October 11, 2007
Peters' Principals
Peter Schmuck traces the ancestry of three playoff GMs back to the great Orioles executive Hank Peters.
When the Cleveland Indians defeated the New York Yankees to take their place in this year's American League Championship Series, general manager Mark Shapiro quickly placed a call to the baseball executive who helped him get his start in the Indians' front office and impressed upon him the critical importance of the long-term player development strategy that has put the team one step away from the World Series.
When the Colorado Rockies staged a dramatic late-season run to capture the National League wild-card berth and then sweep the Philadelphia Phillies in last week's Division Series, GM Dan O'Dowd made a similar call. Both can trace the roots of their success to the same baseball father figure.
Peters ponders the possibility of the two facing each other in the Fall Classic with great pride and playfully rebuffs the obvious hypothetical question about his loyalties if such a scenario were to occur.
"I wouldn't want to choose," he said by telephone yesterday from his home in Timonium. "They both are great young men. I'd be pulling for both of them and happy for either."
Josh Byrnes makes an appearance as a Peters grandson-GM.
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