NORFOLK, Va. — The Norfolk Tides have gone younger this year and not just the players. Buck Britton, the new manager is just 35 years old. You can feel the energy.
Britton actually played for the Tides in four different seasons, the last being 2014. As a manager he has comes up the ranks in the Orioles farm system having been the skipper for Single-A Delmarva and Double-A Bowie.
Yes, Zack Britton, one of the best relievers in the game is his brother. Buck has a special take on that, "I always joke that obviously it no secret my brother is who he is. He got the baseball talent and I got the personality."
The Tides have a number of high profile prospects to start the season. Britton managed several of them at the lower levels. He knows how to deal with all kinds of players. Britton says, "I just treat everybody the same, whether you're the number one prospect in baseball or the guy kind of grinding, trying to hold onto a roster spot."
Grayson Rodriguez is rated the #1 pitching prospect in the minor leagues and is with the Tides. He is very familiar with Britton, "I had the honor of being with him last year in Double A Bowie. He was phenomenal. We won a lot of games. He was fun to play for. He's kind of a player manager."
You can tell just by watching batting practice that Britton gets to manage a fun loving team. That's just the way he likes it, "It's a good group and that's kind of the environment I want to set here. I want these guys to enjoy coming to the ball park so that those times when it is time to work, they're ready to go and focused."
About his managing skills, Britton is modest. He says, "I don't really consider myself to be that good, to be honest with you. I'm still young. I'm still growing. I already told the guys, I'm going to make a ton of mistakes. We're going to make them together. We're going to learn from them. That's one of the things I've really stressed is not to be afraid to fail."