Praise from Showalter helped Wakamatsu get M’s job

Wakamatsu wins The Eddie Haskell Invitational!

“Resume-wise, I don’t know what more a guy could really do as far as his background,” Showalter said Thursday. “Don, (the Mariners) hired a good man there, a very ethical guy who’s not too stiff, has a great smile, a guy that laughs easily. And when you spend the amount of time together that he and I have, early in the morning, spring training, late at night, for eight, nine months at a time, you certainly get to see (what type of person he is). What is it they say? ‘Friends are people that know all about you and still like you.’ “

...“I always challenged Wak—‘Don’t ever be working on your next job. Work on this job, let this job dictate that people would want to put you at another level’. ” said Showalter, now an ESPN analyst. “That’s my pet peeve, guys who always seem to be working on the next job, looking for somebody to Eddie Haskell and suck up to. I remember one of the first meetings I had that Wak was involved with, he disagreed with something I said. It was very impressive that he wasn’t going to come in and tell people what they wanted to hear. He was going to give them his opinion.”