Buddy Beckham would eventually go on to win a World Series championship with the Houston Astros in Season 10 of the franchise. By that time, he had become the team’s closer and was rapidly improving both his batting and pitching skills.

A few seasons later, he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays after becoming a starting pitcher and narrowly missed out on another World Series championship. With his guidance and leadership, he propelled Toronto to an American League-best 95 wins and helped them to a pennant and World Series appearance. They came up just short in game seven, which was the last time Beckham would ever reach the Fall Classic as a player. He would retire soon after.

His career accomplishments as a player include a Silver Slugger Award, Gold Glove Award, a pennant in both leagues, and a World Series championship as a member of the Houston Astros.

After his playing career came to an end, Beckham immediately entered coaching by returning to Houston as their pitching instructor. He moved on to be appointed director of player personnel for the same team and led the Astros back into the pennant race, gaining plenty of attention and notice from several other organizations around baseball.

Brenden Nichols had been out of baseball for a season to spend time with his family and reevaluate his options. One day, he received a phone call from the owner of the Cleveland Indians, expressing strong interest in hiring Nichols as his next general manager. Upon hearing this opportunity, Brenden was elated and accepted the offer enthusiastically.

Meanwhile, Buddy Beckham was attracting a lot of interest himself from some teams about becoming their next manager, particularly the Washington Nationals. After briefly mulling over his options (taking the Dodgers’ vacant pitching coach position, becoming Milwaukee’s next manager, or joining the Nationals), he ultimately decided to manage the Nationals. He cited a “closeness towards the culture and team personnel” as his reason for taking the job in Washington.

In his first season as Nationals manager, Buddy Beckham guided the team to an impressive 88-74 record. While this may have not been good enough to appear in the postseason, it set a firm foundation and gave Nationals fans a glimpse into what would be a prosperous future ahead. The next few seasons saw the Nationals make the postseason in all of them, including an NLCS appearance that they would lose. After the loss, the Washington Nationals decided to fire Buddy Beckham as they believed his performance as their manager wasn’t satisfactory and “failed to elevate the team to where they should be.” He was replaced by veteran manager Don Cooper, who led the Nationals to a World Series championship a couple of seasons later.

During this time, Brenden Nichols and the Cleveland Indians had just recently won their second World Series in five seasons. Once the season was officially over, manager Manny Acta abruptly retired from managing.

Needing a worthy replacement and seeing Beckham’s fate with the Nationals, the Cleveland Indians decided to hire Buddy Beckham as their new skipper, reuniting him with longtime general manager Brenden Nichols in the process.

His first season there was business as usual for both himself and the Indians team, winning a stupendous 89 games and clinching a playoff berth. They would defeat the Texas Rangers in the ALDS and advanced to play the New York Yankees in the ALCS. That series was a heartbreaker for Cleveland, losing it in seven games and watching as the Yankees went on to win the World Series.

The next two seasons were a learning curve for Beckham and the Cleveland Indians organization, missing out on the postseason in both of them. They struggled to find consistency in those years but knew that playoff success would inevitably be right around the corner, with Brenden Nichols maintaining his trust in Buddy Beckham.

In his fourth season, the Indians experienced a resurgence and won 90 games on the season. They would also capture the AL Central division title, returning to the postseason after a two-year absence. They met a familiar foe, the vaunted Boston Red Sox, in the ALDS. The Indians were eager to take the series in game three after winning the first two, but Boston fought all the way back to force a game five in the series. They would win that game and eliminate Cleveland, ending their promising season in sheer devastation. However, the best was yet to come from Beckham’s tenure as Indians manager.

The next season saw a lot of the same from Cleveland, earning another 90-win season and division title with ease. In the ALDS against the Texas Rangers, they would quickly dispatch them in three games and advance to their first ALCS since Season 6 against the same Yankees team. In that series, they excelled and would win what was a fantastic seven-game series for the ages. Buddy Beckham had won his first pennant as a manager, a milestone he could have only dreamed of before.

