Hutchison heroics guides Blue Jays past Orioles

The Toronto Blue Jays squared their MLB series with the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, courtesy of a strong showing from Drew Hutchison.<br /> <a href="http://cache.images.core.optasports.com/news/baseball/2014/8/7/591561header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cache.images.core.optasports.com/news/baseball/2014/8/7/591561header.jpg" /></a><br /> Blue Jays starter Hutchison almost pitched for the entirety and allowed just one hit - a homer to Chris Davis - as Toronto ran out 5-1 winners.<br /> <br /> The Canadian outfit led from the first innings onwards, with Dioner Navarro and Danny Valencia batting in runs to put the Blue Jays 2-0 up.<br /> <br /> Davis' homer at the top of the second was Hutchison's only glitch and the Blue Jays responded well to conceding a run, as Jose Bautista struck a two-run homer at the bottom of the inning.<br /> <br /> Bautista made it three runs batted in for the match when he doubled in the sixth inning to score Munenori Kawasaki.<br /> <br /> The Blue Jays remain four games behind the American League's (AL) East division-leading Orioles, ahead of their series decider on Thursday.<br /> <br /> Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander could not steer his side to victory, as the New York Yankees offset four errors with eight hits in a 5-1 victory.<br /> <br /> Detroit's advantage atop the AL's Central standings is 3.5 games, after the Kansas City Royals won their third straight with a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.<br /> <br /> The Yankees are five games off the pace in the AL's East, while further back are the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox - despite the pair chalking up wins.<br /> <br /> The Rays downed the high-flying Oakland Athletics 7-3 and the Red Sox edged the St Louis Cardinals 2-1.<br /> <br /> Oakland remains two games clear on top of the AL's West division, after closest rivals the Los Angeles Angels fell to neighbours the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1.<br /> <br /> The Seattle Mariners inflicted the Atlanta Braves' eighth straight loss, courtesy of a 7-3 result.<br /> <br /> Logan Morrison and Dustin Ackley homered for the Mariners.<br /> <br /> David Buchanan's first start on the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies went to script, as he kept the Houston Astros to three hits in over six innings as they ran out 10-3 winners.<br /> <br /> The Texas Rangers made it rare back-to-back wins this season, downing the Chicago White Sox 3-1.<br /> <br /> National League (NL) East leaders the Washington Nationals capitalised on the Braves' slump, downing the New York Mets 7-1 to move four games clear.<br /> <br /> Miami Marlins starter Tom Koehler allowed four runs in the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and they could not recover - going down 7-3.<br /> <br /> NL Central pace-setters the Milwaukee Brewers preserved a one-game lead atop the standings, despite a 7-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants.<br /> <br /> The Cardinals' loss to the Red Sox benefitted the Brewers, although the Pirates win over the Marlins saw them move within 1.5 games of the divisional lead.<br /> <br /> The Cincinnati Reds downed the Cleveland Indians 8-3 to be four games behind Milwaukee.<br /> <br /> A batting powerplay from the Colorado Rockies saw them to a 13-4 shellacking of fellow strugglers the Chicago Cubs.<br /> <br /> The San Diego Padres needed 10 innings to surpass the Minnesota Twins 5-4.

baseball Hutchison mlb SPORTS Hutchison heroics guides Blue Jays past Orioles

The Toronto Blue Jays squared their MLB series with the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, courtesy of a strong showing from Drew Hutchison. ...

