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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The fight and fury of Earl Weaver is all gone. The Hall of Fame manager admitted as much yesterday, when he made his annual stop at Orioles camp to pick up his spring training tickets and shake a few hands.
The Orioles didn't have to travel far during the 1983 World Series, but they were carrying a lot of baggage when they faced the star-studded Philadelphia Phillies 20 years ago.
Usually described as a family feud, the long-standing give-and-take between Hall of Famers Earl Weaver and Jim Palmer became very public and very ugly Thursday night when the former Orioles manager said he was "embarrassed and humiliated" by Palmer's jabs during a charity roast of Weaver in Baltimore.
Earl Weaver went home yesterday to recuperate from a heart attack that had hospitalized the former Orioles manager for more than a week. A full recovery is expected for Weaver, who turns 68 on Friday.
It was the year Doug DeCinces walked from the shadow of Brooks Robinson. The year Mike Flanagan won a Cy Young Award. The year a team from Baltimore, in the words of Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer "just flat-out came together."
Earl Weaver stood there for just an instant before he felt like he was home.
There's a side of Earl Weaver few people have seen, far removed from the man remembered for kicking and screaming his way through 17 seasons managing the Orioles.
As Earl Weaver sat in the bar of the Otesaga Hotel, nursing a cold drink and a cigarette and every raw anxiety in his considerable repertoire, this village of 2,400 souls and a single traffic light seemed like any other place where 20,000 tourists suddenly arrive, where the baseball Hall of Fame flings open its doors and where former major league stars are agreeable to signing an autograph the very minute you fork over dollars for the privilege.
At the hot molten core of Earl Weaver was passion, which was his greatest gift to baseball in Baltimore. Ballgames were won by Eddie Murray crushing one into the cheap seats or Jim Palmer mowing them down from the top of his little hill. But ballgames mean nothing if the heart isn't involved.
Earl Weaver, the umpire-baiting, dirt-kicking, tomato-growing manager who led the Orioles to four American League pennants and a world championship, was elected yesterday to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
One of the most enduring moments in Orioles history occurred in 1982 -- after the final out of the season.
Only six games have been played, but the Orioles have established a clear offensive pattern.
There was no good news for Earl Weaver on the 18th green at the Bonaventure Country Club yesterday.
Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun