Quotes by Earl Weaver

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 goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all.

If you know how to cheat, start now.

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.

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

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

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

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

The key step for an infielder is the first one, but before the ball is hit.

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

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

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.

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

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.'

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

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.

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

Playing baseball is fun. If I could play, I'd never retire. But managing is work. It's constant decisions of whose feelings you want to hurt all the time.

The guy who says, 'I love the challenge of managing,' is one step from being out of a job.

The Orioles made me. I didn't make the Orioles.

In my mind, the home run is paramount because it means instant runs.

Your most precious possessions on offense are your twenty-seven outs.

I had a successful career: not necessarily a Hall of Fame career, but a successful one.

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

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

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

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.

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

I think the National League has better biorhythms in July.

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

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.

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

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.

I think there should be bad blood between all clubs.

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.

There are only three outs an inning, and they should be treasured. Give one away, and you're making everything harder for yourself.

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

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

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

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 five the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all.

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

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

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

People always make a lot about how I don't carry grudges. That's my religious upbringing. I went nine years without missing Sunday school. Lutheran. I can't live with hatred inside of me. That's what I learned. I ain't scared of dying, either.

The worst thing about being on the road is all you want to do when you get home is to stay home, but as soon as you get back, all the wife wants to do is go out because she's been stuck home all the time you've been stuck on the road.

If you want to steal a base, steal a base. Don't make the hitter swing at a bad pitch trying to protect the runner.

A winning player is nothing more than a player on a winning team. A losing player is a guy who played on a losing team that year.

Most of the umpires, it's amazing: 98 percent of them will not hold a grudge. I always felt a couple of them did. I never wanted to argue with an umpire in my life.

Judging ballplayers and turning in reports, giving my opinion of who will get to the big leagues and who will not... I think my baseball judgment was really good.

A manager has to convince his hitters that they have to get on base for the next guy and that no player can do it by himself. Sometimes that isn't easy. In the playoffs, you can get into trouble because everybody wants to be a hero.

Bad ballplayers make good managers.

The easiest way around the bases is with one swing of the bat.

A manager wins games in the winter when he picks his team.

Pitching keeps you in the games. Home runs win the game.

The only thing I'd ever wanted in my life was to be a major-league ballplayer, but I had to admit to myself that I wasn't good enough. It broke my heart.

The key step for an infielder is the first one... but before the ball is hit.

Don't play for one run unless you know that run will win a ballgame.

I used to be a pretty good hit-and-run man when I played in the minors. I handled the bat well and could hit the ball to the right side of the infield. Nevertheless, I know that you often give the opposition an out on the hit-and-run play.

I stand by my belief that individual performances are the most important part of baseball.

I don't want to spend my whole life watching the sun go down behind the left field bleachers.

Until you're the person that other people fall back on, until you're the one that's leaned on, not the person doing the leaning, you're not an adult.

To keep your job, you fire others or bench them or trade them. You have to do the thinking for 25 guys, and you can't be too close to any of them.

When you play for one run, that's usually all you get. I have nothing against the bunt in its place, but most of the time, that place is in the bottom of a long-forgotten closet.

I wanted no part of losing. Why play if you can't beat the other guys more often than they beat you?

I really don't like confrontations. One of the reasons I'm retiring is that I'm tired of hurting people's feelings.

A manager gets in the Hall of Fame by what his players have done for him.