TTM Success - Dave Trembley

Dave Trembley may not be remembered as the best manager to ever helm the Orioles, but given the teams he was handed, I think he did an admirable job.  We met him back when he was managing the Orioles, and he was one of the nicest guys I've ever met.  I was really sad when he was let go, but he quickly latched on with the Braves.  I finally got around to sending to him TTM, and got some nice cards taken care of.  The above 1991 Classic Best came out of a bargain box my wife bought off of Ebay.  This might have been one of the highlights of the box, and I kept it with my Orioles stuff for over 10 years.  I have finally moved this card to my autograph album, where it should have been kept all along.

I have cards of Orioles managers all in succession in my Orioles box, so Trembley's cards weren't hard to locate.  I got a (from left) 2010 Topps Heritage, 2009 Topps Heritage and 2009 Topps signed.

Trembley also included this Orioles post card that he signed.  He also inscribed the back with his tenure as Orioles manager.

Trembley (b. 1951) managed the Orioles from 2007 to 2010 to a record of 187-283 (.398 win %).  His teams were plagued by a lack of pitching, which seems to be the case most times when talking about the Orioles over the last 10-15 years.  He was dealt a tough hand, and managed with class.  A lot of the Orioles players who would see some success under Buck Showalter broke in under Trembley.

Trembley began managing in the minors in Kinston (I didn't know that, until just now) in 1986.  Back then, they were the unaffiliated Kinston Eagles.  He moved to the Pirates organization from 1987 to 1989.  After a break from managing in 1990, he managed Charleston (in the Padres) organization from 1991 to 1992 and Wichita (also Padres org.) in 1993.  Trembley then spent time in the Cubs organization 1994 to 2002, managing Orlando, Daytona, West Tennessee and Iowa.  His first stop in the Orioles organization was in 2003, when he was tapped to manage AA Bowie.  He spent 2 seasons in Bowie, then 2 at the Orioles then-AAA team in Ottawa, before managing the Orioles in 2007.

I mailed to Trembley on October 12 and got the cards back on October 19, for a 7-day TAT.

Time to Say Goodbye

I met Dave Trembley in 2007 while he was still interim manager for the Baltimore Orioles. I was impressed at how well the Orioles had been playing since Trembley took over and as he signed the baseball I handed him, I told him so. I also told him that I had hoped that the Front Office would keep him as the manager full-time soon after. He smiled and said... 'Thank you, and if they don't, then that's ok too.'

In my mind, that was a classy answer from a very classy man.
It is not Dave Trembley's fault for the bowling shoe tendencies that this season has shown. Sometimes change for changes sake helps a team (see last year's Colorado Rockies), but all signs point to more of the same as this season progresses...

I was not sad at all when Lee Mazzilli was removed in 2005 (I never wanted him here in the first place) and I was calling for Sam Perlozzo's head after the Mother's Day Massacre of the 2007 season. When I began to see the reports today that Trembley is about to be removed as manager, I felt nothing but sadness.

Part of me feels like they are doing Dave a favor. This team is bad. I mean Ashton Kutcher movie bad. He can take the rest of the summer off and reflect that it wasn't his fault that he was handed a team that was to be measured on wins and losses, but lacked talent in a lot of areas and carried a lot of IFs into this season.

The Orioles players should be ashamed of themselves. Some random thoughts on the 2010 Orioles:

• Mike Gonzalez should not be allowed near the bullpen ever. He should have let someone know he was hurt in Spring Training.
• Koji Uehara needs to go back to Japan. Period. He gets winded opening up the paper in the morning.
• Garrett Atkins is done. Time to release him and call up Brandon Snyder. Even if Snyder is batting .220. That's .019 points higher than Atkins. One home run out of the 1B position. Are you kidding me?
• Matt Wieters may not be the next Joe Mauer.
• Brian Matusz may not be the next Greg Maddux.
• Adam Jones has regressed and needs to be sent to Norfolk to learn the game again.
• I'm afraid we may not see Nolan Reimold in the majors again. Makes me sad.
• Miguel Tejada, Kevin Millwood and Ty Wigginton need to be traded. Do these guys a favor and ship them to contenders and land a few more prospects.

This season was a wash after the first two weeks. It has been very hard for me to watch. I have been losing interest all around. The blog, fantasy, any other games, etc. I haven't even voted for the all star team. I started the other blog with Max to try to keep interested and that is slipping too.

If it weren't for Max, I think I'd have given up already. Thanks buddy.

Anyway, back to Dave. Apparently the Orioles plan to replace Trembley with 3rd base coach Juan Samuel. I have been unimpressed with him as a coach so far.

Something that really has bothered me was that certain people in baseball have criticized Dave Trembley because he never played baseball. He has a Masters in education and started out as a high school teacher and baseball coach in the late 70's. He moved on to coaching a small college in LA and then became a scout for the Cubs in 1984. He worked his way up through the minors as a manager, specializing in the development of younger players (a key in his hiring as the Orioles manager). This is a guy who spent 20+ years in the minor leagues as a scout and manager who finally got to realize his dream and become a Major League manager.

I'd really like to see him get reassigned in the organization, but I highly doubt that will happen.

I don't feel too bad for Dave beacuse for almost 3 years, he got to realize his dream and be one of only 30 managers in MLB. I do feel bad for him because is has been a very classy person and deserved much better from the Orioles players and their Front Office. The players and Andy MacPhail better lose some sleep over this.

I now close with an exceprt from Roch Kubatko's blog on masnsports.com "I will say before turning off my laptop, that Trembley is a good man who loves the Orioles as if he grew up rooting for them. He lived and breathed this job. He also cares a great deal about the fans. It isn't just for show. I hope that means something to even his harshest critics."

Good luck Dave. I hope the past few months haven't quieted your love for the game as they have for me. I hope to run into you one day and offer you a beer. Also, thanks for being nice enough to sign a ball (2 of them) for me and talk to me for a few minutes. That, I will never forget.