The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball

by John W. Miller

Your Holiness, I’m Joseph Medwick. I, too, used to be a cardinal. —Former St. Louis outfielder Joe Medwick to Pope Pius XII during a visit to the Vatican

Terry believed that most games are lost, not won,

Make the simple play. Never beat yourself. Run out every ball. Throw strikes.

“You’re always going to be a rotten bastard, or in my case, a little bastard, as long as you manage,”

I could manage Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hirohito. That doesn’t mean I’d like them, but I’d manage them. —Billy Martin

“You got to give the other man his chance at bat. This is why this is the greatest game of them all.”

“Jesus Christ, I appreciate when you told me to stop drinking. I didn’t—but I appreciated it.”

“walk with the Lord.” Earl’s classic reply: “I’d rather you walk with the bases loaded.”

“Practice doesn’t make perfect,” he said. “Perfect practice makes perfect.”