Editorial Content for The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Earl Weaver was what is known as a “baseball lifer.” From the time he signed a minor league contract with his hometown St. Louis Cardinals in 1948 at the age of 17, he never had a full-time job outside the game. But like the majority of players at that time, he did have to supplement his income with off-season gigs like selling insurance and cars.
The tenacity and dedication that Weaver put into his craft, at the expense of his overall health and family life, make for one of the better baseball books in recent years.
"The tenacity and dedication that Weaver put into his craft, at the expense of his overall health and family life, make for one of the better baseball books in recent years."
Although a solid athlete, Weaver never made it to the Majors as a player, whether it was because of his small size (5’7”, barely 160 pounds) or the perception that he just wasn’t good enough, hampered by a weak arm and lack of speed. He had one shot to make it to the Cardinals following an impressive spring training, but his manager at the time added himself to the roster while cutting Weaver. Who knows what would have happened had he made good as a player?
Weaver became the manager of a low-classification minor league team at the age of 25 in 1956. By the time he was 37, he was at the helm of the Baltimore Orioles, leading the franchise to heretofore unknown success.
Journalist John W. Miller employs a year-by-year format in THE LAST MANAGER, all the while reporting on Weaver’s pugnacious attitude, which was both a help and a hindrance. He was a fierce umpire-baiter, finishing in fourth place when it came to managerial ejections. But he also was among the leaders in winning percentage and all-time victories.
Weaver was among the first to use a form of pre-sabermetric analytics before there were even personal computers. He kept track of how his hitters did against opposing pitchers (and vice versa for his own pitching staff). Whatever he was doing, it worked. Over his 17 years at the helm, he won six division titles, four American League pennants, and one World Series. His team won more than 100 games five times. He was a two-time Major League Manager of the Year and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.
Despite the comfort of success, Weaver was far from angelic. He was a borderline juvenile delinquent with a prominent uncle who was pretty high up in the St. Louis gambling scene. He also had a serious drinking problem. But at least he wasn’t as bad as his contemporary, Billy Martin, another talented manager who famously got into alcohol-fueled physical altercations with his own players as well as civilians.
In 2013, Weaver was on a Caribbean cruise for Orioles fans when he suddenly died at the age of 82. Miller does not get into much further detail about his passing.
The title of the book is about as perfect as you can get (even though my pet peeve is the use of superlatives). Although there are obviously still managers today, they do not have the same clout in this Moneyball, data-driven era where every stat and movement is analyzed. They also don’t have the leverage with high-salaried lineups.
“The popularization of analytics and probability theory in twenty-first century baseball…raised Earl Weaver’s profile,” Miller writes. “‘Weaver was the Copernicus of baseball,’ Tom Verducci had written in Sports Illustrated in 2009. ‘Just as Copernicus understood heliocentric cosmology before the invention of the telescope, Weaver understood smart baseball a generation before it was empirically demonstrated.’”
Teaser
Long before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History’s feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982. Beyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball character. Major League Baseball is show business, and Weaver understood how much of his job was entertainment. THE LAST MANAGER uncovers the story of Weaver’s St. Louis childhood with a mobster uncle, his years of minor-league heartbreak, and his unlikely road to becoming a big-league manager, while tracing the evolution of the game from the old-time baseball of cross-country trains and “desk contracts” to the modern era of free agency, video analysis and powerful player agents.
Promo
Long before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History’s feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982. Beyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball character. Major League Baseball is show business, and Weaver understood how much of his job was entertainment. THE LAST MANAGER uncovers the story of Weaver’s St. Louis childhood with a mobster uncle, his years of minor-league heartbreak, and his unlikely road to becoming a big-league manager, while tracing the evolution of the game from the old-time baseball of cross-country trains and “desk contracts” to the modern era of free agency, video analysis and powerful player agents.
About the Book
The first major biography of legendary Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver --- who has been described as “the Copernicus of baseball” and “the grandfather of the modern game” --- THE LAST MANAGER is a wild, thrilling and hilarious ride with baseball’s most underappreciated genius, and one of its greatest characters.
Long before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History’s feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982.
When Weaver was hired by the Orioles, managers were still seen as coaches and inspirational leaders, more teachers of the game than strategists. Weaver invented new ways of building baseball teams, prioritizing on-base average, elite defense and strike throwing. Weaver was the first manager to use a modern radar gun, and he pioneered the use of analytical data. By moving six-foot four-inch Cal Ripken Jr. to shortstop, Weaver paved the way for a generation of plus-sized superstar shortstops, such as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. He foreshadowed almost everything that Bill James, Billy Beane, Theo Epstein and hundreds of other big-brain baseball types would later present as innovations.
Beyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball character. Major League Baseball is show business, and Weaver understood how much of his job was entertainment. Weaver’s legendary outbursts offered players cathartic relief from their own frustration, signaled his concern for the team, and fired up fans. In his frequent arguments with umpires, he hammed it up for the crowds, faked heart attacks, ripped bases out of the ground, and pretended to toss umpires out of the game. Weaver also fought with his players, especially Jim Palmer, but that creative tension contributed to stunning success and a hilarious clubhouse. During his tenure as major-league manager, the Orioles won the American League pennant in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1979, each time winning more than 100 games.
THE LAST MANAGER uncovers the story of Weaver’s St. Louis childhood with a mobster uncle, his years of minor-league heartbreak, and his unlikely road to becoming a big-league manager, while tracing the evolution of the game from the old-time baseball of cross-country trains and “desk contracts” to the modern era of free agency, video analysis and powerful player agents. Weaver’s career is a critical juncture in baseball history. He was the only manager to hold a job during the five years leading up to and the five years after free agency upended the sport in 1976.
Weaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. “No manager belongs there more,” wrote Tom Boswell. “Weaver encapsulates the fire, the humor, the brains, the childishness, the wisdom and the goofy fun of baseball.” THE LAST MANAGER tells the story of one man --- belligerent, genius, infamous --- who left his mark on the game for generations.
Audiobook available, read by Johnny Heller
