42 Facts About Earl Weaver

Earl Sidney Weaver was an American professional baseball manager, author, and television broadcaster.

Earl Weaver became a minor league manager, and then managed in MLB for 17 years with the Baltimore Orioles.

Earl Weaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.

Earl Weaver was the son of Earl Milton Weaver, a dry cleaner who cleaned the uniforms of the St Louis Cardinals and Browns, and Ethel Genevieve Wakefield.

Earl Weaver was later traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, then moved on to the Orioles, where he began his managing career.

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Earl Weaver started his minor league managerial career in 1956 with the unaffiliated Knoxville Smokies in the South Atlantic League.

Earl Weaver joined the Orioles in 1957 as manager of their Fitzgerald, Georgia, club in the Georgia–Florida League.

Earl Weaver was appointed to replace Gene Woodling as the Orioles' first-base coach on October 3,1967, and spent the first half of the 1968 season in that capacity before succeeding Hank Bauer as manager on July 11.

Earl Weaver's contract was for one year; he would continue to work under one-year contracts throughout his tenure with the team.

Earl Weaver was the first manager since Billy Southworth to win 100 games in three straight seasons.

Earl Weaver loved scoring with three-run home runs, "a great plan if you have Boog Powells and Frank Robinsons and Brooks Robinsons, " according to Palmer.

Earl Weaver expressed plans to retire following the 1982 season prior to Game 6 of that World Series on October 16.

Earl Weaver had originally targeted the expiration of his contract upon the conclusion of the 1980 campaign to step away from the sport.

In 1982, Earl Weaver announced he would retire at the end of the season.

In 1989, Earl Weaver managed the Gold Coast Suns in the new Senior Professional Baseball Association.

Earl Weaver was ejected from both games in a doubleheader three times.

Earl Weaver was twice ejected from games before they even started, both times by Ron Luciano.

Sometimes, even after Earl Weaver had been thrown out of a game, he would phone the Oriole dugout to tell the coaches what moves to make.

Earl Weaver was well known for the humor that often accompanied his ejections.

Earl Weaver had a penchant for kicking dirt on umpires, and for turning his cap backwards whenever he sparred with umpires in order to get as close to them as possible without actually touching them.

On September 15,1977, in Toronto, Weaver asked Springstead to have a tarpaulin covering the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen area removed; the tarp was weighted down by bricks and Earl argued his left fielder could be injured if he ran into the bricks while chasing a foul ball.

Earl Weaver charged out of the dugout and began screaming at Haller, who was already angry at Earl Weaver for publicly questioning his integrity by suggesting he be prohibited from working Tigers games in 1972 because his brother was the Tigers' backup catcher at the time.

Earl Weaver accused Haller of poking him in the chest, and after Haller denied doing so they called each other liars.

One night in 1973 Earl Weaver threw his cap to the ground and began a vehement argument with Luciano.

Luciano's crew-mate Don Denkinger walked over to Earl Weaver's cap, stepped on it with the sharp cleats of both shoes, and slowly twisted back and forth.

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Earl Weaver strongly believed in finishing as high in the standings as possible, even if a championship was not involved: In 1977, the Orioles entered the final weekend of the season tied for second place in the AL East with the Red Sox, three games behind the division-leading Yankees, to play a scheduled three-game series against the Red Sox in Boston, while the Yankees played three at home against Detroit.

Earl Weaver insisted his players maintained a professional appearance at all times.

Earl Weaver allowed mustaches, but not beards, and, as a rule, players had to wear a suit or jacket and tie on board an airplane for a road trip.

Earl Weaver "was fiercely loyal to his players, " said Palmer, who recalled that in 1976 the manager took his side when he was negotiating for a raise with the Orioles' owners.

Earl Weaver made extensive use of statistics to create matchups which were more favorable either for his batter or his pitcher.

Earl Weaver had various notebooks with all sorts of splits and head-to-head numbers for his batters and against his pitchers and would assemble his lineups according to the matchups he had.

In 1984, Earl Weaver was credited by sportscaster Craig Sager, then of CNN, with being the first major league manager to have used computerized statistical records as part of his decision-making process.

Earl Weaver exploited a loophole in the designated hitter rule by listing as the DH one of his starting pitchers who would not be appearing in that day's game, who would then be substituted before their first at-bat.

Earl Weaver used radar guns to track the speed of pitched balls during the 1975 spring training season.

Mike Flanagan figured out that Earl Weaver got less angry when pitchers gave up hits on sliders than when they gave up hits on other pitches.

Earl Weaver might have driven them crazy, but he knew which ones to drive crazy.

Between his stints as manager, Earl Weaver served as a color commentator for ABC television, calling the 1983 World Series along with Al Michaels and Howard Cosell.

Earl Weaver was the lead ABC color commentator in 1983 but was employed by the Baltimore Orioles as a consultant.

Earl Weaver later called the 1984 National League Championship Series for ABC alongside fellow hall of famers Reggie Jackson, who played for Earl Weaver in 1976, and Don Drysdale.

Earl Weaver died about 2 am on January 19,2013, of an apparent heart attack while on an Orioles' fantasy cruise aboard the Celebrity Silhouette in the Caribbean Sea.

Earl Weaver was well known for being one of the game's most colorful characters with a memorable wit, but he was amongst its most loyal.

Earl Weaver made his passion for the Orioles known both on and off the field.