The Angry Skipper

Here with a salute to Bobby Cox, the man with the most career ejections of any manager with 159. The man who holds the record for most ejections of any manager in The World Series with 2. Why, you may ask, haven’t we seen Bobby Cox in The Skipper before? That’s fair. While he is the most prolific, I never dug up anything on the youtubes that was particularly scintillating. His ejections were workmanlike, the opposite of spectacle most of the time. But you have to give it up to the guy who was booted out of two World Series games. That’s twice as many as Earl Weaver. Here’s his first ejection from 1992. This one’s actually pretty good. Helmet throwing, ass chewing, and Cox falls on the grenade for his hotheaded player. Enjoy Game 4. Back tomorrow with Cox’s ejection from 1996.

And because it’s Halloween.....

Let’s run this spooky ooky clip back, shall we?

Here’s a gem from the 1984 World Series featuring Sparky Anderson firing up Kirk GIbson while Padres manager Dick Williams begs Goose Gossage to walk him. Because he’s Kirk Gibson. All he does is hit huge home runs in the World Series. The Goose should have listened to Dick. But sometimes geese don’t listen to dicks and this is the result. 

Topp Clipps: World Series Edition!

I overslept after staying up watching all 14 innings of game one but here’s a little nostalgia primer for game two featuring World Series broadcast intros from 1985 and 1986, the last times the Royals and Mets won the title.

Kansas City Royals- World Champions, 1985

Interesting that they show highlights from game 6 and omitted one of the most controversial calls in the history of sports that happened in that game....

New York Mets- World Champions, 1986

You might want to adjust the tracking on your laptops for this one. You got Vin Scully droppin’ hot World War I references though, so no complaints here. Dave Johnson is a cool customer. Maybe he knew the Red Sox were cursed and the path to a championship would go right through Bill Buckner’s legs.

Happy World Series everyone! We’ll be bringing you some classics throughout The Fall Classic, starting with this one from 1978.

Enjoy this clip of one of my favorites Jim Leyland celebrating the TIgers clinching the AL Central in 2013. Starts with tears of joy, ends with some hot ass moves from Uncle Jim! Torii Hunter carrying him to the champagne drenched locker room is an act of pure joy. Enjoy some joy.

Topp Clipps Presents Weaver Week #5 Manager’s Corner

So this is an underground classic like Winnebago Man or the “Shut Up, Little Man” tapes that started out as something that was passed around hand to hand by people who made these things called tapes and then blew up when youtube came around.  

This is Weaver with Orioles broadcaster Tom Marr screwing around after they blew a take while pre-recording a radio segment actually called “Manager’s Corner.” This Manager’s Corner obviously, was never aired. But of course, people believe it’s real. People are dumb. God bless ‘em. 

Here’s a Baltimore Sun piece that explains a little more. This thing is a damn classic. I absolutely love the animation in this video as well. Just give it a spin already.

Weaver vs. Haller

"The job of arguing with the umpire belongs to the manager, because it won't hurt the team if he gets thrown out of the game." - Earl Weaver 

Amen. Carve it in stone. Shout it from mountaintops. This sentence and “Ice Cube’s a pimp” should be the only two things the lights of the Goodyear blimp should ever read.

Sept 17, 1980

This is what it’s all about. Captured by serendipitous circumstance because first base umpire Bill haller happened to be wearing a microphone for a local news magazine show. 

Top of the first inning. The game, Orioles vs Detriot Tigers at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, is 9 minutes old.

Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan is called for a balk. We could get mired in details here, but let’s not. Needless to say, Earl Weaver takes exception with the call and history is made.

"On my tombstone just write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived.” EW 

So the balk is called. Hall of Fame first baseman Eddie Murray begins to argue with first base ump Bill Haller, when Weaver just seems to pop into the frame suddenly, Great Gazoo style. 

“You’re here and this whole crew is here to fuck us!” And Weaver gets the heave-ho at the 18 second mark. Props to Haller for his nice form on his double hop ejection gesture. It was as if he needed to get a running start to eject Weaver as hard as he wanted.

