"The Last Manager" | Reviewed by Bill Schwab

"The Last Manager" is a fiery, forceful, rollicking biography about Earl Weaver, one of baseball's most underrated innovators. Born in 1930, Weaver grew up in a rough St. Louis neighborhood, a member of a family that drank too much, gambled illegally, and scraped by during the Great Depression. His closest relative, Uncle Bud, was a mobster and a bookie who taught Earl how to profit from betting on baseball. As a youth, Weaver got into fights and was frequently in trouble with the law. Earl's outbursts of anger and recurring drunkenness haunted him throughout his life.

Weaver was the last of a group of indefatigable, rowdy, feisty characters who shaped the early years of baseball. The successful coach's style of managing can be summed up in the quote: "pitching, defense, and the three-run homer." Weaver gathered statistics on each player to take advantage of the opponents' vulnerabilities and did it all without computers. Miller writes that Weaver's analytical approach to baseball was "an illustrative example of the last great leap forward of the human artisan without the assistance of the silicon chip."

Weaver attracted some fans to the stadium to see his outrageous antics and heated arguments with umpires whose calls he vociferously challenged. The officials dubbed him the Son of Sam and Ayatollah.

The colorful figure's career spans the bridge from old-time baseball, which consisted of long, gritty train rides, salaries based only on games played, and meager out-of-town accommodations, to baseball's current era of chartered flights, multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts, and free agency (1976).

As technology became available, Weaver was enamored with it. He was the first Major League manager to use a radar gun to track pitch speeds and among the first to use film for his hitters to analyze.

Although primarily known for his role as manager of the Baltimore Orioles, Earl Weaver had a connection to the St. Louis Cardinals. Weaver signed a minor league contract with the hometown Cardinals in 1948 when he was 17. Baseball was his life. He never had a full-time job outside the game. However, Weaver never played in the major leagues, probably because of his diminutive size (5 feet 7 inches, 160 pounds), weak arm, and lack of hustle. He became manager of a minor league team, the Knoxville Smokies, in 1956 when he was 25 and gained the helm of the Orioles when he was 37.

During his 17 years as the Orioles' manager, the team won six division titles, four American League pennants, and one World Series. Twice, Weaver was awarded Major League Manager of the Year and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. The Earl of Baltimore "still has the highest winning percentage, .583, of any manager with over 1000 wins since division play started in 1969."

In 2013, Weaver was on a Caribbean cruise with Orioles fans when he unexpectedly died at 82. At his request, his epitaph reads: "The sorest loser who ever lived."

John W. Miller vividly captures Weaver's life from his humble St. Louis start to his rise as a baseball legend. His biography is a captivating, entertaining, and informative look at Weaver and the baseball era of the mid-20th century. Its 382 pages include famous quotes by legendary baseball players and coaches at the beginning of each chapter plus a few photographs. "The Last Manager" would be a great gift book for a baseball fan.

About the author: John W. Miller is a writer, baseball coach, and contributing writer at America magazine. He has reported for The Wall Street Journal and written for Time, NPR, and The Baltimore Sun. Miller is the co-director of the 2020 PBS film Moundsville. He has coached two teams to Little League World Series tournaments and scouted for the Baltimore Orioles.

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