[nfbwatlk] Fw: Baseball Greats Stan Musial and Earl Weaver Die

[Albert Sanchez]

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: Steve 
To: msb-alumni 
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2013 10:36 PM
Subject: Baseball Greats Stan Musial and Earl Weaver Die


We lost two baseball hall of famers today.
And attached is a great little autobiographical song, although they took poetic license with his year of birth which was 1920, not 1921.


Hall of Fame Cardinals OF Stan Musial dies at 92 By R.B. Fallstrom Associated Press ST. LOUIS - Stan Musial, one of baseball's greatest hitters and a Hall
of Famer with the St. Louis Cardinals for more than two decades, has died. He was 92. Stan the Man won seven National League batting titles, was a three-time
MVP and helped the Cardinals capture three World Series championships in the 1940s. The Cardinals announced Musial's death in a news release. They said
he died this evening at his home surrounded by family. Musial was so revered in St. Louis, two statues of him stand outside Busch Stadium. He spent his
entire 22-year career with the Cardinals and made the All-Star team 24 times - baseball held two All-Star games each summer for a few seasons. 


********

Earl Weaver, Hall of Fame manager, dead at 82 By Paul White USA Today Sports The lasting visions of Earl Weaver always will include an irate man with hat
askew, kicking dirt and screaming at an umpire. But the Hall of Fame manager was more innovator than instigator. Weaver, who won four American League pennants
and a World Series during his 17 seasons as manager of the Baltimore Orioles, died early today after collapsing during an Orioles-sponsored cruise. He
was 82. The cause of death was not immediately revealed. It was Weaver who pioneered use of radar guns to measure pitchers' velocity. It was Weaver who
kept a stack of index cards to keep track of pitcher-vs. -batter matchups, long before the computerization of the game's statistics. And, of course, it
was Weaver whose 94 ejections - often flamboyant and even once before a game even started - that made him most memorable. That total still is an American
League record, topped in the majors only be the recently retired Bobby Cox and Hall of Famer John McGraw. The job of arguing with the umpire belongs to
the manager," Weaver once said. It won't hurt the team if he gets thrown out of the game. But he also said, in a 1986 interview, "On my tombstone just
write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived.' " The Orioles are holding their annual FanFest this weekend and a moment of silence was held as the event opened
this morning. Earl Weaver stands alone as the greatest manager in the history of the Baltimore Orioles and one of the greatest in the history of the game,"
Orioles owner Peter Angelos said in a statement released by the team. Earl made his passion for the Orioles known both on and off the field. This is a
sad day. Weaver, who never played in the majors, replaced Hank Bauer as Baltimore manager midway through the 1968 season. His 48-34 record the rest of
that season wasn't enough to catch the Detroit Tigers in the AL race, but the Orioles' second-place finish was a message to the rest of the league. Weaver's
teams would win the next three pennants and the 1970 World Series. Bad ballplayers make good managers," Weaver said. Not the other way around. ... A manager's
job is simple. For 162 games, you try not to screw up all the smart stuff your organization did last December. Weaver's organization, the one he joined
in 1957 at manager of a minor league team in Fitzgerald, Ga. He worked his way through the Baltimore farm system and was added to the major league coaching
staff in 1967. The Orioles team he inherited certainly was talented. It included future Hall of Famers Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson. Another, pitcher
Jim Palmer, would be promoted from the minors in 1969, the year Weaver's heavily favored team lost the World Series to the New York Mets. He got his World
Series victory a year later, winning seven of eight post-season games - a three-game sweep of Minnesota in the AL Championship Series and a five-game World
Series triumph over Cincinnati. Weaver's relationship with his players often was as colorful as his celebrated battles with umpires. Palmer once said,
"The only thing Earl knows about a curveball is that he couldn't hit it. But Weaver hardly was worried about his relationships. I don't know if I said
10 words to Frank Robinson while he played for me," Weaver said. But those players understood the Weaver was ahead of his time. He used to keep these little
cards with what guys used to hit off certain guys," said current Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson, who was an Oriole in Weaver's first five seasons
as manager. This guy was 2-for-6. This guy was 1-for-10. I tried to explain to him, 'Earl, you know what the standard deviation curve is? He says, 'What
the hell is that.' " But he knew how to use players, making frequent use of platoons, having a left- and a right-handed hitter share a position. He also
would list as the designated hitter in his starting lineup a pitcher who he didn't plan to use, then insert a real hitter when that spot in the batting
order came up. Weaver managed the Orioles through the 1982 season, then replaced Joe Altobelli during the 1985 season and retired for good after 1986,
the only losing season of his major league career. His final record was 1,480-1,060, the .583 winning percentage ranking fifth all-time among post-1900
managers. The Orioles retired his No. 4 in 1982 and a plaque with his name and number is on the corner of the home dugout in Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Weaver was know for positioning himself at the corner of a dugout nearest the runway to the clubhouse so he could go up the tunnel and sneak a cigarette,
especially in the late innings of tight games. Reliever Don Stanhouse, who for awhile was Weaver's closer, was nicknamed "Fullpack" for his effect on his
manager. Weaver, who has spent most of his post-baseball life in South Florida, was in Baltimore last summer at an unveiling of a statue honoring him.

Steve
Lansing, MI


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