Major League Baseball

Samuel perseveres as Baltimore's interim manager

Published Jun. 13, 2010 6:57 p.m. ET

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During the first full week of Juan Samuel's tenure as interim manager of the Baltimore Orioles, the man who gave him the job interviewed Bobby Valentine and Eric Wedge as full-time replacements.

It wasn't exactly a vote of confidence from president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail, who tapped Samuel as manager after firing Dave Trembley on June 4.

``To be honest, that's not on my mind,'' Samuel said Sunday. ``When I spoke with Andy, it was explained to me it could be two months, it could be three years.''

Samuel said MacPhail warned: ``We are going to talk to some people.''

Samuel, 49, was Baltimore's third base coach before being handed his first managerial job in the majors. The change occurred after the Orioles lost eight straight to fall to 15-39, the worst record in the big leagues.

Since taking over, Samuel was 2-6 before Sunday's game against the New York Mets. In his defense, under his watch the Orioles have faced Boston, the New York Yankees and Mets.

``For me right now, my job is to get these guys going,'' Samuel said. ``I'm going to enjoy this experience. I just want to push these guys a little bit, continue to work, continue to see some progress from these young players. That is my main goal.''

He has demanded that the Orioles play fundamentally sound baseball. Working with the worst offense in the AL, Samuel has attempted to manufacture runs by calling for sacrifice bunts, using the hit and run and running the bases with caution.

Yet it's a bit early to call them Samuel's Orioles.

``I don't know if you can leave an imprint over a short period of time,'' he said. ``You can probably say that when you have more time; two or three months or a year.''

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