Cox's Record Sparks Nostalgia for O's Fans

Record comes near the anniversary of a classic Weaver ejection

By Matthew Taylor

It’s fitting that we get to read about Braves manager Bobby Cox’s record-setting 132nd ejection in this morning’s paper. On this very date in 1975 Earl Weaver got ejected from both games of a twi-night doubleheader as the O’s split a pair with the Texas Rangers at Memorial Stadium.

Umpire Ron Luciano tossed Weaver in the opener during a fourth inning argument about a double play. Weaver wasted no time in the nightcap, getting tossed during the exchange of lineup cards when he decided to continue the argument with Luciano, his longtime nemesis.

Weaver would miss the following night’s game so he could fly to St. Louis and give his daughter away in marriage.

For his entire career, Earl Weaver was ejected from both games of a doubleheader on three separate occasions. [Check out our "Vide-O Corner" for a classic Weaver outburst.]

Sports Illustrated writer John Donovan uses Weaver’s doubleheader ejections on Sept. 30, 1985 against the Yankees as a measuring stick for Bobby Cox. The O's lost both games, 4-0 and 9-2.

Once, back in the waning days of the 1985 season, the dean of disputatious big-league managers, Earl Weaver, was thrown out of both games of a doubleheader in Yankee Stadium. The second time it happened, he barely made it to home plate for the pregame exchange of lineup cards before he was run.

The first time, though, was the beauty. In the third inning of the first game on that late-September day, after Weaver already had been out on the field three times to argue something or other, umpire Jim Evans finally tired of the show and tossed the diminutive Baltimore skipper. The ump then took out his watch and gave Weaver one minute to leave the field.

Weaver grabbed the watch, reared back and flung it into the visitors' dugout, where it skidded to a stop under the Orioles' bench.

"If my arm was still good," Weaver told reporters after the game, "I would've thrown it into the stands."

Memories of The Tractor

Was anyone else thinking of Chris Hoiles last night when Aubrey Huff, having already hit a grand slam, came to the plate with the bases loaded for a second time?

Huff had a chance to become the fourth Oriole, the 13th player overall, to hit two grand slams in the same game. Instead, Huff had an RBI single.

The O's who have achieved the feat are Jim Gentile ('61), Frank Robinson ('70), and Hoiles ('98). You can read more about it in our previous posting, "Beltway Baseball Wasn't Always So Bad."