PHOENIX -- Buck Showalter was fired Monday as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks after a disappointing season that saw the team go from division champions to third place.

Showalter, the only manager in the team's history, was hired in November 1995, 2½ years before the Diamondbacks started play and one month after he led the New York Yankees to their first playoff berth in 14 years.

	Buck Showalter is now in charge of his third big-league team.

But his unsmiling personality proved his undoing when owner Jerry Colangelo decided that the roster of mostly veteran players needed a lighter touch.

"I told him a long time ago, 'Buck, relax. You don't have anything to prove,' " said Colangelo, who maintained that hiring a known disciplinarian was the right move at the time.

"Five years is an eternity in pro sports for a coach, for a general manager, for a manager," Colangelo said. "Buck had five years with us, and I owe him a great debt of gratitude."

Showalter, 44, did not attend the news conference in a suite at the Bank One Ballpark, and Colangelo said he was in transit to Bristol, Conn., to do "some ESPN work."

Showalter was the third manager to be fired Monday. Cincinnati's Jack McKeon and Pittsburgh's Gene Lamont lost their jobs earlier in the day.

Colangelo said work would begin quickly on finding Showalter's replacement.

Showalter/D-Backs Timeline

11-10-93: Jerry Colangelo, owner of the Phoenix Suns, announced he was assembling an ownership group to apply for a Major League Baseball expansion team. 3-9-95: The Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays became baseball's 13th and 14th expansion teams. 11-15-95: Two seasons before their first opening day, the Diamondbacks hire Buck Showalter, the AL's 1994 manager of the year with the Yankees. The manager signs a seven-year contact. 1-16-97: Baseball owners vote to put D-Backs in NL West. 11-18-97: D-Backs select 35 players in the expansion team draft. The team's first choice is pitcher Brian Anderson of the Cleveland Indians. 3-31-98: The Diamondbacks play their first regular season game in franchise history. More than 50,000 fans watch the Colorado Rockies beat Arizona. 4-4-98: Team wins first game, beating San Francisco 3-2. 12-1-98: Pitcher Randy Johnson agrees to a four-year contract with the D-Backs. 7-13-99: Third baseman Matt Williams and second baseman Jay Bell become the first Diamondbacks to start an All-Star game. Johnson and left fielder Luis Gonzalez also make appearances. 9-24-99: Arizona is the first expansion team to reach the playoffs or win a division title in its second year of competition. 11-11-99: The team earns its first Gold Glove Award when Steve Finley is honored as one of the NL's top fielding outfielders. 11-16-99: Leading the league in strikeouts, innings pitched and complete games, Johnson gives the franchise its first major individual trophy by winning his second Cy Young Award. May 10: The D-Backs were 26-10 and led the NL West by 6½ games. Then came a slump. Curt Schilling went just 5-6 for Arizona. Johnson was 14-2 before the All-Star break, then went 5-5 in his final 16 starts. Mid-August: Arizona won seven straight, but then Erubiel Durazo had surgery on his right wrist and missed the rest of the season. Oct. 1: After being eliminated from playoff contention because of a late-season slide, the D-Backs end a disappointing season. Oct. 2: Colangelo fires Showalter, saying "it's time to move in another direction."

"We want a solid baseball guy. Someone who has preferably spent a lot of time in Major League Baseball," Colangelo said. "It's not a given, but being an ex-player may fit with the group we have."

Bob Brenly, a former major league catcher and currently a Diamondbacks television announcer, has been rumored as a possible successor to Showalter.

Arizona, which gave him a $7 million, seven-year contract, won the NL West in 1999, going 100-62 in just its second year. The Diamondbacks lost 3-1 to the New York Mets in the first round of the playoffs and vowed to bounce back.

With an $80.8 million payroll, baseball's sixth-highest, expectations were high.

On May 10, the Diamondbacks were 26-10 and led the NL West by 6½ games but they slumped after that.

Not even the acquisition of Curt Schilling from Philadelphia in late July provided a spark. Schilling went 5-6 for Arizona and Randy Johnson, 14-2 before the All-Star break, went 5-5 in his final 16 starts as the Diamondbacks finished 85-77, 12 games behind the division-leading Giants.

Home attendance dropped from 3.6 million in 1998 to 3 million in 1999 to 2.95 million this year, but team president Rich Dozer said fear of losing fans had nothing to do with the decision to fire the manager.

"I think our fan base, after the initial shrinkage, is pretty well established," Dozer said.

Showalter led Arizona to a 250-236 record in three years, improving his record as a major league manager to 552-505 in seven seasons.

Arizona won seven straight in mid-August, but then Erubiel Durazo had surgery on his right wrist and missed the rest of the season.

Colangelo acknowledged injuries and down years for some of the players were responsible for the teams' finish.

"So in making this announcement today, I want to make it crystal clear that I am not pointing any fingers at Buck Showalter as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks," Colangelo said.

"The injuries just kept piling on, and we couldn't regroup, and the Giants picked up steam," Luis Gonzalez said.

Matt Williams had just 371 at-bats and Todd Stottlemyre made only 18 starts.

"It's very important that the guys have a good off-season," general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. said, "that Tony Womack's rehab goes well, Todd's rehab goes well, Matty gets time to rest his bruises and whatnot, and everybody gets in the right frame of mind," Garagiola said.

Williams had 35 home runs and 142 RBI last year, but started this season on the disabled list after breaking his right foot during spring training and missed 58 games.

"It was difficult physically and mentally, but what that does is make you a stronger person, so that will probably turn me into a workaholic in the weight room," said Williams, who batted .421 in the last 15 games despite pain in his left foot.

Steve Finley hit 35 homers this year -- one better than last -- but none after Sept. 9. Three days later, Onan Masaoka of Los Angeles hit him on the right wrist, and Finley went into a 4-for-39 skid.

Finley and Womack, who led the NL with 14 triples, finished the year on the bench. After the Mets eliminated the Diamondbacks from wild card contention, Womack had surgery on a cyst on his leg.

Then there was Jay Bell, who had a franchise-record 38 homers and 112 RBI last year, then slumped to 18 homers and 68 RBIs.

Gonzalez supplied some offense, setting franchise records for doubles (46) and extra-base hits (79). But Arizona scored 782 runs, down from 908 in 1999.

Closer Matt Mantei, who went on the disabled list twice because of shoulder tendinitis, saved 17 games in 20 chances and the bullpen got a boost when 38-year-old Dan Plesac decided not to retire, going 5-1 with a 3.15 ERA.

Players weren't looking for big changes.

"I want it to stay the way it is," Mantei said, "because we've got a great thing going and we don't want anything to change that."