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Applying the logic of the shutdown to baseball

A disgruntled Atlanta Braves fan wrote a tongue-in-cheek (we hope) letter to his congressman, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kingston" rel="nofollow">Rep. Jack Kingston</a>, a Georgia Republican, on Oct. 8, the day after the<a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/baseball/braves-blow-lead-eliminated-with-4-3-loss-to-dodge/nbH4T/" rel="nofollow"> Los Angeles Dodgers eliminated the Braves from the playoffs</a>. <div><br /></div><div>We read his letter on <a href="http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/08/applying-government-shutdown-logic-to-the-baseball-playoffs/" rel="nofollow">Hardball Talk</a> and figured we'd share some of it: </div><blockquote class="tr_bq">Like you, I'm sure, I am profoundly disappointed that the Atlanta Braves lost the NLDS last night. And to the Dodgers -- a bunch of California liberals! </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">This outrage cannot be allowed to stand. But the system has failed us. We tried to resolve this issue through traditional means: In last night's game alone, we must have sent batters to the plate at least 40 times. But just because we couldn't score enough runs, the Dodgers refuse to relinquish the title -- and worse, they won't even discuss it.  </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">LA's stubborn refusal to even talk to us about reversing the results of this series is unsportsmanlike and un-American. But there is an answer: If the Dodgers won't listen to the cries of average Americans like you and me, then Congress should outlaw Major League Baseball until the Dodgers cave... </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Just because the Dodgers had more hits, scored more runs, and won more games doesn't make them right. You can help them see that. And if that means the country will be deprived of its national pastime -- well, the Dodgers will have only themselves to blame. </blockquote><div>Read the whole thing <a href="http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/08/applying-government-shutdown-logic-to-the-baseball-playoffs/" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</div>

baseball government shutdown Applying the logic of the shutdown to baseball

A disgruntled Atlanta Braves fan wrote a tongue-in-cheek (we hope) letter to his congressman, Rep. Jack Kingston , a Georgia Republican, on ...

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Retiring Yankee great pays homage to ordinary workers

<span class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr1KBjDsqLIjf4IELRKMqyxwoS7DEH5hRk8SY66IC1P68F9PE1qW_UqHUJu3kDMmqbIeOmEh9X129sgCOtiKzwZLzOZ2K0A8ygWQ7YsFIOh_giJ3F0RKCXNaq0EIKi5z9zCCNTm9jQsvW_/s1600/Mariano_Rivera_allison_7_29_07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr1KBjDsqLIjf4IELRKMqyxwoS7DEH5hRk8SY66IC1P68F9PE1qW_UqHUJu3kDMmqbIeOmEh9X129sgCOtiKzwZLzOZ2K0A8ygWQ7YsFIOh_giJ3F0RKCXNaq0EIKi5z9zCCNTm9jQsvW_/s200/Mariano_Rivera_allison_7_29_07.jpg" width="200" /></a></span>Yankee reliever <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariano_Rivera">Mariano Rivera</a>, one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, is making a farewell tour of the working-class people who make the game what it is.<br /><br />As much as you love to hate the Yankees, you've got to just love Rivera. And as much as you may love to hate the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/sports/baseball/yankees-rivera-spends-his-goodbye-tour-saying-hello.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fsports%2Fbaseball%2Findex.jsonp">New York Times</a>, you've got to love this story about Rivera.<br /><br />David Waldstein describes how he said goodbye at Citi Field in Minneapolis:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...there was no owner in the lavish suite. Across from Rivera, in a semicircle of 15 chairs, sat a group including a security guard, a grounds crew worker, an organist, an usher and a season-ticket holder, all brought in to be in the presence of Rivera, the Yankees’ closer...</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">After <a href="http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/at-43-yankees-rivera-confirms-that-hell-retire-in-fall/">announcing in spring training that he would retire</a> at the end of this season, his 19th with the Yankees, the 43-year-old Rivera has embarked on an unusual tour of American League cities, meeting with ordinary, behind-the-scenes workers and some fans, who drive the machinery of baseball.</blockquote>Here's why he's doing it:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...he wanted to express appreciation for the many people in baseball who were not highly paid players, and to learn more about their lives and work. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">“I just want to say thank you,” Rivera said in an interview last week. “I’ve been so blessed to be able to play this game, but we wouldn’t be able to do it without the help and support of all these people behind the scenes. They make baseball work as much as we do.” </blockquote>What a concept.<br /><br />Read the whole thing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/sports/baseball/yankees-rivera-spends-his-goodbye-tour-saying-hello.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fsports%2Fbaseball%2Findex.jsonp">here</a>. <br /><br />

baseball union Retiring Yankee great pays homage to ordinary workers

Yankee reliever Mariano Rivera , one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, is making a farewell tour of the working-class people who...

