The intelligent baseball fan knows that nine games, over the course of a 162-game season, is a meaninglessly small sample from which to draw conclusions. The savvy fan knows that the manager of a baseball team generally has a small effect on whether the team wins or loses.
A fan of the Baltimore Orioles knows that nine days ago, when Buck Showalter took over for interim manager Juan Samuel, who had taken over for fired manager Dave Trembley, the Orioles were 32-74, the worst record in baseball.
Since then, the Orioles have gone 8-1. With last night’s victory, they passed the Pittsburgh Pirates , and are now only the second-worst team in baseball.
Put another way: 20 percent of the Orioles’ wins in 2010 have come in the last nine games. They have won as many games in a week and a half as they won in the entire month of July.
If this is what random luck looks like, I want Buck Showalter to buy me a Mega Millions ticket.
