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By Bart Barnes, Saturday, January 19, 10:52 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/ea ... story.html
[wrapimg=left]http://i.imgur.com/PfQKRA0.jpg[/wrapimg]A scourge to umpires, goad to his players and a delight to fans, Earl Weaver was among the winningest managers in the history of major-league baseball. In his 17 years as chief helmsman of the Baltimore Orioles, his teams won 1,480 games, four American League championships and the 1970 World Series.
Mr. Weaver died Jan. 18 while on a cruise, the team announced. He was of 82. The cause and other details of his death were not immediately known.
Mr. Weaver’s winning percentage as the Orioles’ manager was .583 — the ninth best of all time. Three times he was named manager of the year. Five times his teams had 100-win seasons. The in-your-face bantam was thrown out of 98 games for arguing overzealously with umpires. The Orioles retired his No. 4 uniform, and he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.
As a 5-foot-7 minor-league infielder, Mr. Weaver learned that his dreams of playing in the big leagues were unrealistic.
“It broke my heart, but right then I started becoming a good baseball person,” he told Time magazine in 1979. “When I came to recognize and more important accept my own deficiencies, then I could recognize other players’ inabilities and learn to accept them, not for what they can’t do, but for what they can do.”
He managed the Orioles from 1968 through 1982, when he retired the first time. By 1985, Baltimore’s beloved O’s had fallen upon hard times, and at the behest of the team’s front office, the “Earl of Baltimore” returned in what proved to be a futile effort to right the ship. At the end of the 1986 season, Mr. Weaver retired for good.
After a sixth-place in the American League in 1967, the Orioles came storming back behind Mr. Weaver’s leadership in 1968, finishing second.
The next year, they won the American League East division championship with a record of 109-53, the best in team history. The Orioles swept the Minnesota Twins 3-0 in the AL championship series, but lost the World Series to New York’s “Miracle Mets.”
In 1970, Mr. Weaver led the Orioles to 108 victories, paced by the slugging of first baseman Boog Powell, who had 35 home runs and 114 runs batted in and was named the American League’s most valuable player.
After again defeating the Twins in three straight games for the AL pennant, the Orioles advanced to the World Series and beat the Cincinnati Reds, four games to one. Twice more, in 1971 and in 1979, Mr. Weaver took the Orioles to the World Series, only to lose both times to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
As an on-the-field manager, Mr. Weaver was primarily a motivator who seldom dwelled on the techniques of hitting, fielding or pitching.
“The only thing Weaver knows about a curve ball,” Oriole Hall-of-Fame pitcher Jim Palmer once said, “is that he couldn’t hit one.”
Off the field, Mr. Weaver kept his distance from his players, sitting alone on airplanes when the team traveled. He could be harsh and sarcastic, and his verbal clashes with Palmer were well publicized.
“Any difference we ever had was overshadowed by the fact that his teams always won,” Palmer said in 1996, after Mr. Weaver’s election to the Hall of Fame. “I enjoyed our relationship even though there was some tension.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/ea ... story.html
[wrapimg=left]http://i.imgur.com/PfQKRA0.jpg[/wrapimg]A scourge to umpires, goad to his players and a delight to fans, Earl Weaver was among the winningest managers in the history of major-league baseball. In his 17 years as chief helmsman of the Baltimore Orioles, his teams won 1,480 games, four American League championships and the 1970 World Series.
Mr. Weaver died Jan. 18 while on a cruise, the team announced. He was of 82. The cause and other details of his death were not immediately known.
Mr. Weaver’s winning percentage as the Orioles’ manager was .583 — the ninth best of all time. Three times he was named manager of the year. Five times his teams had 100-win seasons. The in-your-face bantam was thrown out of 98 games for arguing overzealously with umpires. The Orioles retired his No. 4 uniform, and he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.
As a 5-foot-7 minor-league infielder, Mr. Weaver learned that his dreams of playing in the big leagues were unrealistic.
“It broke my heart, but right then I started becoming a good baseball person,” he told Time magazine in 1979. “When I came to recognize and more important accept my own deficiencies, then I could recognize other players’ inabilities and learn to accept them, not for what they can’t do, but for what they can do.”
He managed the Orioles from 1968 through 1982, when he retired the first time. By 1985, Baltimore’s beloved O’s had fallen upon hard times, and at the behest of the team’s front office, the “Earl of Baltimore” returned in what proved to be a futile effort to right the ship. At the end of the 1986 season, Mr. Weaver retired for good.
After a sixth-place in the American League in 1967, the Orioles came storming back behind Mr. Weaver’s leadership in 1968, finishing second.
The next year, they won the American League East division championship with a record of 109-53, the best in team history. The Orioles swept the Minnesota Twins 3-0 in the AL championship series, but lost the World Series to New York’s “Miracle Mets.”
In 1970, Mr. Weaver led the Orioles to 108 victories, paced by the slugging of first baseman Boog Powell, who had 35 home runs and 114 runs batted in and was named the American League’s most valuable player.
After again defeating the Twins in three straight games for the AL pennant, the Orioles advanced to the World Series and beat the Cincinnati Reds, four games to one. Twice more, in 1971 and in 1979, Mr. Weaver took the Orioles to the World Series, only to lose both times to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
As an on-the-field manager, Mr. Weaver was primarily a motivator who seldom dwelled on the techniques of hitting, fielding or pitching.
“The only thing Weaver knows about a curve ball,” Oriole Hall-of-Fame pitcher Jim Palmer once said, “is that he couldn’t hit one.”
Off the field, Mr. Weaver kept his distance from his players, sitting alone on airplanes when the team traveled. He could be harsh and sarcastic, and his verbal clashes with Palmer were well publicized.
“Any difference we ever had was overshadowed by the fact that his teams always won,” Palmer said in 1996, after Mr. Weaver’s election to the Hall of Fame. “I enjoyed our relationship even though there was some tension.”