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Was the Late Stan Musial Baseball's Greatest Living Hitter? How About Barry Bonds?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial Dead" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/ap_stan_musial_sswm_jt_130120_wg.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">If last Friday, someone asked “Who is baseball’s greatest living hitter?” odds are that even the game’s most rabid fans wouldn’t have immediately responded “Stan Musial.”</span><br /><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Musial, who died on Saturday at the age of 92, had a long and storied career, and was generally loved by friend and foe alike. But Stan the Man was famous, not for earning more than the President (like Babe Ruth), marrying Marilyn Monroe (like Joe DiMaggio), spitting on fans (like Ted Williams) or going on epic benders (like Mickey Mantle), but for hitting a baseball. And for better or for worse, that fame proved somewhat less enduring than those of the other denizens of baseball’s pantheon.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/T-MkfzSy4p8?feature=player_embedded" style="font-size: small;" width="640"></iframe></div></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">But let’s take a look at Musial’s statistical legacy.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">Was Musial, when he was alive, baseball’s Greatest Living Player? No. That honor (probably) goes to Willie Mays. In the 2000 edition of Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, Mays ranks third all time, behind Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner, and just ahead of Negro League legend Oscar Charleston. James ranks Musial 10th, behind Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Walter Johnson and Josh Gibson. Good company, and a look at similar lists generally put Musial just at the bottom of the top 10.</span><br /><br /><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Three further things to note. All the guys in the top 10 besides Mays are dead. And James ranks Musial ahead of Tris Speaker, Hank Aaron (who is alive), Joe DiMaggio, and Lou Gehrig. And James’ list dates back to 2000.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So how does Musial stack up to Mays? A quick glance at their bottom line batting numbers suggests that Musial was not only a great hitter, but a better hitter than Mays.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mays had a substantial edge in home runs 660 to 475, and Musial had an edge, large or small, in almost everything else. Old school fans will point to Musial’s .331 career batting average, 29 points ahead of Mays .302.  Modern fans will find an equally big edge in on base percentage ( .417 to .384) and a small one in slugging percentage (.559 to .557)</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Sabremetric dive puts Musial ahead in OPS, which combines slugging and on base percentage, (.976 to .941) and in adjusted OPS, which takes into account the fact that Mays played longer into the offense-starved 1960s (159 to 156).  The bottom line: Stan Musial had been baseball’s Greatest Living<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hitter</em>. Maybe (More on this in a moment.)</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If Musial was a better hitter than Mays, what makes Mays a greater <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">player</em>than Musial? Fielding and baserunning. The tools that we have to analyze these facets of the game are less precise than those we apply to hitting, but we’re not trying to parse a narrow gap. Stats that assign “runs” to fielding and baserunning give us a way to compare them. Mays was one of the best centerfielders of all time. Musial was an average left fielder. That’s reflected in their career fielding runs (185 for Mays, which puts him in the top 10 all time, versus 50 for Musial, which means he was a serviceable outfielder.)</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">As far as base running, Mays again has a big lead (77 runs to -2 for Musial.)