In his prime, Earl Weaver could be loud, profane and abusive. And that was around his friends. To umpires, he was the manager they loved to hate. To Jim Palmer, he was Napoleon, only shorter. And tomorrow, they put him in the baseball Hall of Fame as one of the winningest managers of all time.
Well, there have been lots of good managers, but only one who could come up with this exchange. Outfielder Pat Kelly wanted to lead a chapel meeting in the clubhouse, but Weaver objected. Said Kelly: "Earl, don't you want me to walk with the Lord?" Growled Weaver: "I'd rather have you walk with the bases loaded."
Weaver has long since retired to Florida and a life of golf. Maybe he has mellowed. Or maybe he's kicking dirt on his golfing partners. Wherever he is and whatever he's doing, he's still the Earl of Baltimore, a town with a definite soft spot for loudmouths. H.L. Mencken wrote like a loudmouth. William Donald Schaefer governed like a loudmouth. And Earl? If Sam Kinison had lived, he could have played him in the movie.
