RIP Earl Weaver

Oh, I don't know, Vers. There are considerably more people these days who remember Weaver than saw Musial.

 

That's a reasonable point. But boys of all eras (well, all post-World War II eras) grew up idolizing Stan Musial. He was one of the greats. Earl Weaver was a manager.

 

Not that one death is more "important" than another, but Earl managed a lot more recently than Musial played, so he's probably more relevant to more baseball fans.

 

FWIW, we played it pretty even on facing tabloid pages. It wasn't a mirror image, but we had career stats for both and a solid 22-24" obit.

 

All due respect to Weaver, who is a very deserving Hall of Famer and whose death was a big deal in its own right, but I consider Musial in the top echelon of Hall members.

In my case, Weaver was more my time, but I also read everything I could about baseball history when I was a kid in the 70s, so I personally knew all about Musial, though he stopped playing about five years before I was born.

 

This photo is so great in so many ways, from the cigarettes and Schlitz cans to Stanhouse's "Stan the Man Unusual" t-shirt to Weaver's appendectomy scar.

 

From the SI Vault Twitter feed.
Earl and his wife Marianna outside their home in 1980.
Looks like astroturf around the pool.

 

Roger Angell on Earl Weaver.

www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2013/01/postscript-earl-weaver-1930-2013.html

 

That's not even close to true. I grew up in the '70s-'80s (1982 Brewers best team EVAH!) and even among older players, you'd have Mantle and Mays and Williams and Aaron and then some pitchers. I don't think Stan Musial's name would crack the top 10 of multigenerational idols. Not to say he wasn't as good as them, he just didn't have the reach.

Earl Weaver, though -- even though I didn't know how smart he was back then, he was always high on my list for his tirades. Probably the most famous manager of his day with the possible exception of Lasorda.

 

Let's not quibble. They were pitching assignments. I mean the left-right platooning and pinch-hitting, preferring guys who got on base, disdaining the steal ... stuff like that

 

Interesting. I grew up probably a decade and a half after you, and I always counted Stan Musial among my all-time baseball icons, with those guys you mentioned and Roberto Clemente and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. And I was nowhere close to St. Louis and didn't know any Cardinals fans.

Earl Weaver was retired by the time I could read a box score, so while I knew who he was from reading books, I never valued him, particularly not over players. Even as a kid I knew managing in baseball wasn't that fucking important.

 

Thanks for that link. Can't get enough of the Earl stories (although even legends like Angell make mistakes - Terry Crowley was not a switch-hitter).