Playing Career
After playing for Beaumont High School in St. Louis, the 17-year-old Weaver was signed by his hometown St. Louis Cardinals in 1948 as a second baseman. A slick fielder but never much of a hitter, he worked his way up to the Texas League Houston Buffaloes (two steps below the majors) in 1951, but never made the big club. Weaver was later traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, then moved on to the Orioles, where he began his managing career.
His Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer, who battled with Weaver on a regular basis, once noted: "The only thing that Earl knows about a curve ball is he couldn't hit it." After Palmer's skills began to decline and he was no longer a regular starter, Weaver defended his actions by claiming he'd given Palmer "more chances than my ex-wife." He has also directed such a remark at Mike Cuellar, ace of the 1969 staff, and several other players.
Read more about this topic: Earl Weaver
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or career:
“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The problem, thus, is not whether or not women are to combine marriage and motherhood with work or career but how they are to do so—concomitantly in a two-role continuous pattern or sequentially in a pattern involving job or career discontinuities.”
—Jessie Bernard (20th century)