Buck Showalter bought walkie talkies because bullpen phone didn't work
Earlier this week, the bullpen phones at Tropicana Field were not working, so Orioles manager Buck Showalter had to buy walkie talkies.
By
Mike Axisa
•
1 min read
The Orioles and Rays wrapped up their season-opening three-game series at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night. Baltimore won the first two games before Tampa Bay was able to salvage the series with a win Wednesday.
For at least the first two games of the series, the visiting bullpen phone at the Trop was not working. After being caught off guard Monday, O's manager Buck Showalter make sure he showed up to the park prepared on Tuesday. From Dan Connolly of the Washington Post:
And Showalter said the Tropicana Field bullpen phones didn’t work again. So, in preparation for that lapse, he called in pitching changes through walkie talkies that he bought Wednesday morning.
“It’s strange. It is what it is,” Showalter said. “The phones didn’t work again tonight. We had to buy a walkie talkie — it’s a challenge. I’m going to turn it in on expenses, though. That walkie talkie is expensive.”
I'm not sure if the bullpen phones were working for Wednesday's game, but if not, Showalter was prepared and ready to go. He always is.
Every season a few bullpen phones around the league will unexpectedly stop working properly, stuff like that happens, but I can't ever remember hearing about a manager buying walkie talkies. Usually they just make some rookie run out to the bullpen to relay messages. This is more efficient!
