Quotes from Earl Weaver

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

I think there should be bad blood between all clubs.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.'

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.