When the Orioles hired Buck Showalter to take over managing duties for the team in the middle of the 2010 season, I could not imagine the team actually getting better. They had been bad in all kinds of ways under all sorts of managers and players for 12 years at that point and it just felt like it was going to be forever.
About a year and two months after Showalter was brought on board, with no major infusion of marquee talent from outside the organization, the Orioles team he helmed was back in the playoffs for the first time since 1997.