What happens next is the textbook example of what they mean when they talk about a manager “getting his money’s worth” after he has already been ejected. It is fair to say that Weaver and all of us who enjoy this sort of thing get a return on his investment that approaches infinity.

Haller, like several umpires in the American League, had a contentious history with Weaver. Haller’s brother played for the Tigers in 1972 while Haller was an AL ump. Weaver kicked up a stink and Haller didn’t work a Tigers or Orioles game the rest of that season. So there was existing beef along with Weaver’s well-established reputation as a world class umpire tormentor. Weaver was the man who got kicked out of both games of a double header in 1975. (sourced from this excellent obituary from si.com)

He was the guy who once forfeited a game in September because he thought playing conditions were dangerous and he didn’t want to risk injuring any players during the last two weeks of the 1977 season. 

Basically he would do anything that he could do to gain the smallest competitive advantage. And he loved to fuck with umpires. Combine the two and he was in heaven.

That’s why at the 31 second mark he acts like Haller hit him with a sledgehammer when his index finger grazes Weaver’s chest. Honestly, I could not find anything that said whether Weaver was fined or punished by the league at all. Today that hand slap would surely come with a hefty fine and suspension.

Weaver stays in Haller’s hip pocket this entire clip-except for when he walks away and comes right back three times, a masterful touch. Haller thinks he can just stroll around the infield and ignore Earl and he’ll just go away. Maybe I’m not giving him enough credit. Haller probably just hoped Weaver would walk away.

“You do it again and I’ll knock you right in your nose!” No one says anything like that anymore, and the world is poorer for it. I’m also a a big fan of bygone threats to “dot one’s eye” or bang ‘em “pow! right in the kisser.” Pretty wholesome stuff considering the prolific cursing Earl lays down.

Oh yeah. Did I mention this clip is NSFW? Okay, cool.

After calling each other liars around the pitcher’s mound, Haller returns to his office. And like the angriest little pug in the pound, Weaver comes yapping. Driving his thesis home. That Haller was here to fuck the Orioles, that old Oriole fucker.

From an excellent si.com feature on Weaver in 2009- “That one with Haller was embarrassing. We both acted like five-year-olds. 'My dad can beat up your dad' kind of thing. It's terrible."

I respectfully disagree. It just gets better.

I love the “you ain’t no good” exchange where Weaver decides maybe he should call the league office about Haller. Fun to think about all the naugahyde and giant green plastic phones and cigarette smoking going on in the American League office in 1980. And I’m sure they got that call.

And then the moment that made me fall in love with this clip years ago. “You look in five, ten years and see who’ll be in the Hall of Fame.”

You have to give it to Haller. He does his best to stay cool and when that fails, he gives as good as he gets. His dig on Weaver about losing three of four World Series he managed clearly stings. And sets up the classic like about winning more that he’s lost.

“Count games, stupid!”

And at 2:30, when you think he’s gone for real, he comes back to first one last time. Weaver did more encores in this show than Springsteen was doing in 1980.

Just to hammer home his point about Haller’s vicious assault with his index finger. There’s working the umps and there’s torturing them.

No wonder Haller still held a grudge in 2007. According to the si.com profile, Haller said “When the bastard dies, they'll have to hire pallbearers."

Home plate umpire Ken Kaiser, who (surprise) also had a history with Weaver, puts such a nice cherry on top.

“Jesus Christ! We just started this god darned thing.”

So that’s the story of Weaver-Haller. The one that made me get on hip waders and spelunking gear and dig deep through the youtube catacombs for all things related to baseball manager freakouts.

Whoo. I am spent. I shall retire to my quarters to read Weaver on Strategy and drift off to sleep dreaming of three run homers and chewing some umpire ass.

Curtain Call

This is just an absolutely wonderful scene. Earl Weaver, only fifty-five but who aged himself fretting over lineups, situational statistics, the rule book and of course, blowing gaskets on umps, takes a bow at Memorial Stadium on the last day of the 1982 season. The fans show a huge appreciation for the guy who gave them 6 AL East titles, 4 AL pennants and one World Series title. I love Weaver’s clapping at the beginning- sad and just a little embarrassed by all the fuss maybe. And Howard Cosell’s call is classic Cosell. His description is more than enough for our purposes. Keith Jackson chimes in at the end with a testament to Weaver’s career- 12 of 15 seasons with 90-plus wins, including 1982, when the Orioles finished second in the AL East at 94-68. Just think what Earl could have done if the wild card spot was around in his day. 

