Just read it on Yahoo Sports.  Here's the link.  The three run homer was his baby.  Always enjoyed watching his Baltimore teams play.

Rat


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/...33706--mlb.html

He was certainly entertaining.  RIP, Earl.

What a stroke(no pun intended) of bad luck for Earl! Passing away on the same day as Stan Musial. Without question, the unlucky timing of his demise cost Earl one heck of a lot of media attention. It would be like if Kevin Spacey were to die on the same day that Kevin Costner did. There would be little if any attention paid to all of Spacey's great works because all of the chat would be centered around old classics such as'Field of Dreams' and'Dances With Wolves'. All of us baseball fans from the 70's vividly recall some of lunatic rages that Earl Weaver would go into over a bad call going against his Orioles. But could you imagine his reaction to finding out that he died on the same day as the great Stan Musial? Let me assure you that it wouldn't be a pretty sight!

pugsleyaddams wrote: What a stroke(no pun intended) of bad luck for Earl! Passing away on the same day as Stan Musial. Without question, the unlucky timing of his demise cost Earl one heck of a lot of media attention. It would be like if Kevin Spacey were to die on the same day that Kevin Costner did. There would be little if any attention paid to all of Spacey's great works because all of the chat would be centered around old classics such as'Field of Dreams' and'Dances With Wolves'. All of us baseball fans from the 70's vividly recall some of lunatic rages that Earl Weaver would go into over a bad call going against his Orioles. But could you imagine his reaction to finding out that he died on the same day as the great Stan Musial? Let me assure you that it wouldn't be a pretty sight!

I thought about this same thing the other day, except that I thought of the example of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

pugsleyaddams wrote: What a stroke(no pun intended) of bad luck for Earl! Passing away on the same day as Stan Musial. Without question, the unlucky timing of his demise cost Earl one heck of a lot of media attention. It would be like if Kevin Spacey were to die on the same day that Kevin Costner did. There would be little if any attention paid to all of Spacey's great works because all of the chat would be centered around old classics such as'Field of Dreams' and'Dances With Wolves'. All of us baseball fans from the 70's vividly recall some of lunatic rages that Earl Weaver would go into over a bad call going against his Orioles. But could you imagine his reaction to finding out that he died on the same day as the great Stan Musial? Let me assure you that it wouldn't be a pretty sight!

Too true, pugs.  Too true.

Jmodene1 wrote:

pugsleyaddams wrote: What a stroke(no pun intended) of bad luck for Earl! Passing away on the same day as Stan Musial. Without question, the unlucky timing of his demise cost Earl one heck of a lot of media attention. It would be like if Kevin Spacey were to die on the same day that Kevin Costner did. There would be little if any attention paid to all of Spacey's great works because all of the chat would be centered around old classics such as'Field of Dreams' and'Dances With Wolves'. All of us baseball fans from the 70's vividly recall some of lunatic rages that Earl Weaver would go into over a bad call going against his Orioles. But could you imagine his reaction to finding out that he died on the same day as the great Stan Musial? Let me assure you that it wouldn't be a pretty sight!

I thought about this same thing the other day, except that I thought of the example of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

And I thought of it similar as well, but was thinking of the time in the 1930s when Lou Gehrig hit four homers in a game, but it happened on the same day that John McGraw stepped down as Giants manager. All of the New York tabloids had articles on McGraw, and then sort of a "oh by the way, Gehrig homered four times yesterday".

pugsleyaddams wrote: What a stroke(no pun intended) of bad luck for Earl! Passing away on the same day as Stan Musial. Without question, the unlucky timing of his demise cost Earl one heck of a lot of media attention. It would be like if Kevin Spacey were to die on the same day that Kevin Costner did. There would be little if any attention paid to all of Spacey's great works because all of the chat would be centered around old classics such as'Field of Dreams' and'Dances With Wolves'. All of us baseball fans from the 70's vividly recall some of lunatic rages that Earl Weaver would go into over a bad call going against his Orioles. But could you imagine his reaction to finding out that he died on the same day as the great Stan Musial? Let me assure you that it wouldn't be a pretty sight!

