Published: November 03, 2009 10:11 pm      

Mike Showe resigns as Bluefield Orioles GM

BLUEFIELD — George McGonagle is back in the general manager’s chair at Bowen Field. He doesn’t plan to stay there long.

McGonagle, who spent 12 years as the general manager of the Bluefield Orioles before his retirement in 2007, is serving again in the position vacated when Mike Showe resigned on Sept. 30.

“I have been asked by the board to come back temporarily until we find somebody, and we’re in the interviewing process right now,” said McGonagle, who doesn’t know why Showe resigned, two years after taking the position. “I am the acting G.M., and it needs to be as temporary as possible.”

The Bluefield Baseball Club has begun its search for Showe’s successor, and have made an offer, according to McGonagle, but they’re waiting for a response that could come in the next few days.

“We’re not going to rush it to that extent, but things are happening,” McGonagle said. “We’re working on the schedule, there’s just a lot going on in the offseason that people don’t realize that goes on...

“Our problem is we don’t want to get in a situation where we do this every two or three years. We want something long term and that’s something we thought we had in Mike.”

McGonagle stepped down after the 2007 season, a campaign that saw the Bluefield club celebrate 50 years as an affiliate with the Baltimore Orioles.

“I stayed involved, I stayed on as president and I’ve been doing the book work and the payroll, but I could do all that at my house and help out down here when they need me,” said McGonagle, who has no plans to take the position back on a full-time basis.

“I can’t do it,” he said. “Health-wise I can’t do it like I was going.”

Stability has long been a part of Bluefield baseball. McGonagle’s 12 years at the helm followed the 48 seasons that George Fanning spent in the position, running from 1947 until his death soon after the ‘95 season.

Finding a long-term solution is definitely what the Bluefield Baseball Club would like to find.

“We do have one or two that’s a potential in that direction, but our problem is we’re going to get the younger people that have been an assistant G.M. or a high-ranking intern and they’re going to come in here as G.M. and they’re going to stay for two or three years and they want to go to a full season ball club which I fully understand,” McGonagle said. “We don’t want to get in a situation where we have to hire somebody every two or three years because that is no fun.”

McGonagle said there are several reasons why a hire needs to me made soon, including the Baseball Winter Meetings looming in December.

“I’ve been trying to push it for a couple of reasons, so I can get back out of here,” he said, with a laugh, “and last week we had the fall Appalachian League meetings and that would have been an ideal time to introduce somebody around.

“We’ve got the upcoming winter meetings in Indianapolis and that’s the next opportune time to get somebody, but whether we can get it put together by then, I don’t know.”

The off-season isn’t necessarily a slow time at Bowen Field. The playing surface, which underwent an expensive, but productive facelift three years ago, is being prepared for another season in 2010.

“We’ve just finished spending $13,000 top-dressing, over-seeding, fertilizing, and aerating, if you don’t do it every year it can get you,” McGonagle said. “We spent $250,000 in the fall of ‘06 and we did this in ‘07 and we did not do it in ‘08 and it cost us.

“We just finished doing it. That sounds like a lot of money and it is to the Bluefield Baseball Club, however, it’s a minor investment in the $250,000 investment we made in ‘06 on this field.”

Long one of the area’s most dedicated volunteers, McGonagle was rewarded last month with the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce’s highest award for volunteerism — the Robert Francis Hamilton Award.

The general manager for the Orioles from 1996-2007, McGonagle knows the importance of finding the right person, perhaps someone much like himself.

“We need somebody that is community-oriented from around here like George Fanning was, and like I was,” McGonagle said. “That’s someone long term and that’s going to stay here and knows the area and knows the people. That makes it very difficult to try and find somebody.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com