The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball
Vivid ... He takes Weaver seriously; he understands why his tenure mattered to baseball; he is alert to the details of the unruly pageant that was his life; he explains, a bit ruefully, why he was probably the last of his kind ... This biography is good from the start because Weaver’s story is ... Weaver was a flawed man, but Miller’s book is largely a paean to his ebullience.
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The first proper biography of Weaver. Miller’s affection for his subject, a character more colorful than the O’s black-and-orange bird mascot, jumps right off the bat ... Doesn’t feel like the whole story. This isn’t to suggest that Miller holds anything back; his research is thorough and his interviews plentiful. But since Weaver passed away a dozen years ago, at 82, there’s no full accounting for whatever regret he might have felt ... Miller captures the flawed man and nearly flawless manager in all his profane genius.
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[A] vivid portrait ... Miller does not devote much space to Weaver’s life as a husband (twice married) or father or his activities outside of baseball, which is appropriate. Baseball was his life.
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