Earl Weaver passed away Saturday at the age of 82. The Hall of Fame baseball manager and coach spent his entire career in the Major Leagues with the Baltimore Orioles. Born on August 14, 1930 Earl Weaver started out playing baseball in the minor leagues at the age of 17. He was signed by his hometown St. Louis Cardinals and played in the minors for several years before finding a career as a coach with the Baltimore Orioles in 1957 with their farm team in Georgia. After managing and coaching in the Orioles' farm system for ten years, he was promoted to Majors as the team's first base coach. He was only with the team for a few months before being named the club's manager.
Weaver's long managerial career began. As the Orioles' manager, he led the team to four American League pennants (1969, 1970, 1971, 1979) and a World Series Championship in 1970. He retired in 1982 after the Orioles lost to the Brewers in the post season. After spending a few years in retirement, Weaver was talked into managing the Orioles once again at the age of 55 and spent two more years ad the team's manager before retiring for good in 1986. Earl Weaver was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1996. His record as a manager was 1,480-1,060. He had five 100 plus win seasons and only one losing season.
Besides being a baseball manager, Earl Weaver also worked as a color analyst for ABC, a radio show, wrote three books on coaching baseball and a baseball computer game (Earl Weaver Baseball). Weaver passed away from a heart attack. He's survived by his wife of 49 years Marianna. The two were on an Orioles' themed cruise aboard the "Celebrity Silhouette". The game of baseball has never had an innovative mind for the game like Earl Weaver. He truly was one of a kind.
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