Since the American League defeated the National League in that season’s MLB All-Star Game, the Cleveland Indians, despite having an inferior record compared to the Colorado Rockies (96-66), were granted home-field advantage through the series if it at least reached a game six.

The Fall Classic experienced an exhilarating bout between two teams who fought tooth and nail to win it all. By game seven, fans, players, and coaches were all equally exhausted and emotionally drained - but there was still one last game left to be played.

In that game seven, the Colorado Rockies struck the ball early and often, scoring four runs by the fifth inning to Cleveland’s one run. They seemed to have all the momentum going their way until the bottom of the ninth, when the Indians embarked on a historic rally of a lifetime. They would proceed to score three runs in the inning, all with two outs. This sent game seven into extras, where the Indians would win the game and World Series championship on an errant throw by the Rockies’ shortstop, allowing the winning run to score. This is a moment in MLB history that you may never see again: a team tying the game in the ninth after being backed against a wall with two outs and two strikes on the batter before they had scored any of their runs, then winning miraculously in extra innings to become World Series champions.

Buddy Beckham was now a World Series champion as both a player and manager. It was also the last time the Indians would make the postseason under his tutelage.

His last four seasons as manager were marred by disappointment, finishing in second place in his division three times. In all of those times, they were never more than three and a half games behind the division winner. After a ninth and final season in Cleveland, he was dismissed and returned to his home in Houston to decide his next chapter in baseball. After putting in some thought, he accepted an offer to become a lead analyst on MLB Network. 

He has enjoyed a long and successful baseball career ranging over a combined 29 years as a player and manager, winning pennants, several seasonal accolades, and two World Series titles along the journey. He is undoubtedly a legend and ambassador of this great sport, of America’s pastime.

Buddy Beckham was recently hired by the St. Louis Cardinals in Season 22 of the MLB 2K11 Indians Franchise to succeed Buttercup Dessens as their newest manager. In that season, the Cardinals enjoyed a 95-win season and advanced to the ALCS, where they lost in seven games to the San Francisco Giants. His journey back to the World Series as a manager would continue.

The next season saw the Cardinals finish with 91 wins and another postseason appearance. This time, Beckham led his Cardinals all the way to the World Series, and they would ultimately win it over the Boston Red Sox in six games for his second World Series win as a manager and third overall.

After a couple of disappointing seasons that saw St. Louis miss the postseason, Beckham decided to resign from his position as manager. 

He would join the Los Angeles Dodgers a couple of seasons afterward to become their next manager. 

Accomplishments and Managerial Records

Player Accomplishments:

Silver Slugger Award (HOU)

Gold Glove Award (HOU)

Cy Young Award (TOR)

Three-Time World Series Champion (HOU, CLE, STL)

Managerial Records:

Season 1: 88-74 (Missed playoffs)

Season 2: 89-73 (NLDS loss in 5)

Season 3: 94-68 (NLDS loss in 4)

Season 4: 86-76 (NLCS loss in 7)

[Fired]

•Season 1: 89-73 (ALCS loss to NYY in 7)

Season 2: 80-82 (Missed playoffs)

Season 3: 83-80 (Missed playoffs)

•Season 4: 90-72 (ALDS loss to BOS in 5)

>Season 5: 90-72 (WS win over COL in 7)

Season 6: 80-82 (Missed playoffs)

Season 7: 82-80 (Missed playoffs)

Season 8: 81-81 (Missed playoffs)

Season 9: 83-79 (Missed playoffs)

[Fired]

St. Louis Cardinals (Four seasons)

•Season 1: 95-67 (ALCS loss to SF in 7)

>Season 2: 91-71 (WS win over BOS in six)

Season 3: 81-81 

Season 4: 80-82

[Resigned]

Los Angeles Dodgers 

Season 1:

Total managerial record: 1,301-1,130

Postseason record: 39-33