Here's the first reaction any thinking Orioles fan should have to the news that Buck Showalter is the team's new manager: It's about time.
What was all this ridiculous foot-dragging in the Warehouse all about?
C'mon, Showalter should have taken over this team right after the All-Star break.
That way the Orioles would have sent a clear, strong message to both their players and their fans: "That horrible start is behind us. We're moving in a new direction.
"Sure, we might not come out of this tailspin right away. But there's a new guy in charge. And he won't be just shrugging his shoulders and mouthing platitudes like, 'We just didn't get it done tonight, but we'll go get 'em tomorrow,' when we get our brains beat in."
Look, I don't know who's to blame for not having Showalter take over weeks ago.
I don't know whether it was president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail being too cautious. I don't know whether it was owner Peter Angelos mucking up the deal these past few weeks.
If it was MacPhail's fault, shame on him. Same thing if it was Angelos' fault. And if it was a matter of the deal taking so long to formalize, well, the Orioles should have just backed up a Brink's truck to Showalter's house and given him whatever it took to sign.
The bottom line is this: It is absolutely unconscionable that a team that got off to such a horrible start, a team that was the worst in baseball going into the All-Star break, was allowed to start the second half of the season with the same listless, rudderless direction that had killed it before.
Predictably, the Orioles have been a disaster since the break. They were 2-11 going into Thursday night's game against the Royals in Kansas City, 31-70 overall.
On most nights, they're out of the game by the second or third inning. The pitching has been terrible. The hitting -- especially with runners in scoring position -- has been awful.
Am I sugarcoating this?
No, I don't think so. If I hear another post-game interview in which the manager says, "There's nothing else to say, we just have to play better," I'm going to go screaming into the night and launch myself from the top deck of Camden Yards.
So now we'll see how the 54-year-old Showalter does with this mess he has inherited.
He has done miracle work and turned around bad teams before, of course.
He got the New York Yankees into the playoffs in 1995 after they hadn't played in the postseason in 14 years.
He was the Arizona Diamondbacks' first manager in 1998 and, after a 97-loss season, turned them into a 100-win team the following year. And he took over the last-place Texas Rangers in 2003 and a year later had them in playoff contention.
Can he change the horrible negative attitude that surrounds the Orioles? Can he change an entrenched culture of losing that's now in its 13th straight year?
Who knows? But it'll be interesting to see him try. Everyone keeps saying the guy's prickly, a control freak who has to have things his way or he loses interest and bolts. The control-freak part, well, that's MacPhail's problem. That's Angelos' problem.
But if I were an Orioles player, I think I'd be OK with a manager who's prickly when things aren't going well.
I'd want a manager who won't settle for losing and lets everybody know it.
I'd want a manager who inspires a little fear in his players.
I'd want a manager who goes nuts and kicks a chair across the room or turns over the post-game spread after another loss in which his team was down 8-0 in the third inning.
Prickly would be just fine with me. The Orioles have seen enough teddy bears in that manager's office in recent years.
So the Showalter era begins Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Angels, the start of a seven-game homestand.
Again, it's about time. I kept hearing all this nonsense from various people in the media saying the Orioles should name their new manager and have him ease into the job.
Instead of having the guy put on a uniform and go to work, these media people wanted him to spend the next two months evaluating talent and putting a game plan in place for next season.
To which I would say: Are you kidding me?
Have you seen the standings? Have you seen how bad this team is?
This team is a train wreck. And it needs help right now.
Good luck, Buck.
You're going to need it.
Listen to Kevin Cowherd Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with Jerry Coleman on Fox 1370 AM Sports.