The Old Man and The Underwear Model

So today we have a little grab bag of clips, starting with a little piece on the contentious relationship Earl Weaver had with his star pitcher, the rangy and handsome Jim Palmer. Weaver was 5′6″ and rather troll like in appearance while Palmer was 6′3″, handsome and could model the hell out of some drawers! Conflict was inevitable. Weaver was known for keeping his players at a distance and Weaver and Palmer’s relationship was rather icy but Palmer credits Weaver for getting him in the hall of fame and Weaver knew he couldn’t have won all those pennants without Palmer. It’s a sweet story. Roll the silliness! Enjoy!

Who Says I Don’t Do Anything for the Ladies?

Woof.

You think that’s sexy, here’s Weaver getting ejected in game 4 of the 1969 World Series.

Earl Weaver was ejected 98 times (some counts say 91, some 94) in his major league managing career. There is no dispute, however, that he was once ejected from both halves of a doubleheader.

Or that he was on the business end of a rare World Series heave-ho in 1969 for arguing balls and strikes.

His dust up with umpire Bill Haller which was caught on a night when both were wearing microphones is the reason I started The Angry Skipper and is in my not so humble and absolutely correct opinion the greatest manager ejection of all time. We will cover it extensively in a couple of days.

Weaver was also a brilliant manager who actually was a few decades ahead of his era. He was Moneyball before Moneyball. He believed every out was precious, you only get 27 of them and opportunities had to maximized at every at bat. He preached pitching, fundamentals and the three run homer. No bunting! Bunting’s for chumps. 

It worked, too. Check his record . .583 lifetime winning percentage, 6 AL East titles, 4 American League pennants,one World Series title. And....98 ejections!!!!!

Please enjoy these two introductory videos. The first is a nice biographical tribute from when Weaver died in 2013. The second is a little sloppy, but a great time capsule with some funny interviews of umpires that Weaver victimized.

Happy Weaver Week! Happy MLB Playoffs! Enjoy!

Tribute

A Steamin’ Little Teapot

Tony LaRussa, Manager Oakland Athletics vs. Robert Glass, Sportswriter Associated Press

First of all, this entire video is a bit disjointed. If you’re in a hurry, skip to 4:32 to get the whole story and La Russa’s meltdown. For those of you that are running out the clock at work, first of all God bless you, you’re my target audience.  Secondly, there’s a pretty good old fashioned bean ball dustup for the first three and a half minutes that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Please enjoy what I consider to be a gleaming jewel in La Russa’s Jackass Crown. 

June 1, 1991.

The A’s were in Chicago for the second of a four game series. In the top of the ninth, Sox reliever Bobby Thigpen drills Oakland catcher Terry Steinbach in his helmet’s left earflap. Thank God for that earflap because as you saw Steinbach sees it coming at his head a little too late and does his best to get out of the way but gets a high hard one right in the earhole.  What follows is pretty standard fare- a bench-clearing brawl that turns into a dogpile where no discernable blows are landed. A young ‘roided up stud bull named Jose Canseco   holds several smaller White Sox at bay just by puffing his mightily virile barrel-chested chest.

La Russa gets into Sox catcher Carton Fisk’s face even though Fisk watched this game from the dugout. La Russa thought Fisk was calling for high inside pitches the night before (He probably was) and that those head plunkin’ shenanigans carried into this game. "I know what the intent was. I know exactly what happened out there. That's all I want to say. I know exactly what was involved and that's the extent of it. If that's the cost you pay to win the game, then I don't like the cost." Those were La Russa’s comments on the beaning after the game according to this Seattle Times article.  

What we don’t see but was reported in papers like The Baltimore Sun the next day was that right after Steinbach was hit La Russa ran out of the dugout with a bat, threw it against the dugout and was ejected seconds before the brawl broke out.

So anyway, after all that horseplay and grab ass there was a ball game to finish. Which the A’s won 7-4.

