Just as I had done years ago with the starting line-ups of the 1972 All-Star game, today I add American League manager for that game Earl Weaver to my "missing" All-Star cards, in this case completely creating a new card for the Hall of Fame skipper to get it done:
With
the Baltimore Orioles pennant winning season of 1971 with Weaver at the
helm, the 1972 Midsummer Classic saw the diminutive yet fiery manager
lead the Junior Circuit to a chance to defend their 1971 All-Star game
win against the N.L.
Well
sadly, it was not to be, as the National League got back to "business
as usual" with another win 4-3, something they would keep on doing all
the way through to the 1983 game, much to THIS young A.L. fan through
his elementary and Junior High School days!
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!