NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *; A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025
WINNER OF THE CASEY AWARD FOR BEST BASEBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR
';Baseball books don't get any better than this...Earl Weaver has at last been given his due.' George F. Will
';Vivid...Most sports books are pop flies to the infield. Miller's is a screaming triple into the left field corner.' Dwight Garner, The New York Times
The first major biography of legendary Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaverwho has been described as ';the Copernicus of baseball' and ';the grandfather of the modern game'The Last Manager is a wild, thrilling, and hilarious ride with baseball's most underappreciated genius, and one of its greatest characters.
Long before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History's feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982.
When Weaver was hired by the Orioles, managers were still seen as coaches and inspirational leaders, more teachers of the game than strategists. Weaver invented new ways of building baseball teams, prioritizing on-base average, elite defense, and strike throwing. Weaver was the first manager to use a modern radar gun, and he pioneered the use of analytical data. By moving six-foot four-inch Cal Ripken Jr. to shortstop, Weaver paved the way for a generation of plus-sized superstar shortstops, such as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. He foreshadowed almost everything that Bill James, Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, and hundreds of other big-brain baseball types would later present as innovations.
Beyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball character. Major League Baseball is sh
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