Which takes us to the locker room for the main event. RObert Glass, 64, an old school newspaperman if there ever was one is so linked to what happened after he challenged La Russa that it was the lead in his obituary when he died 16 years later. According to this Orlando Sentinel editorial, which is a hilarious time capsule because it’s one of thousands of sports editorials in the 90s imploring everyone in professional sports to “cool it before it turns into the WWF,” Glass, a writer for a graveyard’s worth of dead Chicago papers and La Russa had a contentious history dating back to La Russa’s time helming the White Sox.

Here’s the transcription of their exchange from the aforementioned  Seattle Times story because it’s difficult to hear everything.

“That had to be a very scary moment," La Russa was asked.

"I don't want to talk about that," La Russa answered, raising his voice.

"OK, but don't yell at me," Glass replied.

"I'll yell if I want to," La Russa screamed before ending the group interview and ordering the reporter out of the room.

"Don't pull that. Be a man," Glass shouted.

La Russa turned back toward the reporter and was visibly upset.

"Be a man? My player is on the ground! That guy has about as much sense as a buzzard," he said, referring to Glass.

I actually think La Russa says that Glass has “about as much sense as a fuckin’ kid who’s just been born.” So a newborn, essentially. Doesn’t really matter. I love it. I’m a sucker for any time someone gets so upset they go all unitelligible. I like to stick up for the little guys, the AP stringers, guys like Robert Glass who stood in the doorway receiving verbal threats from very large men after telling La Russa to “be a man!”

Topp Clipps- Death is a part of life that usually comes at the end. 

RIP Yogi Berra

We lost another great one today. Hall of Fame catcher, manager and one of the most lovable goofballs in all of sports. The great Yogi Berra took the fork in the road to the great beyond at the age of 90 today. He might not have really said all those things he said, but he was a guy who reminded who us that sports are supposed to be fun. And dumb. And that’s great. Sports are so rife with inflated artificial drama and bullshit these days that sometimes it’s hard to take. We need more guys like Yogi. Rest in peace. Here’s a few fun goofy clips.

Shilling for Cigarettes and Cat Food with Equal Aplomb  

Fighting Foot Funk with Yogi

A Friend to Enemies of Arithmetic

Topp Clipps: Season Tickets Edition

I’ve always been a sucker for season ticket promos like these- ranging from the brutally mediocre to the truly bizarre. Like this one featuring Padres manager Dick Williams and a few other players who are also apparently high on PCP and are chomping bats like they were corn of the cob, man!

Padres are Bat Eatin’ Mad!

Billyball

I’m sorry. That was just brutal. Brutally mediocre is a few steps up from here.

Uncle Jim’s Pirates

And finally we have our old pal Uncle Jim Leyland trying to get the fans out for their ‘92 campaign with a sort of eerie synth soundtrack reminiscent of the theme from Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer. I’m stretching hard with these references today and I’m enjoying it.

The regular season is winding down and we’re running out of clips that reach the lofty editorial standards of The Angry Skipper, but I aim to finish up strong. This blog was always intended to be a digital museum of the very best meltdowns by baseball managers and to that end we must include all of the classics. Even the ones I’m kind of like a snotty record store clerk about. Mississippi Braves manager Phillip Wellman had an instant chart topper with his June 1, 2007 performance in Chattanooga. I dragged my feet on this one because I thought it was too familiar and overplayed- I preferred to dive into the crates for the deep cuts. But I’m over all that now. The Angry Skipper is proud to add to its collection The Phillip Wellman Grenade Tirade.

Seriously, how long had he been sitting on that grenade move? It’s really a brilliant closer after going through what I like to call the compulsory floor routine of manager freakouts- the face eating at home plate, covering the plate in dirt, more face eating-this time at third base, and base throwing. But the grenade throw of the rosin bag from behind the mound is what vaulted this performance into the all-time canon of Angry Skipperdom and into viral Valhalla. And more importantly, into Sportcenter’s Top 10 Manager Meltdowns of All TIme. 