</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And if you add it up, the comparison looks like this: Musial has an 83-run edge in hitting, 885 to 802, while Mays has an edge in everything else that amounts to 214 runs. No amount of quibbling over the these metrics closes this gap enough to change the conclusion. Eagle-eyed fans will note that Hank Aaron slots between Mays and Musial in most hitting metrics and it’s likely that with Musial’s passing, he and not Mays becomes Baseball’s Greatest Hitter.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So far we’ve been spending our time on the bottom line career numbers for these guys, and came to the conclusion that Musial was, by a rather narrow margin, the better hitter.  Here’s where things get messy.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There’s another living hitter who has a .444 career on base percentage, a slugging average of .608 for an OPS of  1.051, 1129 batting runs, and a runs above replacement total of 1,508 that puts him well ahead of both Mays (1437) and Musial (1231).</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">His name is Barry Bonds.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We all understand the issues of taking Bonds’s statistics at face value. He played in an era in which many if not most of the top players have admitted to using performance enhancing drugs and there are reasonable suspicions, if not absolute proof, that he did so too. So it’s not unreasonable to put an asterisk next to those totals.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But what about Musial’s totals? If you scroll up to his seasonal notation, you’ll see that he broke into the majors in 1941. He lost a prime year, 1945, to military service. But he also posted a three-year stretch between 1943 and 1946 in which his<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> lowest</em> seasonal batting average was .347. What was special about those years?  As African-Americans, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and, for that matter, Barry Bonds wouldn’t have been allowed to play.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">because Jackie Robinson had not yet broken the color barrier and major league baseball was still segregated. And indeed, Musial played most of his prime seasons before 1952, winning six of his seven batting titles during an era in which baseball was not yet fully integrated.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Now, of course, there are fundamental differences between using performance-enhancing drugs and playing in pre-integration baseball. But those are questions of ethics, not analysis.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Putting morality aside, it’s clear, that for all his greatness, Stan Musial, like so many of baseball’s all-time greats, enjoyed a very real advantage in compiling those impressive numbers against less than the very best competition.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">How much of an advantage? It’s difficult, if not impossible, to say, except to note that by Bill James’ analysis, two of the top 10 players of all time–Oscar Charleston and Josh Gibson–were barred from major league baseball during parts of Stan Musial’s career.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Was Stan Musial Baseball’s Greatest Living Hitter? Maybe, but perhaps he too merits an asterisk.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">RIP, Donora Greyhound.*</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*An asterisk of a different kind, and a true story:<br />A few years ago, a friend’s young son took a strange, sudden and unexpected interest in Stan Musial. Finally a grown-up asked him why.<br />“Because he’s Jewish like me,” the seven-year old exclaimed with pride.<br />“Stan Musial’s not Jewish,” the grown up said, puzzled.<br />To which the kid replied, “Then why would they call him the Menorah Greyhound?”</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">From: </span><a href="http://www.forbes.com/">http://www.forbes.com</a></div><br /><br /></div>

