Earl Weaver

He only had one losing season in his managerial career, with the 1986 Orioles. Read Less

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

Weaver's oft-quoted managerial philosophy was "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 no matter how far outside the strike zone or how unhittable the pitch is. Read Less

The Red Sox won the first game of the series, 11–10, on September 30, eliminating the Orioles from division title contention; however, after the game Weaver insisted, in an interview with a reporter, that "we're still trying to finish second." The following day, the Orioles won, 8–7, eliminating the Red Sox (the Yankees having lost on both days) and leaving the teams tied for second place headed into the series' and the season's final game, which was rained out, resulting in the Red Sox and Orioles finishing in a tie for second place.

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 on board an airplane for a road trip.

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. Read Less

The Suns failed to make the playoffs in the 1989-90 season and folded after one season.

Weaver was ejected from games at least 91 times during the regular season (98, according to one source) and several more times during post-season play. He was ejected from both ends of a doubleheader three times. He was ejected before a game started twice (both times by Ron Luciano). Luciano alone ejected him from all four games of a minor-league series and eight games in the majors.

He also received four multiple-game suspensions. He was well known for the humor that often accompanied his 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 once told an umpire that he could appear on What's My Line? wearing his mask, chest protector and ball/strike indicator and still nobody would guess he was an umpire. Read Less