Baseball hall of fame manager Earl Weaver died early Saturday morning after suffering an apparent heart attack while traveling on an Orioles fantasy cruise, Major League Baseball announced. He was 82.
According to The Associated Press, Weaver’s wife reported that Weaver went back to his cabin after dinner and began choking between 10:30 and 11 on Friday night. A cause of death has not been determined.
Memorable visions of Weaver always will include an irate man with hat askew, kicking dirt and screaming at an umpire. But the Hall of Fame manager was more innovator than instigator.
Weaver, who won four American League pennants and a World Series during his 17 seasons as manager of the Baltimore Orioles, pioneered use of radar guns to measure pitchers’ velocity. It was Weaver who kept a stack of index cards to keep track of pitcher-vs. -batter matchups, long before the computerization of the game’s statistics.