page_title: Earl Weaver
section_title: Managerial career
hierarchical_section_title: Earl Weaver / Managerial career
caption_attribution_description: English: Professional baseball manager Earl Weaver
context_page_description: Earl Sidney Weaver was an American professional baseball manager, author, and television broadcaster. After playing in minor league baseball, he retired without playing in Major League Baseball. He became a minor league manager, and then managed in MLB for 17 years with the Baltimore Orioles. Weaver's style of managing was summed up in the quote: "pitching, defense, and the three-run homer." He did not believe in placing emphasis on "small ball" tactics such as stolen bases, hit and run plays, or sacrifice bunts. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.
context_section_description: Weaver started his minor league managerial career in 1956 with the unaffiliated Knoxville Smokies in the South Atlantic League. He joined the Orioles in 1957 as manager of their Fitzgerald, Georgia, club in the Georgia–Florida League. The Orioles moved him up to their franchise in Dublin, Georgia, in 1958, and to their Aberdeen, South Dakota, club in 1959. In 1960, he managed the Fox Cities Foxes in Wisconsin in the Class-B Three-I League. He advanced to the AA Elmira Pioneers in 1962 and to the AAA Rochester Red Wings in 1966.
  As a minor league manager, he compiled a record of 841 wins and 697 defeats (.547) with three championships in 11½ seasons. 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.
  During his tenure as major league manager, the Orioles won the American League pennant in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1979. In 1969, the Orioles were defeated in the World Series in five games by the New York Mets team known as the Miracle Mets. In 1970, the Orioles won the World Series by defeating the Cincinnati Reds (The "Big Red Machine") in five games. In 1971, the Orioles lost the World Series in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pirates pitcher Steve Blass pitched a complete game and gave up four hits in the deciding seventh game, allowing the Orioles to score only one run.
  In 1979, the Orioles again lost the World Series in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pitchers Jim Bibby, Don Robinson, Grant Jackson, and Kent Tekulve held the Orioles to four hits and one run in the deciding seventh game. In 1982, Weaver announced he would retire at the end of the season, one in which the Orioles played poorly for the first half of the year before climbing in the standings to just three games behind going into a season-ending four-game series against the division-leading Brewers at Memorial Stadium. The Orioles beat them handily in the first three games to pull into a first-place tie. The final game of the series, and the season, on October 3, would decide the AL East title. Televised nationally on ABC, the Orioles suffered a crushing 10-2 loss. After the game, the crowd called for Weaver to come out. This tribute to the retiring Weaver provided intense emotion against the backdrop of the season-ending defeat, as Weaver, in tears, stood on the field and applauded back to the fans, and shared words and an embrace with Brewers manager Harvey Kuenn.
  Owner Edward Bennett Williams coaxed Weaver out of retirement midway through the 1985 season, but he retired for good after the 1986 season, the only full losing season of his major league career. 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). Weaver had a record average 94.3 wins per season.
  In 1989, Weaver managed the Gold Coast Suns in the new Senior Professional Baseball Association. Less than a week into the season, Weaver was ejected from his first game. He later commented, "These umpires are high school rejects. The league went for the cheapest umpiring association. There should be no league if this continues." The Suns failed to make the playoffs in the 1989–90 season and folded after one season.
caption: Weaver in 1977 with umpire Ken Kaiser
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