Earl Weaver Quotes

#1. I'd rather you walk with the bases loaded.

Earl Weaver

#2. This ain't a football game, we do this every day.

Earl Weaver

#3. It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

Earl Weaver

#4. I became an optimist when I discovered that I wasn't going to win any more games by being anything else.

Earl Weaver

#5. Leadership can be defined in one word - honesty. You must be honest with the players and honest with yourself.

Earl Weaver

#6. You win pennants in the off season when you build your teams with trades and free agents.

Earl Weaver

#7. Nobody likes to hear it, because it's dull, but the reason you win or lose is darn near always the same - pitching.

Earl Weaver

#8. My best game plan is to sit on the bench and call out specific instructions like 'C'mon Boog,' 'Get a hold of one, Frank,' or 'Let's go, Brooks.'

Earl Weaver

#9. The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers.

Earl Weaver

#10. I never got many questions about my managing. I tried to get twenty-five guys who didn't ask questions.

Earl Weaver

#11. A manager's job is simple. For one hundred sixty-two games you try not to screw up all that smart stuff your organization did last December.

Earl Weaver

#12. A manager should stay as far away as possible from his players. I don't know if I said ten words to Frank Robinson while he played for me.

Earl Weaver

#13. I think the National League has better biorhythms in July.

Earl Weaver

#14. On my tombstone just write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived.'

Earl Weaver

#15. We're so bad right now that for us back-to-back home runs means one today and another one tomorrow.

Earl Weaver

#16. Don't worry, the fans don't start booing until July.

Earl Weaver

#17. Momentum is only as good as tomorrow's starting pitcher.

Earl Weaver

#18. No one's gonna give a damn in July if you lost a game in March.

Earl Weaver

#19. I gave (pitcher) Mike Cuellar more chances than I gave my first wife.

Earl Weaver

#20. The key step for an infielder is the first one, to the left or right, but before the ball is hit.

Earl Weaver

#21. Optimism is the cheerful frame of mind that enables a teakettle to sing, though in hot water up to its nose.

Earl Weaver

#22. I don't think, in all the years I managed them, I ever spoke more than thirty words to Frank and Brooks Robinson.

Earl Weaver

#23. Do the dull things right so the extraordinary things will not be required too often.

Earl Weaver

#24. Every time I fail to smoke a cigarette between innings, the opposition will score.

Earl Weaver

#25. Momentum? Momentum is the next day's starting pitcher.

Earl Weaver

#26. The only thing that matters is what happens on the little hump out in the middle of the field.

Earl Weaver

#27. Economics played a role. Raleighs have gone from six fifty to nine dollars a carton, but there's a three-quarter cent coupon on the back. You can get all kinds of things with them, blenders, everything. I saved up enough one time and got Al Bumbry.

Earl Weaver

#28. You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all.

Earl Weaver

#29. Coaches are an integral part of any manager's team, especially if they are good pinochle players.

Earl Weaver

#30. I think there should be bad blood between all clubs.

Earl Weaver

#31. In baseball, you can't kill the clock. You've got to give the other man his chance. That's why this is the greatest game.

Earl Weaver

#32. Some have said that I can accept inadequacies in my players but not in umpires. That completely misses the point. I can't tolerate anyone's mistake.

Earl Weaver

#33. The job of arguing with the umpire belongs to the manager, because it won't hurt the team if he gets thrown out of the game.

Earl Weaver

#34. If you know how to cheat, start now.

Earl Weaver

#35. There was nothing to keep him (Cal Ripken, Jr.) from being a star in the Major Leagues. That was inevitable.

Earl Weaver

#36. Bad ballplayers make good managers, not the other way around. All I can do is help them be as good as they are.

Earl Weaver