Earl Weaver, 82, dies

[The Minsky Moment]

Earl was the first to take a truly statistical analysis managerial approach to baseball, before it came into vogue.
Used to have index cards on every player and hitter-pitcher match up with him in the dugout, complete with stats and situational percentages. Nobody else ever did that at the time.

The 82 Orioles were my favorite strat-o-matic team.  Everyone plays multiple positions and lots of great platoon splits.  Lowenstein was a monster on RHP that year.  The whole bench was stocked.

[CountDeMoney]

The 82 Orioles were my favorite strat-o-matic team.  Everyone plays multiple positions and lots of great platoon splits.  Lowenstein was a monster on RHP that year.  The whole bench was stocked.

Yeah, that whole team was a pretty damned good dugout.  Not a weak spot anywhere on defense.

[The Minsky Moment]

That 82 team is a good demonstration why Weaver fully deserved his rep as a great manager.  The team was full of part-time guys and  castoffs like Lowenstein, Ayala, Terry Crowley, Jim Dwyer, Gary Roenicke, etc. but Weaver mixed and matched them to maxmize stengths and minimize weaknesses.  He nearly stole a pennant from Harvey's stacked Wallbangers despite only having one legit star in the lineup and only one outfielder with more than 425 at bats. 

But the most incredible thing was what he did with Ripken in his then rookie year.  Ripken started at third base.  But Weaver decided to move this 6'4" giant to shortstop.  He did this both because it helped him sling Rich Dauer and Lenn Sakata around the field like jumping beans, but also to find playing time for Glenn Gulliver, who despite only hitting .200, walked so often that his OBP was over .360.  Right away everyone thought he was nuts because back then the model SS was a 150 pound weakling and because this being two decades before Moneyball no one had a clue what OBP was.  They just saw Weaver sticking a 6'4" rookie into shortstop to make room for a .200 hitter.

Shortly after moving Ripken to SS, Cal went into a epochal slump - one of the worst of his entire career.  The press was all over Weaver's back.  But he not only refused to take out Ripken (whose famous streak actually commenced around this time) but he also refused him move him back to 3B.  And all of this happens in the middle of a pennant race.  I think I can safely say that virtually no other modern manager would have had the balls to do this.  Maybe Durocher.  It would be impossible to imagine today.

The result was Cal pulled out of slump, won rookie of the year, won the AL MVP the next year, and became a legend.  And Weaver nearly turned this team filled with spare parts, slumping rookies and no names into an AL pennant.

[sbr]

Did the white house release a statement on the death of weaver?

Stan the man got one.

[CountDeMoney]

The result was Cal pulled out of slump, won rookie of the year, won the AL MVP the next year, and became a legend.  And Weaver nearly turned this team filled with spare parts, slumping rookies and no names into an AL pennant.

Damned Brewers.  Will never forget that last series.

Earl was vindicated the following season, he just had to see it from the broadcast booth.  But the '83 WS was his work.

[Barrister]

Earl was the first to take a truly statistical analysis managerial approach to baseball, before it came into vogue.
Used to have index cards on every player and hitter-pitcher match up with him in the dugout, complete with stats and situational percentages. Nobody else ever did that at the time.

The 82 Orioles were my favorite strat-o-matic team.  Everyone plays multiple positions and lots of great platoon splits.  Lowenstein was a monster on RHP that year.  The whole bench was stocked.

My dad had some old baseball game for the Apple II.  He even went so far as to type in the names and stats of a bunch of other teams so you could play with those.

I of course always used the 1980 Royals.  I'm a Royals fan of course, but who needs a stocked bench when you have a .390 hitter.   

[The Minsky Moment]

I of course always used the 1980 Royals. 

What was the keystroke command for feeding Willie Aikens' coke habit?

[Ed Anger]

ALT+C

[Barrister]

No Alt button on the Apple II.

[Ed Anger]

Sigh.