Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball

The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball

Miller, John W.

Hardcover

AthletesBaseball & Softball

Publisher Price: $30.00

ISBN10: 1668030926
ISBN13: 9781668030929
Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Published: Mar 4 2025
Pages: 368
Weight: 1.15
Height: 1.50 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
Baseball books don't get any better than this...Earl Weaver has at last been given his due. --George F. Will

Vivid...Most sports books are pop flies to the infield. Miller's is a screaming triple into the left field corner. --Dwight Garner, The New York Times

The first major biography of legendary Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver--who has been described as the Copernicus of baseball and the grandfather of the modern game--The Last Manager is a wild, thrilling, and hilarious ride with baseball's most underappreciated genius, and one of its greatest characters.

Long before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History's feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982.

When Weaver was hired by the Orioles, managers were still seen as coaches and inspirational leaders, more teachers of the game than strategists. Weaver invented new ways of building baseball teams, prioritizing on-base average, elite defense, and strike throwing. Weaver was the first manager to use a modern radar gun, and he pioneered the use of analytical data. By moving six-foot four-inch Cal Ripken Jr. to shortstop, Weaver paved the way for a generation of plus-sized superstar shortstops, such as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. He foreshadowed almost everything that Bill James, Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, and hundreds of other big-brain baseball types would later present as innovations.

Beyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball character. Major League Baseball is show business, and Weaver understood how much of his job was entertainment. Weaver's legendary outbursts offered players cathartic relief from their own frustration, signaled his concern for the team, and fired up fans. In his frequent arguments with umpires, he hammed it up for the crowds, faked heart attacks, ripped bases out of the ground, and pretended to toss umpires out of the game. Weaver also fought with his players, especially Jim Palmer, but that creative tension contributed to stunning success and a hilarious clubhouse. During his tenure as major-league manager, the Orioles won the American League pennant in 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1979, each time winning more than 100 games.

The Last Manager uncovers the story of Weaver's St. Louis childhood with a mobster uncle, his years of minor-league heartbreak, and his unlikely road to becoming a big-league manager, while tracing the evolution of the game from the old-time baseball of cross-country trains and desk contracts to the modern era of free agency, video analysis, and powerful player agents. Weaver's career is a critical juncture in baseball history. He was the only manager to hold a job during the five years leading up to and the five years after free agency upended the sport in 1976.

Weaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. No manager belongs there more, wrote Tom Boswell. Weaver encapsulates the fire, the humor, the brains, the childishness, the wisdom and the goofy fun of baseball. The Last Manager tells the story of one man--belligerent, genius, infamous--who left his mark on the game for generations.

1 different editions

Also available

Also from

Miller, John W.

View All

Also in

Baseball & Softball

View All