On the blog today we once again go and give former Baltimore Orioles skipper Earl Weaver the "All-Star" treatment with a "missing" all-star card, this time a 1972 edition celebrating his 1971 position as the manager for the A.L. in the now legendary Midsummer Classic:
Weaver's
road to skipper in the 1971 All-Star game was all thanks to his
incredible 1970 season when he guided the juggernaut Baltimore Orioles
to what ended up being his only title over his Hall of Famer managerial
career, seeing the Birds beat the up-and-coming Cincinnati Reds after
steam-rolling through the regular season to the tune of a 108-54 record,
this after a monster 1969 season that saw the team win 109 games.
Incredible.
I loved Earl Weaver
as a kid, who paired up nicely with my favorite manager, Billy Martin:
fiery, combative, and always ready to stick his neck out for his team.
By the time he
retired after the 1986 season, Weaver finished with a record of 1480
wins against 1060 losses, for a very nice .583 winning percentage, with
four Pennants and a World Championship in 1970, posting a
winning season every year of his tenure except his very last, when he
finished 73-89.
In 1996 he was voted
into the Hall of Fame as a manager, celebrating one of the most
colorful managers of the era, and rightly so!