confidence of former manager Gene Mauch -- says, “I have no reason to apologize. I’m very comfortable in my own skin. I think I have a good grasp of what it takes to win. I think my success with New York and Arizona verifies my gut feelings in regard to dealing with players and people.”

It is the first week of March, the first season of his four-year contract with a team that won division titles in 1998 and ’99 but has averaged 90 losses the last three years.

The Rangers are as hungry for proven and passionate leadership as they are for proven pitching. And they are to be excused if experiencing something of a spring frenzy, feeding off the “energy, presence and swagger we haven’t seen here before,” as Rodriguez said of Showalter. “I mean, he’s the most prepared manager in baseball. His being here eliminates all those tired excuses that have come out of our clubhouse the last couple years. It’s going to be a tight ship.”

Johnny Oates, who managed the Rangers to the two division titles and whom Showalter calls regularly, is battling a malignant brain tumor. Oates’ successor, the low-key Jerry Narron, was never perceived as a long-term replacement.

Showalter preaches caution, warning that reality tends to set in with the heat of summer. For now, though, he has the Rangers looking beyond any date or darker reputation and believing, as second baseman Michael Young said, “We may just sneak in under the radar” to prove that this “is more than a three-team division” of the Angels, Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s.

That, of course, would be some sneak, considering the Rangers are starting from the depths of a 70-92 finish last year. But then didn’t the Angels set an example of “how quickly things can change,” as Showalter put it, and hasn’t he made a habit of turning losers into winners, only to have left both the Yankees (his decision) and Diamondbacks (their decision) before the World Series winning began?

It began for the Yankees under Joe Torre in 1996 after Showalter -- 35 when he assumed the reins from Stump Merrill in 1992 -- had taken a team that was 20 games under .500 in ’91 and set the stage.

The Yankees under Showalter were 14 games over .500 and second in the East in ‘93, running away with the division title when the players’ strike ended the season in ’94 and eliminated by Seattle in their return to the playoffs as the AL wild card in ’95. At that point, Showalter basically fired himself rather than accept an extension that was contingent on owner George Steinbrenner’s demand for changes on the coaching staff.

Watching the Rangers drill in preparation for their season opener March 30 against the Angels in Anaheim, Showalter said he definitely had “emotional moments” regarding that decision, but he wasn’t about to give up his coaches “the first time there’s a bump in the road.”

“Loyalty means too much to me,” he said. “People thought it was some deep, dark power play but it wasn’t. How I’m perceived by my peers is very important to me.”

Did that perception become clouded in Arizona, where the Diamondbacks won 100 games in only their second season before slumping in their third, contributing to the hiring of Bob Brenly, who has won a World Series and division title in his two years as Showalter’s successor?

How much was he hurt by that firing and the accompanying accusations -- the reports that he was communicating with the players only through his coaches, that he had extended his tentacles into virtually every department, even demanding that the scoreboard operators stop displaying AL home run leaders among the pregame statistics because Tony Batista was among the leaders and Showalter had demanded Batista be traded for journeyman relief pitcher Dan Plesac?

“I know Buck was hurt deeply and I’m very happy he’s got this shot with the Rangers,” Colangelo said. “When [Texas owner] Tom Hicks called, I didn’t hesitate in recommending Buck. As I said, I think we put too much on his plate, but he left his mark on the organization and I mean that in a positive way.

“It had just reached a point where we needed an attitudinal change and that could only come from a change in managers, a different personality.

“I don’t think anyone would dispute it was the right move.”

Showalter said, “I was disappointed more than anything, but I don’t think any of it came from the players, so I take it with a grain of salt. I still talk to many of the Arizona players, and I’m certainly comfortable in my relationships with the people who know me.

“I’m not bitter. I have a sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing a lot of good people were still there in New York and Arizona to experience the satisfaction of winning, reaping rewards for what we had started.”

Obviously, Texas General Manager John Hart wasn’t deterred by what he called the “Arizona innuendoes,” and owner Hicks estimates that Showalter alone, through his skills in preparation and communication, will make his team 10 games better.

It’s early, of course, and skeptics suggest that the partnership of three strong-willed personalities -- Hicks, Hart and Showalter -- could be a detonation waiting to happen. On the other hand, there may not be as much minutiae for the manager to worry about, because the owner and general manager deal with most of it. The manager also might not have to do as much of “the owner’s bidding” as he did in Arizona, which is what Showalter told Hart he’d had to do under Colangelo.

Still, he is who he is and there are unmistakable Showalter touches in the Ranger camp.

One clubhouse wall has a clock that counted down the minutes and seconds before the morning and afternoon workouts, and now the minutes and seconds before the first pitch of the exhibition games. There are detailed workout schedules that account for every minute. There is a bunting field Showalter lobbied for and is said to have cost $70,000. There was the video Showalter prepared for the full squad that spotlighted the highlights of Ranger history.

“I want these players to know there is a history here,” he said.

The video featured, among others, Hall of Fame pitchers Nolan Ryan and Ferguson Jenkins, players whose pictures also will be displayed in a remodeled clubhouse at the Ballpark in Arlington.

“People say I’m dictatorial, but there’s a time for work and a time for play, and I believe that the environment contributes to all of it,” Showalter said.

The Rangers, of course, hope that more work leads to better play, but there are so many questions as Hicks pares last year’s 40-man payroll of $120 million to below the $117.5-million tax threshold.

Among them:

* Absent Kenny Rogers -- the only Texas pitcher to win more than nine games last year remains in the chill of free-agent limbo -- will anyone step up to join Chan Ho Park, Ismael Valdes and John Thomson in the tenuous rotation?

* Can Ugueth Urbina, a $4.5-million free agent with a history of elbow problems, duplicate his 40 saves with Boston last year, providing closure for a Texas bullpen that blew 33 saves and lost 38 games in 2002?

* Can Juan Gonzalez stay injury free? Can Carl Everett play center field and coexist with Showalter? Can third baseman Hank Blalock and outfielder Kevin Mench improve in their second seasons? Is touted Mark Texeira ready to turn first baseman Rafael Palmeiro into a designated hitter? Can Einar Diaz fill the Ivan Rodriguez void?

Some things, of course, William Nathaniel Showalter III simply can’t control, but if he helps turn this recent loser into another overnight winner, it certainly will enhance the most compelling aspect of his reputation.

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N.Y. YANKEES

1992-95 seasons

250-236....514

Best finish: WC, 1995

Manager of year, ’94

*

ARIZONA

1998-2000 seasons

313-268....528

Best finish: 1st, 1999

100 victories in ’99