Orioles Manager

Former Orioles manager Earl Weaver became a fixture at the annual Baltimore Baseball Cruise, traveling as part of a baseball-themed trek around the Caribbean during the offseason for many of the past 22 years. Early Saturday morning, the 82-year-old Weaver was on the last leg of this year's week-long cruise, heading from a stop in Haiti back home to Fort Lauderdale when he complained of having trouble breathing and passed out on the floor of his cabin, said Ken Nigro, the cruise's organizer.

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.

Peter Angelos, Orioles managing partner " 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. This is a sad day for everyone who knew him and for all Orioles fans. Earl made his passion for the Orioles known both on and off the field. On behalf of the Orioles, I extend my condolences to his wife, Marianna, and to his family. "   Buck Showalter, Orioles manager “It's a sad time, but at the same time, Earl would say I hope it wont mess up FanFest.

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.

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.

Famed Orioles baseball manager Earl Weaver died early Saturday aboard a cruise ship after spending nearly a week sailing the Caribbean surrounded by fans, friends and family. The 82-year-old Weaver was taking part in The Original Baltimore Baseball Cruise aboard the Celebrity Silhouette cruise ship, which departed from Fort Lauderdale last Sunday with an itinerary that included stops in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Haiti. Cruisecritic.com, a website specializing in cruises and a gathering place for cruise-goers, reported that Weaver collapsed in his cabin and never regained consciousness.

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.

Buck Showalter knows it's a good problem to have. Biding time alone in his clubhouse office the past two months, the Orioles manager would look at the board wall that lists every player in the organization. In building for 2013 - and building off of the success of a trip to the playoffs last season - he can be happy that he sees pitching depth that didn't exist this time last season. In executive vice president Dan Duquette's first offseason with the club, he focused on building the pitching staff.

Here are some Orioles odds and ends this morning: -- We're still waiting for an announcement about an extension for manager Buck Showalter. This was the week it was supposed to be announced, but I wouldn't expect it for the next few days, and time is running out to make an announcement before FanFest on Saturday. Showalter will be busy with the team's mini-camp Wednesday through Friday. There's no reason to worry that it won't get done. It's mainly a matter of scheduling conflicts.

It was the Orioles' final regular-season series in Tampa Bay -- three October games that preceded the team's first trip to the playoffs in 15 years -- and I was sitting in Orioles manager Buck Showalter's office in the visiting clubhouse of Tropicana Field. I was telling Showalter why I needed some extra interview time; because I was writing a front-page story to run the day the postseason began. Showalter shook his head as he turned to the coffee maker, “No Ed,” he said.