Earl Weaver

The Orioles announced today that they will wear the above patch on their jerseys throughout this season in honor of Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, who died last month at age 82 . The team will also honor Weaver with a pregame moment of silence and video tribute before Saturday's Grapefruit League opener against the Minnesota Twins at Ed Smith Stadium. In addition, Weaver's No. 4 will be stenciled onto the grass outside of the Orioles dugout in foul territory.    

Let's be honest. It isn't really that hard to tug at the heartstrings of a Baltimore sports fan. This is a town where nostalgia lives full-time, so Saturday's Oriole Park tribute to Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver couldn't help but strike the right note. Weaver probably took a break from arguing with the Big Umpire in the Sky to listen in while Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken, Rick Dempsey, Buck Showalter, National Baseball Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson and Earl's son, Mike Weaver, remembered the greatest manager in the history of the Orioles franchise.

For many, the lasting image of Earl Weaver will be that of a fiery, short man kicking dirt and spewing his displeasure at an umpire. Weaver's personality - described as "combative," "irascible" and also "caring" - carried from his childhood to a lengthy stint in the minor leagues and then through a Hall of Fame managerial career with the Orioles and beyond. A timeline of Weaver's life: 1930: Earl Sydney Weaver is born Aug. 14 in St. Louis. Raised in a tough section of the city, Weaver's pugnacious personality developed early.

Hoping to allow more fans to honor late manager Earl Weaver, the Orioles are pushing back their "A Celebration of Earl" to 6 p.m. on Saturday April 20. The event, to be held at Camden Yards, had initially been scheduled to start at 2 p.m. that day. The celebration will include a video tribute and a collection of guest speakers, including fellow Hall of Famers Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson. Current manager Buck Showalter is also scheduled to speak at the event, as will National Baseball Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson and Earl's son Mike.

Earl Weaver was a reporter's dream-come-true. If you were a young columnist covering the Orioles in the early 80s, as I was for the old Evening Sun, you couldn't ask to be around a more colorful manager. You almost didn't have to talk to any of the players on those great Orioles' teams. Weaver would fill your notebook all by himself. With Weaver, baseball meant show-time and the ballpark was his theater. His hat-spinning, spittle-flying confrontations with umpires were legendary, some of the funniest bits of vaudeville I've ever seen in the game.

Earl Weaver penned his own epitaph. “On my tombstone just write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived,' “ he once said. Weaver, the Orioles' chain-smoking, umpire-baiting, tomato-growing manager who led the team to four American League pennants and the 1970 world championship in his 17 years here, died late Friday night while on a baseball-themed cruise. The Orioles confirmed his death Saturday morning but did not release a cause. The Hall of Famer, who lived in Pembroke Pines, Fla., was 82. “Earl Weaver stands alone as the greatest manager in the history of the Orioles organization and one of the greatest in the history of baseball,” Orioles owner Peter Angelos said in a statement.

Orioles Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver will be memorialized Saturday in Davie, Fla., after a private, family-only ceremony tonight in South Florida. Weaver, 82, collapsed and died Friday night on a cruise ship. Weaver and his wife, Marianna, had attended the cruise -- which was not affiliated with the organization but featured former players -- for years. On Saturday afternoon, the family will receive visitors beginning at 3 p.m. at Fred Hunter's University Drive (Funeral) Home in Davie, Fla. A memorial service will begin at 4 p.m. A number of Weaver's former players are expected to attend, including Hall of Famers Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and Eddie Murray.

The memorial service for Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver was held Saturday afternoon in Davie, Fla., near where Weaver spent his retirement years. Former Orioles attending the service included: Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, Rick Dempsey, Bill Swaggerty, Scott McGregor, Dennis Martinez, Tom Shopay, Boog Powell, Ken Singleton and Don Buford. The current Orioles were represented by executive vice president Dan Duquette, ownership representative Louis Angelos, Doug Duennes, the club's executive vice president of business, communications director Greg Bader, team radio announcer Fred Manfra, and batting practice pitcher Rudy Arias.

Instead of having a ceremonial first pitch to kick off the home opener, the Orioles chose to keep the baseball on the mound, to the left of the pitching rubber. It was done to honor Orioles Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, who died in January at age 82. It's believed to be the first time the club has not had a ceremonial first pitch for a home opener in Camden Yards history. The Orioles always seem to do celebrations well. This one was obviously understated, and touching.There also was a video tribute to Weaver and his name was listed on the roll call of “Orioles' family,” as the final name (though the rest was listed in alphabetical order, Weaver was behind Earl Williams)

Kayleen Reese walked slowly into the garden just beyond center field at Camden Yards on Saturday afternoon, attempting to explain to her son exactly who, and what, the statue in front of them represented. "His name was Earl Weaver, he was the Orioles manager," Reese, of Catonsville, told 6-year-old Hudson Reese. "He's the one we showed you in the YouTube videos. " It sunk in then to the boy that the bronzed figure next to the wreath of carnations and roses before him was a tribute to that crazy, white-haired baseball man on the computer that yelled and screamed at the umpires and kicked the infield dirt.