Here’s a good account of the events that led up to the clip from espn.com. Wellman took umbrage to the way the third base umpire was talking to his players and after another close call, he did something very special about it. Here’s another reason you know this is a classic. One of the four clips linked on youtube’s player window when the video ends is stone cold classic and gorgeously titled “Famous Geraldo Skinhead Brawl.” Kids, if you haven’t seen this, this really is what 1988 was like. God damn it, I love youtube. 

Finishing up strong with some great stuff for September-like Weaver Week, a tribute filled with great videos of the incomparably cantankerous Earl Weaver, the man responsible for the single greatest ejection video of all time. If you don’t agree, it’s cool. I’ll fight you. We’ll also have dive into a few longer clips and there’s some good stuff I’ve saved especially for the post season. We’re gonna close the show like the champions that we are!

Topp Clipps: Steinbrenner and Martin- A Thin Base Line Between Love and Hate

This most unusual scene occurred on July 28, 1978, Old Timer’s Day at Yankee Stadium. Billy Martin had just been fired as manager of the Yankees for voicing rather drunkenly his exasperation with his boss George Steinbrenner and his star Reggie Jackson. Martin said the two deserve each other because “one’s a born liar and the other’s convicted.” In case you were wondering, Martin was calling Jackson a liar and Steinbrenner convicted, a reference to the owner’s being busted for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon’s 1972 campaign. This was the first of five firings and re-hirings (officially Martin resigned before getting canned) that Martin would endure. So for some reason, the Yankees decided to announce in 1978, that after taking the 1979 season off, Billy would be back at the helm in 1980. Love/hate makes a man do strange things, I suppose. The two enjoyed exploiting their tumultuous relationship over the years and here we present a few examples of their work together.

Getting Fired Sure Does Give You a Tummyache

This bizarre and slightly psychedelic ad is so Seventies it might make the bottoms of your pants flare out. A little too much talk of fettuccine lingering in Billy’s guts for my taste, but the waiter’s eye roll makes it all worth it.

Tastes Great! Less Filling! Fuck you, you’re fired!

All these old Miller Lite ads featuring ex-jocks are such a cool time capsule and always feature a little bit of self-deprecation that make the guys seem like you and me. You know, how many times have you told your boss to go fuck himself and get canned only to be re-hired a short time later? I know I’ve lost count.

Baseball’s Top Comedy Duo

Things are getting curiouser and curiouser as we wind down the rabbit hole of the 2015 season. 

A couple of weeks ago, we had two managers from the Alaskan League go at it. Not sure what they were so pissed about, probably had something to do with having to manage a team in Baseball Siberia. Watch as Anchorage Bucs manager Mike Grahovac lands a nice straight right hand on the jaw of the bigger Kevin Griffin, manager of the proud Peninsula Oilers squad.

Sure, that’s odd. Managers typically have a peacemaking role in baseball fights. But that doesn’t put a pimple on the weird shit that happened earlier this summer at Wrigley Field. When umps strike back, shit gets weird, buddy.

Wait, so the UMP charged the mound???

Andy Fletcher has had it with your petulant body language and your vague Yosemite Sam-like cursing to yourself, Jon Lester. And he doesn’t have any problem with coming to your place to pay you a visit. Now, in every baseball game ever played the pitcher and the ump have their own interpretations of the strike zone. But as Len Casper and Jim Deshaies (who have both seen a TON of baseball) pointed out, this is quite an unusual circumstance. I have never seen a catcher get in an ump’s way because the ump wanted to go get in the face of a pitcher. Hell, I think I could have just stopped at “I don’t think I’ve seen a catcher get in an ump’s way.”

Cubs manager and renowned baseball genius Joe Maddon does a beautiful job of tagging in for Cubs catcher David Ross and getting in front of the raging Fletcher, saving Ross from a potential ejection. And that’s what it’s all about- the real reason a manger is supposed to go off an umpire is to jump on the ejection grenade for his players and keep them in the game. That’s the first rule of this Angry Skipper shit. Put it in the handbook. But...and not to beat this into the ground, 99.99999% of the time it’s the player getting in the ump’s face. 

Strange times. Anything in Revelations about umps starting shit kicking off the end of days?

Note there were no ejections. I’m guessing Fletcher felt a little guilty and just wanted to get the game going again. Well done, Mr Fletcher. However dubious, you did make a little baseball history.