Earl Weaver

Once, while taping his radio pregame show, The Manager's Corner, Weaver fielded a question sent in by a listener about why the Orioles did not have more team speed. "Team speed, for crissakes!" Weaver bellowed. "You get [bleeping] little fleas on the [bleeping] bases getting picked off, trying to steal, getting thrown out, taking runs away from you. Get some big [bleeps] who can hit the [bleeping] ball out of the ballpark and you can't make any [bleeping] mistakes."

The exchange—now a YouTube classic, like the argument with Haller—was actually a joke between the host and Weaver, taped for their own amusement and never meant for the air. Disguised as salty parody, it was at heart a genuine take on Weaver by Weaver. "I never had a hit-and-run. No sign," Weaver says. "Here's the deal. I hear it on the radio and Joe Morgan, for crissakes. Get a guy on first. He walked. The pitcher is 2 and 0 on the next batter. 'Perfect time for a hit-and-run,' the announcer says. If the pitcher could throw a strike, don't you think he would have thrown it to the guy on first?"

None of it made sense to Weaver: asking the runner to get a late, conservative break and the batter to swing at anything when he's ahead in the count—all against a pitcher who is wild and in trouble. "But the worst is making outs on the bases," Weaver says. "Run yourself right out of a frickin' inning." No wonder he had 16 managerial offers in three years after he retired following the 1982 season.

George Steinbrenner: Earl, what would you do if you're sitting in the hotel lobby at two in the morning and you see your ballplayers walking in?

Weaver: Well, is it a night game or a day game?

Steinbrenner: We played a night game.

Weaver: Two o'clock ain't that bad, George. You got a day game tomorrow? What do you got tomorrow?

Steinbrenner: We're playing an exhibition game in Columbus, Ohio.

Weaver: You've got to let them do something once in a while.

Steinbrenner: Would you come manage?