baseball fans mourn the loss of two greats

Two Baseball Greats Pass Away

One of baseball's prolific hitters and one of its most cantankerous managers both passed away on January 19. Stan "The Man" Musial passed away at the age of 92. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals for his entire 22 year career and amassed 3,630 hits and 475 home runs to go alog with 1,951 runs batted in and a .331 career batting average. In his first full season the Cardinals won the World Series, then again in 1944 before missing the 1945 season serving with the US Navy. Upon his return in 1946 he won his second MVP award and third World Series championship. He was a first ballot Hall Of Famer in 1969, a seven time batting champion and even served as the Cards GM for a season, winning the World Series then stepping down from his post. Cheers to The Man!

Baltimore Orioles Hall Of Fame manager Earl Weaver passed away at 82. He managed the Orioles for 17 seasons after an unsuccessful playing career, won the AL pennant for the first of four times in his first season and captured his only World Series title in his second, 1970. He was known for his mantra of what wins baseball games: "pitching, defence and the three-run homer." He despised the idea of stolen bases, hit and runs and bunting, feeling that they were a waste of outs. He was also known for his run ins with umpires. Not counting the post-season, "Earl the Pearl" was ejected at least 90 times and received four multi-game suspensions. Some of baseballs most quotable lines come from Earl after getting ejected. After one ejection, Earl yelled out "I'm going to check the rule book on that." The umpire replies "Here, use mine," to which Weaver shot back "That's no good - I can't read Braille." He loved kicking dirt on umpires' cleats as well as putting his hat on backwards so he can get even more up in the grill of the ump. He was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1996. Here's two of the best Earl rants, one on a radio show (probably outtakes but still shocking) and one tirade from a game against the Tigers from 1980, where umpire Bill Haller was miked up for the game for a documentary on the daily life of an MLB umpire. Strong language!

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