At some point today, probably a couple hours before the first pitch is thrown by Jake Arrieta in the 2013 home opener at Camden Yards, I will grab a copy of the Orioles' daily game notes, and place them on the press box ledge in front of my work station. They'll stay there all game. Untouched. I assume I'll do that for a chunk of games this season, just as a reminder. The Orioles' public relations staff puts a lot of time into creating those notes packets. And I'll surely use another copy for my writing purposes Friday.

While the Orioles await the results of this morning's MRI on second baseman Brian Roberts' injured right hamstring, utility man Ryan Flaherty is in the starting lineup at second base for today's home opener against the Twins. Roberts was able to move up the MRI to get the test done at 10 a.m., but it still needs to be read by team orthopedist Dr. John Wilckens. As a precaution, infielder Yamaico Navarro traveled to Baltimore from Triple-A Norfolk last night and arrived at the Orioles clubhouse this morning.

Instead of having a ceremonial first pitch to kick off the home opener, the Orioles chose to keep the baseball on the mound, to the left of the pitching rubber. It was done to honor Orioles Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, who died in January at age 82. It's believed to be the first time the club has not had a ceremonial first pitch for a home opener in Camden Yards history. The Orioles always seem to do celebrations well. This one was obviously understated, and touching.There also was a video tribute to Weaver and his name was listed on the roll call of “Orioles' family,” as the final name (though the rest was listed in alphabetical order, Weaver was behind Earl Williams)

April, in these parts, is irresistibly transformative. Vibrant life and color rise up and relentlessly overwhelm a drab winter's landscape, inspiring notions in the human heart of renewal and redemption. And with it comes another baseball season and all its manifestations of new beginnings and the grand possibilities that await in the lush green days ahead. So it was supposed to be 45 years ago. 1968 had dawned with the stunning reports of the Tet Offensive, a sobering reality that stretched deep into March, concluding with a sitting president declining to seek re-election, and bringing to us a reluctant familiarity with places called Khe Sanh, Hue, Lang Vei and My Lai. Our weariness longed for April's explosion of daffodils, bright green leaves, and baseball.

Being a native Baltimorean, I am, like my friends and neighbors, an extremely proud Baltimore Ravens fan. Their hasty deconstruction left a bittersweet taste in the mouths of many fans ("New Texan bids us farewell," March 23). We have collectively learned over the years that professional sports have morphed from a mode of entertainment for the masses to big business that monetarily draws from the masses. But still we seek diversions in our cramped lifestyles that are a truly a form of escapism.

The Orioles plan to hold a “public celebration of life” for former manager Earl Weaver at Camden Yards on April 20 at 2 p.m., the team announced Tuesday. The Hall of Famer died in January at the age of 82. The event, called “A Celebration of Earl,” is scheduled to include a video tribute and several guest speakers, including former Orioles players Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and Rick Dempsey, as well as current Orioles manager Buck Showalter, Baseball Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson, and Earl's son Mike Weaver.

Earl Weaver's last great season as a manager, 1982, coincided with my first as a young baseball fan, growing up in Baltimore. So in a sense, he has always been the manager - the Platonic ideal of the species - for me. What I didn't know until later was that this fierce little man held a similar place of honor for many fans who embraced the sabermetric movement, the search for data-driven answers to baseball's great questions. You might not guess this if you picture Weaver only as the peppery character who roared from the dugout to kick dirt on the shoes of umpires.

— For a couple minutes Friday afternoon, the front lobby of the Orioles' offices included the presence of two men who had combined to manage in 10 World Series and win six of them. Hall of Famer Earl Weaver and baseball's new executive vice president, Joe Torre , were in town for separate reasons, but both spent a little time talking with current Orioles skipper Buck Showalter . "The level of respect for them, I'm like a kid in a toy store," Showalter said.

Cal Ripken Jr. stopped by The Baltimore Sun this morning as part of the promotional tour for his third children's novel, “Wild Pitch,” which came out today. The book - about a young pitcher who loses his confidence after beaning an opponent - was co-written by Sun columnist Kevin Cowherd. Before leaving on a book signing tour that will include stops in a number of spring training spots (including the Orioles' camp in Sarasota on Thursday), Ripken sat down for a quick Q&A touching on the O's, his color commentary, the late Earl Weaver and his son Ryan.

SARASOTA, Fla. - As the Orioles open their Grapefruit League schedule Saturday with a home game against the Minnesota Twins at Ed Smith Stadium, hitters will take varying approaches at the plate. Some will take more pitches than usual to get a feel for live pitching. But others - like Orioles outfielder Nate McLouth - will come out swinging. In four intrasquad plate appearances this week, McLouth reached base three times, including lacing an early-count double off lefty Zach Britton on Wednesday.