Perfect example of this just happened on Christmas eve when both Charles Durning and Jack Klugman died on the same day. All the media could talk about was Klugman who was a very fine actor in his day but Durning was hardly even mentioned. Real shame too b/c if there were a character actor HOF Charles Durning would be a first ballot winner. Some years back i think Yul Brynner and Orson Wells also died on the same day. I used to pull for the Orioles as long as they were not playing the Red Sox in part b/c of Weaver. Great manager that i think was really under appreciated as the years went on. my condolences to the entire Weaver family and friends.

Great examples from BicycleMike and CardinalNation, however in my opinion the Yul-Orson comparison is pretty much a push. Along the same vein of thought, how about all of the people and business' who's damaging stories were destined to break in newspapers on Sept.12th, 2001, but then due to the huge events of that previous day, had their stories pushed from page 1 to page 8...much to their delight.

From accounts, Earl Weaver was a fantastic instructor who taught winning baseball. However it was quite obvious that he didn't give a rip about his players as people, thus he was not the most liked skipper in the history of the game.....which was just fine with Earl as long as they played the game as he thought it should be played.

I got to have dinner with Earl one time. I was so caught up listening to the baseball talk I let a magnificent Kansas City steak go cold on my plate. I'll relate the story if anyone is interested.

I am interested in the story. Please share.

I might have already told it over on the blog at some point, but it goes like this:

During the 1982 World Series my boss forbade the wearing of "baseball caps and shirts" in the shop. An old guy showed up wearing Cardinals stirrups over athletic socks with his shop uniform pants bloused at the knee. So I introduced myself and we became good friends. It turns out he had been a Cards farm hand, and in the early 50's found himself assigned to the Houston Buffaloes in the Texas League. There he met a fellow St. Louisan, teammate Earl Weaver, and they became friends.

A few years later, during Earl's second tour as Baltimore's manager, my friend invited me to an Orioles game in Kansas City. That was in 1985 and we drove out to K.C.during 4th of July weekend. After the game we had dinner with Earl and Cal Ripken, Sr., one of his coaches. Earl and Cal told stories and Earl and my friend reminisced about the old days in the Cards system.

One story Earl told was about how he was having a heated arguement with an umpire, and had thrown down his cap. Another umpire, Don Denkinger, walked up and ground Earl's cap into the dirt with his cleats. Concluding his story, Earl looked at me and said "You have to watch out for Denkinger, he's an a$$hole".

Three months later Denkinger blew the call in game 6 that likely cost the Cards the championship.

blingboy wrote: I might have already told it over on the blog at some point, but it goes like this:

During the 1982 World Series my boss forbade the wearing of "baseball caps and shirts" in the shop. An old guy showed up wearing Cardinals stirrups over athletic socks with his shop uniform pants bloused at the knee. So I introduced myself and we became good friends. It turns out he had been a Cards farm hand, and in the early 50's found himself assigned to the Houston Buffaloes in the Texas League. There he met a fellow St. Louisan, teammate Earl Weaver, and they became friends.

A few years later, during Earl's second tour as Baltimore's manager, my friend invited me to an Orioles game in Kansas City. That was in 1985 and we drove out to K.C.during 4th of July weekend. After the game we had dinner with Earl and Cal Ripken, Sr., one of his coaches. Earl and Cal told stories and Earl and my friend reminisced about the old days in the Cards system.

One story Earl told was about how he was having a heated arguement with an umpire, and had thrown down his cap. Another umpire, Don Denkinger, walked up and ground Earl's cap into the dirt with his cleats. Concluding his story, Earl looked at me and said "You have to watch out for Denkinger, he's an a$$hole".

Three months later Denkinger blew the call in game 6 that likely cost the Cards the championship.

Awesome story Bling. Would have to be a special moment to let a steak like that go cold. Getting hungry. LUNCH!

Agree 100 percent, cnh! Thank you, bb.

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--- blingboy wrote:

I got to have dinner with Earl one time. I was so caught up listening to the baseball talk I let a magnificent Kansas City steak go cold on my plate.

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Everyone knows that a nice cold slab of prime steak placed over a recently punched eye socket does wonders in warding off a black eye. I would think Bling knew the odds were pretty fair that having dinner with the likes of Earl Weaver could very well result in some sort of altercation....either by Earl himself or by someone at a nearby table. Another two feisty skippers from that era were Leo "The Lip" Durocher and Billy Martin. I wonder if push came to shove, which one of those three were the toughest? Tough call, but I'd have to put my money on Billy.