Vintage Fridays: Earl Weaver, 1971 Topps #477

This week provided an interesting juxtaposition of past and present in regards to Orioles managers. Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated wrote an excellent profile of Hall of Fame skipper Earl Weaver, everyone's favorite irascible, chain-smoking imp. I can't recommend it to you strongly enough; it's always great to hear Earl praised as an ahead-of-his-time strategist. He studied statistical matchups, championed on-base percentage, and disdained the bunt decades before Moneyball was written by Michael Lewis. It's also good to know that #4 still hasn't lost his edge. Reading the transcript of his anguished reactions to an Adam Eaton start in Spring Training, I felt like someone was eavesdropping on my own heat-of-the-moment exclamations.

Every manager that has followed Weaver in Baltimore, from Joe Altobelli to Dave Trembley, has had an impossible act to follow. No matter who is helming the team, it seems like the fans are always complaining that the manager isn't fiery enough. He doesn't challenge the players. He doesn't snipe at reporters. Most of all, he doesn't battle the umpires. Dave Trembley in particular seems to be 180 degrees away from his diminutive predecessor; we're talking about a guy who seems nice enough but conducts press conferences in a low monotone and counts Diet Coke as his greatest vice. Yet on Tuesday evening, Trembley boiled over and unleashed a tirade that may have impressed Earl.

It started in the top of the first inning in Seattle, when Luke Scott drove a liner up the gap with two outs and the bases loaded. Adam Jones and Nick Markakis raced home, and Mariners center fielder Franklin Gutierrez's relay throw struck the pitcher's mound and ricocheted into the camera well. With Nolan Reimold already around second base, the Orioles players and coaches waved him home. But home plate umpire Tom Hallion erroneously ruled that he had eased up going into second and sent him back to third base. That's when Dave erupted, and it was all caught on tape (jump to 2:28). He screamed from the dugout, charged the field, went nose-to-nose with Hallion, screamed some more, accused the ump of lying and failing to know the rules, cursed, and then politely offered Big Blue his cap. He was, of course, ejected.

Today, the bureaucrats at the commissioner's office handed down a two-game suspension to Trembley, reported because he continued to watch the game from the tunnel leading to the clubhouse. That's against the rules, and he ostensibly could have continued calling the shots from there. Whatever. Oh, and there was no acknowledgement of the blown call. Color me shocked.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that sometimes you've just gotta blow off some steam. Diamond Dave did just that, and got a mini-vacation out of it.