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Title details for The Last Manager by John W. Miller - Available

The Last Manager

How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball

by John W. Miller
ebook
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 4, 2025

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781668030943

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781668030943
      • File size: 19582 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      Starred review from January 1, 2025
      Showman, scrapper, innovator, champion--this baseball manager did it all. His teams won 58 percent of their games and played in four World Series, taking the title in 1970, but Earl Weaver, who managed the Baltimore Orioles from 1968 to 1982 and 1985 to 1986, might be best known for his frenzied arguments with umpires, clips of which are easy to find and hilarious. As vividly recounted by Miller, when the 5-foot-7 Weaver was angry about a call, he'd scream at the offending ump and maybe "beak" him in the chest with the bill of his cap. He'd kick dirt onto home plate and once tore up a rulebook on the field. He was "a drawing card with stage charisma" in an era when Major League Baseball "managers were American royalty and powerful operators within the game." Simultaneously, Weaver modernized the sport, forgoing by-the-book tactics like the sacrifice bunt, consulting data when choosing his lineups, and pioneering the use of radar guns to track pitch speeds. Miller makes no apologies for his subject's flaws, reporting that the heavy-drinking manager passed out in public places and, according to an Orioles executive, ruined one young player's career for arbitrary reasons. The journalist and first-time author builds an evocative backdrop for his account of Weaver's rise. When Weaver played in the minors, he went "picking the lettuce"--collecting dollar bills fans passed through ballpark fences. Later, in the heyday of sporting nicknames, long-suffering umps dubbed him Son of Sam and Ayatollah; he was "Le H�risson, or the Hedgehog" in Canada's French-language press. That his detractors bothered to mock him only bolsters Miller's argument. Unlike many of today's relatively mild, predictable managers, Weaver was a crowd-pleasing ham and a rule-flouting trailblazer. An illuminating, entertaining biography of a mercurial tactician who changed the national pastime.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from March 1, 2025
      Seems just yesterday that Earl Weaver retired from managing his beloved Baltimore Orioles in 1986 after 17 seasons, such was his vibrant, outsize impact on Major League Baseball. Weaver is remembered for his legendary, often comical dustups with umps; his highly quotable, yet often profanity-laced interviews; the consistently superb level of play he drew from otherwise mortal players; and his innovations, including the speed gun and his savvy use of data analysis. Reporter Miller, who wrote Weaver's 2013 obituary for the Wall Street Journal, naturally covers the notorious side of the Hall of Fame manager, including the hardscrabble St. Louis upbringing that stiffened his spine, while also revealing Weaver's lesser-known strengths: an uncommon ability to adapt to circumstances, to put every one of his players in the best position to succeed, and to let go of the grudges that so easily form in the heat of a baseball season. A long overdue, humanizing reassessment of a near-mythic baseball figure.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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