Feeling Cooped Up Normally Combative Weaver Grows Reticent Toward Hall Of Fame Speech

Given a chance to do it all over again, Earl Weaver admits, his career might have been different.

“If I could play now, I’d play. I wouldn’t manage,” he said.

“You play baseball. You work at managing. The stress, it’s going to get to you.”

Still, Weaver stuck it out for 17 seasons in the Baltimore Orioles dugout, never getting fired and enduring just one losing year. It may have been a tense road at times, but the path will pay off today when he joins Jim Bunning and the late Ned Hanlon and Bill Foster in being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Weaver was known for his confrontational style with umpires and even his players, such as fellow Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, who will be in attendance at the ceremonies. Yet the man ejected 91 times for arguing said he might be speechless when it’s his turn to talk.

“Up at Cooperstown, I’ll be a little on edge,” Weaver said recently at the All-Star game. “I’ve got a lot of family and friends coming.

“When I get up on the podium, it’ll be nerve-wracking. I hope I can deliver it without too much emotion.”

Weaver said he’s thought about his speech every day since March, when he and the other three new members were elected by the Veterans Committee.

That voting came two months after no one - not 300-game winners Phil Niekro or Don Sutton, not slugger Tony Perez - was elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America for the first time since 1971.

Bunning knows what that kind of disappointment feels like. In his last year of eligibility before the BBWAA, the pitcher received 74.3 percent of the required 75 percent, missing by four votes.

“None of the numbers that were on the back of my card have changed in that time,” Bunning said the day he was elected. “It’s been a long waiting process. Thank God it happened while I was still on my feet.”

Bunning, who went 224-184 mostly for Philadelphia and Detroit, enjoyed success after he stopped pitching. He helped form the players’ union, helped establish the players’ pension fund and became a Republican Congressman from Kentucky.

Foster was a star pitcher in the Negro Leagues in the 1920s and 1930s, and won more games than Hall of Famer Satchel Paige. Hanlon was a turn-of-the-century manager - also in Baltimore, like Weaver - and brought the sport of baseball around the world.

Stan Musial, Yogi Berra and Steve Carlton are among the 34 Hall of Famers expected to attend the weekend festivities in Cooperstown. The normally quiet village of 2,500 in central New York state may swell to 20,000 for the ceremonies.

The weekend included a Class A New York-Penn League game Saturday at Doubleday Field, the supposed site of the first baseball game. The annual Hall of Fame exhibition is Monday between Montreal and California.

For Weaver and Bunning, the fun began Saturday night, when they had a private tour of the Hall and the first glimpse of their plaques that will hang in the shrine.

Weaver and Hanlon are the 12th and 13th managers to make it to the Hall. Not since Connie Mack and John McGraw in 1937 have two managers entered in the same year.

Weaver’s teams went 1,480-1,060, and his .583 winning percentage ranks fifth in modern history among managers with at least 10 years. His Orioles won six A.L. East titles, four pennants and the 1970 World Series.

Despite all that success, Weaver said he never bothered to wonder whether he’d wind up in Cooperstown.

“To tell you the truth, you don’t think about the Hall of Fame when you need to win every day to keep your job,” he said.

Weaver had little time to relax while with the Orioles. Whatever free time he had, he spent growing tomatoes in a garden down the left-field line at Memorial Stadium.

Weaver, who turns 66 later this month, plays a lot of golf near his home in south Florida. Today, though, he expects to be just as nervous as he would have been in the ninth inning of a tie game.

“It’ll be tough, no doubt,” he said. “I just hope I can get through it.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: INTO THE HALL Capsule looks at the four inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame:

JIM BUNNING Born: Oct. 23, 1931, at Southgate, Ky. Right-handed sidearmer, won 100 games, pitched a no-hitter and struck out 1,000 in both N.L. and A.L… . . Pitched primarily for Phillies and Tigers. Choose Philadelphia hat for Hall plaque… . Career record of 224-184 with a 3.27 ERA in 17 seasons… . Pitched first perfect N.L. game in modern history on Father’s Day in 1964 against Mets… . Ranked second in career strikeouts with 2,855 - trailing only Walter Johnson - when he retired in 1971… . Eight-time All-Star… . Posted one 20-win season, and won 19 four times.

EARL WEAVER Born: Aug. 14, 1930, at St. Louis, Mo. “The Earl of Baltimore.” … One of only 13 managers - including fellow newcomer Ned Hanlon - in the Hall. Leo Durocher was last one elected, in 1994. … Career record of 1,480-1,060. His .583 winning percentage ranks fifth on career list of managers with 10 or more years since 1900… . Ranks 16th in wins in modern era… . Won six A.L. East titles and four pennants… . Guided Orioles to 1970 World Series championship… . Only one losing record, in his final year in 1986.

BILL FOSTER Born: June 12, 1904, at Calvert, Texas. Died: Sept. 16, 1978, at Lorman, Miss. One of best left-handed pitchers in Negro Leagues history. Used sidearm delivery. … Played from 1923-37 with Chicago American Giants, Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords. … Won more games (137) than Satchel Paige (129) and outpitched the Hall of Famer in head-to-head competition… . Helped Giants win the Negro Leagues World Series in 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1933.

NED HANLON Born: Aug. 22, 1857, at Montville, Conn. Died: April 14, 1937, at Baltimore. Shrewd manager from 1889-1907. Like Weaver, achieved his greatest success in Baltimore with turn-of-century Orioles. … Not since 1937, when Connie Mack and John McGraw were picked, have two managers entered the Hall in the same year… . Helped introduce baseball around the world with 32,000-mile global tour after 1888 season. Traveled to New Zealand, Ceylon and Egypt, bringing the new sport to several countries for first time… . Notorious for using home field to his advantage, such as sloping foul lines for bunts and keeping ground hard for “Baltimore chops.”