ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608050127
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Given a chance to do it all over again, Earl Weaver admits, his baseball career might have been different.
``If I could play now, I'd play,'' he said. ``I wouldn't manage.
``You play baseball. You work at managing. The stress, it's going to get to you.''
Still, Weaver managed the Baltimore Orioles for 17 seasons without being fired and enduring only one losing season. It may have been a rocky road at times, but today the path will take him here to join Jim Bunning and the late Ned Hanlon and Bill Foster in being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Weaver was known for his confrontational style, with umpires and even his own players, such as fellow Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, who will be in attendance at the ceremonies. Yet, the man ejected 91 times for arguing says he might be speechless when it's his turn to talk.
``Up at Cooperstown, I'll be a little on edge,'' Weaver said recently at the All-Star Game in Philadelphia. ``I've got a lot of family and friends coming.
``When I get up on the podium, it'll be nerve-wracking. I hope I can deliver it without too much emotion.''
Weaver said he's thought about his speech every day since March, when he and the other three new members of the Hall were elected by the Veterans Committee.
That voting came two months after no one - not 300-game winners Phil Niekro or Don Sutton, not slugger Tony Perez - was elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America for the first time since 1971.
Bunning knows what that kind of disappointment feels like. In his last year of eligibility before the BBWAA, the pitcher received 74.3 percent of the required 75 percent, missing by four votes.
``None of the numbers that were on the back of my card have changed in that time,'' Bunning said the day he was elected. ``It's been a long waiting process. Thank God it happened while I was still on my feet.''
Bunning, who went 224-184 mostly for Philadelphia and Detroit, enjoyed a successful career after he stopped pitching. He helped form the players' union, helped establish the players' pension fund and went on to become Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.
Foster was a star pitcher in the Negro Leagues in the 1920s and 1930s. Hanlon was a turn-of-the-century manager - with Baltimore, like Weaver - and brought the sport of baseball around the world.
Stan Musial, Yogi Berra and Steve Carlton are among the 34 Hall of Famers expected to attend the weekend festivities in Cooperstown. Usually a quiet village of 2,500 in central New York state, Cooperstown may draw 20,000 people for the ceremonies.
The weekend includes the annual Hall of Fame exhibition game Monday between the Montreal Expos and California Angels.
Weaver and Hanlon are the 12th and 13th managers to make it to the Hall. Not since Connie Mack and John McGraw in 1937 have two managers entered in the same year.
Weaver's teams went 1,480-1,060, and his .583 winning percentage ranks fifth in modern history among managers with at least 10 years of service. His Orioles won six American League East Division titles, four pennants and the 1970 World Series.
Despite all that success, Weaver said he never bothered to wonder if he'd wind up in Cooperstown.
``To tell you the truth, you don't think about the Hall of Fame when you need to win every day to keep your job,'' he said.
Weaver had little time to relax while with the Orioles. Whatever free time he had, he spent growing tomatoes in a garden down the left-field line at Memorial Stadium.
Weaver, who turns 66 this month, expects to be just as nervous as he would've been in the ninth inning of a tie game.
``It'll be tough, no doubt,'' he said.
Here's a capsule look at the four inductees:
Jim Bunning: Born: Oct.23, 1931, in Southgate, Ky. Right-handed sidearmer, won 100 games, pitched a no-hitter and struck out 1,000 in the NL and AL. ... Pitched primarily for Philadelphia and Detroit. ... Chose Philadelphia cap for Hall plaque. ... Career record of 224-184 with a 3.27 ERA in 17 seasons.
Earl Weaver: Born: Aug.14, 1930, in St. Louis. ``The Earl of Baltimore.'' city as crab cakes and white marble stoops. ... Proud he never was fired. ... Guided Orioles to 100 victories five times, tied with Connie Mack for second on the career list behind Joe McCarthy's six.
Bill Foster: Born: June 12, 1904, in Calvert, Texas. Died: Sept.16, 1978, in Lorman, Miss. One of the best left-handed pitchers in Negro Leagues history. ... Played from 1923-37 for the Chicago American Giants, Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords. ... Won more games (137) than Satchel Paige (129) and outpitched the Hall of Famer in head-to-head competition. ... Helped Giants win the Negro Leagues World Series in 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1933.
Ned Hanlon: Born: Aug.22, 1857, in Montville, Conn. Died: April 14, 1937, in Baltimore. Shrewd manager from 1889-1907. ... Like Weaver, achieved his greatest success in Baltimore, winning with the turn-of-the-century Orioles. after the 1888 season. ... Won three pennants with Baltimore and two with Brooklyn, all before the World Series started in 1903.
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Weaver, Bunningby CNB