Earl Sidney Weaver (born August 14, 1930 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a former Major League Baseball manager. He spent his entire managerial career with the Baltimore Orioles, managing the club from 1968-1982 and 1985-1986. Between his stints as manager Weaver served as a color commentator for ABC television, calling the 1983 World Series (which included the Orioles) along with Al Michaels and Howard Cosell.
During his tenure as manager, the Orioles won six Eastern Division titles, four American League pennants, and a World Series championship. Weaver's managerial record is 1,480-1,060 (.583), including five 100-win seasons.
Weaver holds the dubious distinction of being ejected from more games than anyone in American League history, with 98 ejections to his credit. He was also notorious for giving profanity-laced interviews.
Template:MLB HoF Weaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.
Weaver's nickname was the Earl of Baltimore. He also wrote a book called Weaver on Strategy.
Weaver pioneered the use of radar guns to track the velocity of pitches during the 1972 spring training season.
In 1987 Weaver provided the AI for the computer game Earl Weaver Baseball, which was published by Electronic Arts. The game was one of the precursors of the EA Sports line.
Weaver the player was a right-handed hitting and throwing infielder in the farm system of the St. Louis Cardinals who never played an inning of Major League Baseball. His Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer, who battled with Weaver on a regular basis, once noted: "The only thing that Earl knows about pitching is he couldn't hit it."
Weaver joined the Orioles in 1957 as skipper of their Fitzgerald club in the Class D Georgia-Florida League, where his team finished nine games under .500; he would never again have a losing season as a minor league pilot. He was promoted to the Orioles as their first-base coach in 1968, and spent a half-season in that role before taking the managerial reins in July.
Quotes
"Team speed, for Christ's Sake, you get fuckin' goddamn little fleas on the fuckin' bases getting picked off trying to steal, getting thrown out, taking runs away from you. You get them big cocksuckers who can hit the fuckin' ball out of the ballpark and you can't make any goddamn mistakes." - Earl Weaver explaining his preference for power in response to a question from a fan on a Baltimore-area radio show as to why the Orioles did not get more team speed.
"We're like old underwear. We're creeping up on you." - Earl Weaver explaining late season surge of his Baltimore Orioles in a tight pennant race.
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
External links
- Baseball Hall of Fame
- Baseball-Reference.com - career managing record
- [1] - Audio of Earl Weaver's Infamous Radio Appearance