baseball SPORT Stan Musial Was the Late Stan Musial Baseball's Greatest Living Hitter? How About Barry Bonds?

If last Friday, someone asked “Who is baseball’s greatest living hitter?” odds are that even the game’s most rabid fans wouldn’t have immedi...

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Earl Weaver: Words from a baseball master

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="relative primary-slot padding-top img-border photo-wrapper photo-wrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 10px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; position: relative;"><img alt="" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/01/19/Sports/Images/AP7910040182.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(225, 225, 225); padding: 1px;" /><br /><div class="captionWrap caption" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; max-height: 60px; overflow: hidden; padding: 10px 2px 5px;"><div style="font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><span class="photo-credit credit" style="color: #333333; display: inline-block; font-size: 1em; margin-right: 9px; text-align: right;">William A. Smith/ASSOCIATED PRESS -</span> Orioles Manager Earl Weaver and reliever Don Stanhouse ham it up for photographers in the Orioles locker room after beating the Angels to secure the AL pennant in 1979.</div></div></div><div class="module article-toolbar relative border-bottom padding-top-8 padding-bottom-8 margin-bottom-20 margin-top border-top" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 225, 225); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(228, 228, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; line-height: 10px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 8px 0px 10px; position: relative;"><div class="module byline" style="border-bottom-style: none; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h3 property="dc.creator" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: normal; margin: 17px 0px; padding: 0px;">By <span class="author vcard" style="color: #666666;"><span class="fn"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/2011/02/24/ABcmlyI_page.html" rel="author" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Thomas Boswell</a></span></span>, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/earl-weaver-words-from-a-baseball-master/2013/01/19/8e320e6c-626a-11e2-9940-6fc488f3fecd_story.html#license-8e320e6c-626a-11e2-9940-6fc488f3fecd" id="license-8e320e6c-626a-11e2-9940-6fc488f3fecd" rel="item-license" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;"></a><span class="timestamp updated processed" contenttype="article" datetitle="published" epochtime="1358629717000" pagetype="leaf" style="color: #6e6e6e;">Saturday, January 19, <span class="time special" style="color: #cc131e;">1:08 PM</span></span></h3></div><div class="relative" id="article" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div id="article_body" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="article_body entry-content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><article><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="dateline"></span>In the 1970s, when female reporters were first allowed in <a data-xslt="_http" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals" style="color: black;">baseball</a> locker rooms, I was leaving Earl Weaver’s office one night after his smart, sarcastic postmortem of a tough Orioles defeat. I realized that the only woman on the beat, a relative newcomer, had missed Weaver’s performance.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Entering his office as we all left, she looked worried. Weaver dressed down reporters for dumb questions and at times demanded what you would have done — and why — before he would give his own answer. His office was sometimes a funny place, but also electric with tension: Baseball spoken here.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Eavesdropping is a clubhouse sin. But I wanted to see how cruel Weaver might be. To that point, I’d never met anyone in baseball with much grasp that a female journalist had every right to be there.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“So,” said Weaver, businesslike, “do you want it all or just the highlights?” And he started repeating his best answers as she wrote.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a data-xslt="_http" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/earl-weaver-former-orioles-manager-dies-at-82/2013/01/19/d6e5c1a0-397d-11e2-a263-f0ebffed2f15_story.html" style="color: black;">Earl Weaver died early Saturday at 82</a>. Whatever you think he was, you’re right. But he was probably also, to some degree, the opposite as well. Whenever you assumed he was a man of his time, defined and limited by immersion in his sport, he often showed he was ahead of the times and also, frequently, ahead of his sport.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In death, we will see images of his tirades at umpires, be reminded of his funny wisecracks and of his sense of strategy that predated several “Moneyball” theories by a generation. We’ll see a hard, smart man with a Chesapeake crab’s shell, little social polish and a need to overcompensate for his lack of size and ability as a minor league ballplayer. We all saw that.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But in nine years of covering the Orioles beat, I saw another Weaver, one that doesn’t contradict the first, but rather broadens him. He didn’t open up often, but when he did, you were floored. He knew himself — why he was who he was and why he managed the way he did — as well as anyone I ever covered. We knew he had examined baseball and hadn’t missed much. But he’d also examined himself and analyzed in detail everyone around him, too.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The distance Weaver kept from his players, with no desire whatsoever to be their friend, but rather to be their leader, was his defining trait to me. That distance gave him authority and made every day at the park feel just a little bit dangerous. What would Earl do? What might he not do, if he felt like it? No contemporary team, in my experience, was on its toes in the sense that Weaver’s Orioles always were.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Reggie Jackson only played one season for Weaver but said: “I loved the little Weave. If you made a mental mistake, you saw him waiting for you on the top step of the dugout when you came back in. He’d just say one word, ‘Why?’ And you better have an answer. On his team, if you didn’t ‘think the game,’ you had a problem. He was right in your face.”</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“We are all on speaking terms. We have a little rapport. Not too much,” Weaver told me, regarding his relationships with his players. “You learn the lesson the first day in Class D [what the lowest rung of the minor leagues was once called]. You’re always going to be a rotten bastard, or in my case, a little bastard, as long as you manage. That’s the rule. To keep your job, you fire others or bench them or trade them. You have to do the thinking for 25 guys and you can’t be too close to any of them.”</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From: </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/" style="line-height: 1.5em;">http://www.washingtonpost.com</a></div></article></div></div></div><ul class="inline-list" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></ul></div></div>

baseball Earl Weaver Earl Weaver: Words from a baseball master

William A. Smith/ASSOCIATED PRESS -  Orioles Manager Earl Weaver and reliever Don Stanhouse ham it up for photographers in the Orioles locke...

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