94 ejections? Nonsense.
My most bizarre moment with Earl Sidney Weaver came during his second administration which is rarely talked about. That’s because it should have never happened. Love Earl Weaver but he should have never come back and coach for the failing O’s.
Say it’s 1986 and Weaver is managing the O’s in his only losing season (73-89). So the O’s set up a caravan in some shopping center. And they stick this Hall-of-Famer behind a curtain. There were several tables around but since he was behind a curtain, there was nothing happening.
So as the team’s sales representative, did I tear down the curtain and let the customers come up and ask the great manager a few questions?
Heck no. Finally I got the courage to come up to Weaver and ask him a few questions. He was happy to talk to another human being and even told me that I really knew the Orioles well.
You are darn right, Earl. At least I knew the winning Orioles.
I always tell my friends and actually anyone who will listen that Weaver managed the Birds for 14 seasons and his team finished first or second in 12 of them.
Well, I was close. How about 16 straight seasons of winning. Can us Orioles fans recall that? More like 16 consecutive seasons of stinking losing.
Not with Earl Weaver, though. I recall wondering who was this guy when the O’s decided to show Hank Bauer the door. It was midway through the 1968 season. Who are you, Earl Weaver?
And then the O’s started to win. From 1969 through 1971, his juggernaut averaged 106 wins a season. Averaged 106 wins a year. It’s worth repeating that. Of course that also marked the three straight World Series visits.
His so-called worst year was 1972 when the O’s stopped hitting. Baltimore only won 80 games that season and slipped to third place.
The next three seasons his teams posted 90 or more wins and added two more American League division titles. The 1978 club won 90 games and somehow slipped into fourth place. That proceeded another two years averaging 101 wins a season.
That stretch between 1979 and 1982 was an interesting chapter of Orioles history. That whirlwind of campaign in 1979 was fascinating. No one had the O’s in the office pool but they ran away and hid. The next season was another 100 win season. The 1981 season was marred by the dreadful baseball strike. I wonder what would have happened if that didn’t occur. I bet the Birds would have gone to the series again. And 82′ saw that great ending in Baltimore between the Birds and Brewers. The O’s fell in game 162.
I wonder if Joe Altobelli would admit that the 83 World Series title was really a Weaver team.
But why did he come back? I guess he couldn’t stand to see his beloved team fall back to Earth. Good try, Earl.
