Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics was chosen as American League manager of the year on Tuesday after guiding his team to huge turnaround seasons.

Melvin beat out Baltimore's Buck Showalter for the AL honor in a close vote by a Baseball Writers' Association of America panel. Under Melvin, the A's made a 20-game improvement, finished 94-68 and won the AL West.

Melvin also became a two-time winner, having been chosen in 2007 with Arizona. He and National League manager of the year, the Washington National's Davey Johnson, Jim Leyland, Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Lou Piniella as the only managers to win the award in both leagues.

La Russa was the only other Oakland manager to earn the honor, in 1988 and 1992.

Melvin received 16 first-place votes. Showalter got the other 12 firsts after leading the wild-card Orioles to their first winning season since 1997, and Chicago White Sox manager Robin Ventura finished third.

With five rookies in their starting rotation, the A's were one of baseball's biggest surprises this year -- especially after trades, injuries and the suspension of veteran pitcher Bartolo Colon wreaked havoc with the roster. Oakland never panicked under Melvin's cool demeanor, rallied from 13 games back on June 30 and overtook Texas in the final week to win the division.

The Athletics went 72-38 after June 1, the best record in the majors. They became the first team in big league history to come back from a deficit of at least five games with fewer than 10 remaining to win a division or pennant. The A's then lost in five games in the first round of the playoffs to AL champion Detroit.

"We just tried to keep it day to day," Melvin said. "It's a credit to the guys each and every day going out there and just worrying about that particular day."