“Baseball books don’t get any better than this…Earl Weaver has at last been given his due.”
The Last Manager
How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball
The first major biography of legendary Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver — who has been described as “the Copernicus of baseball” and “the grandfather of the modern game”—The Last Manager is a wild, thrilling, and hilarious ride with baseball’s most underappreciated genius, and one of its greatest characters.
“Miller expertly shows just how long Earl Weaver’s shadow still is. Weaver was the last of a breed of men, stunning geniuses all – profane, indefatigable, genuine characters – who shaped the golden age of baseball in striking contrast to the careful, calculating corporate men who try to manage today.”
—Ken Burns
“Baseball books don’t get any better than this…”
— George F. Will
“…entertaining portrait shows us how his genius was formed. A great read.”
— Ron Shelton, writer and director of Bull Durham
“The Last Manager is a fantastic biography”
— Jonathan Eig
Long before the Moneyball-era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History’s feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 – 1982.
When Weaver was hired by the Orioles, managers were still seen as coaches and inspirational leaders, more teachers of the game than strategists. Weaver invented new ways of building baseball teams, prioritizing on-base average, elite defense, and strike throwing. Weaver was the first manager to use a modern radar gun, and he pioneered the use of analytical data. By moving 6’4” Cal Ripken, Jr. to shortstop, Weaver paved the way for a generation of plus-sized superstar shortstops, including Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. He foreshadowed almost everything that Bill James, Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, and hundreds of other big brain baseball types would later present as innovation.
Beyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball character. Major League Baseball is show business, and Weaver understood how much of his job was entertainment. Weaver’s outbursts offered players cathartic relief from their own frustration, signaled his concern for the team, and fired up fans. In his frequent arguments with umpires, he hammed it up for the crowds, faked heart attacks, ripped bases out of the ground, and pretended to toss umpires out of the game. Weaver also fought with his players, especially Jim Palmer, but that creative tension contributed to a stunning success, and a hilarious clubhouse. During his tenure as major league manager, the Orioles won the American League pennant in 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1979, each time winning over 100 games.
The Last Manager uncovers the story of Weaver’s St. Louis childhood with a mobster uncle, his years of minor league heartbreak, and his unlikely road to becoming a big league manager, while tracing the evolution of the game from the old-time baseball of cross-country trains and “desk contracts” to the modern era of free agency, video analysis, and powerful player agents. Weaver’s career is a critical juncture in baseball history. He was the only manager to hold a job during the five years leading up to, and five years after, free agency upended baseball in 1976.
Weaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. In his retirement, he even admitted that “if he had been an umpire, he would have thrown himself out of more games than he actually was.” Belligerent, genius, infamous—The Last Manager tells the story of one man who left his mark on the game for generations.
“Weaver was the Copernicus of baseball.”
— Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated
“Weaver marshaled a scholar’s familiarity with the rule book, a statistician’s data, a psychologist’s motivational skills, and a heckler’s needle into a relentless advocacy for the Orioles.”
— Bruce Weber, New York Times
Praise for The Last Manager
“Napoleonic in stature and executive style, funnier than Casey Stengel, more successful than any of his contemporaries in Major League dugouts, and arguably the most consequential manager ever, Earl Weaver has at last been given his due. In this rollicking read, John W. Miller gives us the man in full. Weaver would scream at an offending umpire, ‘Are you going to get any better, or is this it?’ Baseball books don’t get any better than this.”
“The Last Manager is a fantastic biography — with deep reporting, great writing, and one irresistible anecdote after another. John Miller brings to life one of the game’s great characters in all his fiery glory. He also makes a rock-solid case for Earl Weaver as one of baseball’s underrated pioneers. A special book that reminds us why we love baseball.”
— Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize – winning author of King: A Life, Ali: A Life, and Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
“Earl Weaver was an old school archetype — a heavy drinking, chain smoking, foul mouthed, umpire baiting terror — and a visionary statistical analyst long ahead of his time. John Miller’s fascinating and entertaining portrait shows us how his genius was formed. A great read.”
— Ron Shelton, writer and director of Bull Durham
Belligerent, Genius, Infamous
Photo: Meredith Long