From This Week's Sports Illustrated

The newest Sports Illustrated arrived today (John and Jim Harbaugh on the cover), and so far, it is proving to be an good issue, and I haven't even gotten to the Super Bowl stuff yet.  However, more than any story I've read thus far, I was most struck by the full page ad placed by Budweiser which I have scanned and shown above.  Well done, Budweiser.  And the story on Stan the Man by Richard Hoffer is a good one.

Also, in appreciation for Earl Weaver by Tom Verducci, there were two great quotes.  The first was by umpire Bill Haller who once said of Weaver, "When he dies, his family is going to have to pay for pallbearers."  The other - and I know my SABR and Facebook friend Father John Hissrich will like this one - concerned one of his "born again" outfielders, Pat Kelly.  After striking out with the bases loaded late in a game, Kelly said "Earl, I hope that you will walk with the Lord one day", to which Weaver replied, "Pat, I hope that you will walk with the bases loaded one day."

Chances are neither of those stories are true, but if they aren't, they should be!

Another great line  came in a story about the travails last week of Manti Te'o and the Cheating, Lying, Bullying Bicycle Rider, whose name I'd rather not mention.  Anyway, in describing the Oprah Winfrey interview with the C.L.B.B.R. and the moment when he confessed to all of his cheating, lying, and bullying, author S.L. Price writes "It was a classic TV takedown. Throw in a trail of cigarette smoke, and Edward R. Murrow would have felt right at home."

That's good writing!

I was interested to see how SI would right about the whole Te'o affair and and the Fall From Grace of the C.L.B.B.R., considering how they went all in on Te'o with a cover story in October and how no publication was more in the tank for the Bicycle Rider (was any lapdog ever more loyal to his owner than columnist Rick Reilly was to this guy?) over the years.  To the magazine's credit, Price pulls no punches in describing how the magazine (and every other news outlet) was duped by the Te'o story and the Bicycle Guy. 

Good issue, and now it's on to the Super Bowl Preview stuff.

To Absent Friends: Earl Weaver

Hall of Fame Manager Earl Weaver died yesterday at the age of 82.  If you read the obits, you will see words like "feisty" and "fiery" used to describe Weaver.  Not to speak ill of the dead, and I know this depends on what team you are rooting for, those words can be taken as euphemisms for, to be kind, "obnoxious", among other less flattering terms.

A few years back, I read a book called "Bottom of the 33rd."  Great book about a minor league baseball game in 1981 that went 33 innings.   

( http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2011/12/book-review-bottom-of-33rd.html )

A portion of that book talks about a young infielder who got his call to the Majors with the Orioles, made an error in his first game, and was then positively crushed by Weaver afterwards.  Not a pretty story, and I am guessing that that story will not be among all the warm and fuzzy tributes that will be written in the days ahead, and I am also betting that there are no doubt scores of players who could tell the same story about Weaver as that young short stop from Rochester.

Anyway, Weaver was a very good manager, and no doubt deserves his Hall of Fame status, but like any manager would have been, he was a better manager when he had guys like Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, and Jim Palmer playing for him than when he didn't.  And I will personally have great memories of seeing Weaver sitting in the LOSING dugout during the 1971 and 1979 World Series.

RIP Earl Weaver.