Earl Weaver

Earl Sidney Weaver grew up in St. Louis, where his father ran a dry-cleaning shop that serviced the uniforms of both the Cardinals and the Browns. The boy began wandering through the Sportsman's Park clubhouse at six, never grew taller than five feet seven, played 13 minor league seasons as a second baseman without reaching the majors, and then managed the Baltimore Orioles for 17 years with a ferocity that produced 1,480 victories, four pennants, one World Series championship, five seasons of 100 or more wins, and zero losing seasons across his first 15 years. Weaver kept white index cards in the dugout with batter-versus-pitcher matchup data decades before anyone called it analytics, argued with umpires so relentlessly that he was ejected roughly 94 times (he turned his cap backward during confrontations so the bill wouldn't get in the way), and feuded with Jim Palmer for 14 consecutive seasons. "The key to winning baseball games," Weaver said, "is pitching, fundamentals, and three-run homers." The Veterans Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame in 1996.

St. Louis

Weaver was born on August 14, 1930. His father Earl Milton worked as a dry cleaner, and the uniforms that came through the shop connected the boy to a world he spent the rest of his life trying to reach. He signed with the Cardinals at 17 for $1,500, choosing their no-strings offer over the Browns' $2,000 contingent bonus, but his arm was weak, his bat was light, and 13 years of minor league baseball confirmed what the Cardinals suspected from the start. The big leagues never called. Weaver managed in the Orioles farm system for more than a decade before GM Harry Dalton promoted him to Baltimore on July 11, 1968, when the team fired Hank Bauer at 43-37. Weaver negotiated a $28,000 salary before accepting.

The Orioles won 109 games in 1969, swept Minnesota in the ALCS, and lost the World Series to the Miracle Mets. In 1970, they won 108, swept the Twins again, and beat the Reds in the World Series for the only championship of Weaver's career. In 1971, they won 101 and produced four 20-game winners in the same rotation (Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally, and Pat Dobson), the last time any staff accomplished the feat. Sports Illustrated called the 1971 Orioles "The Best Damn Team in Baseball." Weaver won three consecutive pennants from 1969 through 1971, a feat only a handful of AL managers accomplished in the twentieth century.

The Cards

Weaver managed from index cards before the rest of the sport understood what the data could do. He tracked every plate appearance by every batter against every pitcher, used the numbers to construct platoons and set lineups, and moved Cal Ripken Jr. from third base to shortstop on July 1, 1982, over GM Hank Peters' objections, because the cards told him the kid could hit. Ripken won Rookie of the Year and redefined the position for power-hitting shortstops. When outfielder Pat Kelly told Weaver he planned to walk with the Lord, Weaver said, "I'd rather you walked with the bases loaded."

Weaver guarded outs the way other managers guarded runs. "On offense, your most precious possessions are your 27 outs." He rejected small ball, calling the bunt a waste of an out, and believed the three-run homer was the most efficient offensive play in the game. "If you play for one run," he said, "that's all you'll get." Under his watch, 22 different 20-win seasons were recorded by Orioles pitchers, and six Cy Young Awards were won by pitchers who worked for him.

The Palmer feud was part theater and part genuine friction, and it produced some of the best dialogue in the history of managing. Palmer on Weaver's pitching knowledge: "The only thing Earl knows about big-league pitching is that he couldn't hit it." Weaver on Palmer's hypochondria: "He was Mr. Perfection. When things don't go right, you've got to accept it. He didn't want to." When an umpire handed Weaver a rule book during an argument and said "Here, use mine," Weaver answered, "That's no good. I can't read Braille."

The Caribbean

Weaver retired after the 1982 season with a farewell ceremony lasting 45 minutes and a crowd chanting "Earl! Earl!" He returned in 1985 at owner Edward Bennett Williams' persuasion (the reported salary was $500,000, and Weaver said inflation was eating his retirement fund), managed a 73-89 season in 1986 that produced the first last-place finish in franchise history, and walked away for good. Frank Robinson, who played under Weaver and managed himself, said, "He does the best job of any manager I've ever known at keeping 25 ballplayers relatively happy. He doesn't do it by being their friend; he does it by never, but never, taking anything personally."

Weaver wrote three books, called games for ABC alongside Al Michaels and Howard Cosell, and titled his autobiography "It's What You Learn After You Know It All That Counts." On January 19, 2013, aboard the Celebrity Silhouette cruise ship during an Orioles fantasy cruise in the Caribbean, Weaver collapsed in his stateroom at roughly 2 a.m. with his wife Marianna at his side. He was 82 and died of an apparent heart attack. His first wife Jane's parting words during their separation years earlier served as the epitaph his friends repeated most often. "Earl, the only thing worse than you being gone is you being home."