Earl Weaver Charity Autograph page

Note: A letter has been sent on April 25, 2008 to this athlete to provide their contact and charity information. Once we receive their response, their information will be entered below. This has been done to ensure that the information is correct and to protect the athlete's privacy in case they do not want their information to be posted on the Internet.

Contact Information (where autograph requests should be mailed to):

Contact Person and/or Name of Organization _____________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________________________

Charity Information:

Name of charity or charities the donations go to __________________________________________

Signing Habits:

1) If you sign items for free, what are the maximum number of items you will sign for free? ___________

4) What can fans do to make it easier for you to sign their items? __________________________________________________________________

Donation Charges:

Item	Price	Item	Price
Cards		Flats up to 8x10
Flats up to 16x20		Baseballs/small footballs
Magazines		Flats larger than 16x20
Mini Helmets		Football/Basketball
Large Helmet		Bats
Jerseys		Inscriptions
Other _________		Other _________

Who should the check/money order be made out to: __________________________________________

Earl Weaver's Message to the Fans

Biography

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. 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.

****

Manager

Born: August 14, 1930 (1930-08-14) (age 77)
Batted: right Threw: right
MLB debut
July 7, 1968
for the Baltimore Orioles
Final game
October 5, 1986
for the Baltimore Orioles
Career statistics
Games 2541
Win Loss-Record 1480-1060
Winning % .583
Teams
Baltimore Orioles (1968-1982, 1985-1986)

Career highlights and awards
American League Champion: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979
World Series Champion: 1970

Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Elected 1996
Vote Veterans' Committee

****

Managerial career
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 100+ win seasons in 1969 (109), 1970 (108), 1971 (101), 1979 (102), and 1980 (100). His only major league team with a winning percentage of less than .500 was the 1986 Orioles.

A dubious distinction
Weaver held the dubious distinction of being ejected from more games than anyone in American League history, with 97 ejections to his credit. (In 2007, Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox set a higher Major League ejection mark.) Weaver is well known for the humor that often accompanied the ejections. During one particular tirade with an umpire, Weaver headed to the dugout screaming, "I'm going to check the rule-book on that" to which the umpire replied, "Here, use mine." Weaver shot back, "That's no good - I can't read Braille." He was also notorious for giving profanity-laced interviews.

Philosophy
Weaver's managerial philosophy, outlined in Weaver on Strategy, is oft-quoted as "Pitching, Defense, and the Three Run Homer". Weaver eschewed the use of so-called "inside baseball" tactics such as the stolen base, the hit and run, or the sacrifice bunt, preferring a patient approach ("waiting for the home run"), saying "If you play for one run, that's all you'll get" and "On offense, your most precious possessions are your 27 outs". Weaver claims to have never had a sign for the hit and run, citing that the play makes both the baserunner and the hitter vulnerable, as the baserunner is susceptible to being caught stealing and the hitter is required to swing at any pitch thrown.

Weaver also insisted that his players maintain a professional appearance at all times. He allowed mustaches, but not beards, and, as a rule, players had to wear a suit or jacket and tie onboard an airplane for a road trip.

Extensive usage of statistics
Weaver made extensive use of statistics to create matchups that were favorable either for his batter or his pitcher. He 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. For example, despite the fact that Gold Glove shortstop Mark Belanger was an inept hitter by any objective standard, in 19 plate appearances he hit .625 with a .684 on-base percentage and .625 slugging percentage against Jim Kern and would be slotted high in the lineup when facing him. Similarly, Boog Powell, the 1970 American League MVP, hit a meager .178/.211/.278 against Mickey Lolich over 96 plate appearances and would be substituted for, possibly with a hitter like Chico Salmon, who hit a much more acceptable .300/.349/.400 against the same pitcher.

Expert usage of the bench
Weaver made expert use of the bench. In the Oriole teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Weaver made frequent use of platoons, with the most obvious example being the use of Gary Roenicke and John Lowenstein in left field, absent affordable full-time solutions. Weaver also exploited a loophole in the Designated Hitter rule by listing a starting pitcher as a DH so as not to lose a hitter should the opposing pitcher be ineffective or get injured before it was the DH's turn in the batting order. A rule was created to stop the use this tactic, allegedly (by Weaver) because it was distorting pinch-hitting statistics.

Weaver pioneered the use of radar guns to track the velocity of pitches during the 1972 spring training season.

Broadcasting career
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. Weaver was the #1 ABC analyst in 1983, but was also employed by the Baltimore Orioles as a consultant. At the time, ABC had a policy preventing an announcer who was employed by a team from working games involving that team. So whenever the Orioles were on the primary ABC game, Weaver worked the backup game. This policy forced Weaver to resign from the Orioles consulting position in October in order to be able to work the World Series for ABC.

Earl Weaver Baseball
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.

Playing career
Weaver the player was a right-handed hitting and throwing second baseman 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." After Palmer's skills began to decline and he was no longer a regular starter, Weaver defended his actions by claiming he'd given Palmer "more chances than my ex-wife." He has also directed such a remark at Mike Cuellar, ace of the 1969 staff.

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.

****

References
[3] - Mark Belanger's line against Jim Kern.
[4] - Boog Powell's lines against pitchers, minimum 50 PA
[5] - Chico Salmon's line against Mickey Lolich

****
Source: Wikipedia.org at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Weaver

Earl Weaver

Contact Information (where autograph requests should be mailed to):

Charity Information:

Signing Habits:

Donation Charges:

Earl Weaver's Message to the Fans

Biography

Send mail to thedigitalauthor@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified: 04/28/09

Send mail to thedigitalauthor@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 04/28/09