THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES - AUTOGRAPH CIRCA 1973 CO-SIGNED BY: BILLY HUNTER, EARL WEAVER, GEORGE BAMBERGER, JIM FREY - HFSID 291109

BALTIMORE ORIOLES (1973)
Manager Earl Weaver, and three of his coaches - all of whom became managers themselves - signed this 5x3 card
Signature: "Earl Weaver", "George Bamberger", "Bill Hunter", "Jim Frey", 5x3 card. Ink note (unknown hand): "1973 Balt." Earl Weaver (b. 1930) managed the Baltimore Orioles for 17 years, including 15 in a row, taking them to the World Series four times. His winning percentage as a manager is the eighth highest of all time. Weaver liked to bait umpires, and was thrown out of almost 100 games (including Game Four of the 1969 World Series) and suspended at least four times. In 1985, he was ejected from both ends of a doubleheader. Not a big advocate of base stealing or sacrifice bunts, Weaver expressed his winning formula this way: W = GP + 3RH (Win = good pitching + 3-run homer). Weaver was highly superstitious, even for a baseball guy, but was also one of the first to rely heavily on computer-generated statistics. As he notes on this baseball, Weaver entered the Hall of Fame in 1996. Behind every good manager is a crack coaching staff, and this one certainly qualifies. GEORGE BAMBERGER (1923-2004), who won 213 minor league games as a pitcher but only appeared in 10 Major League contests, was the Orioles pitching coach from 1968 to 1977, handling great staffs featuring four Cy Young awards and eighteen 20-game winners. He later managed the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets. Ironically, the former pitching coach built his Brewers teams around slugging offense, known collectively as "Bambi's Bombers." JIM FREY (1931-2020), a fine minor league hitter who never played in the Majors, was an Orioles batting coach from 1970 to 1979. He left to become manager of the Kansas City Royals, notching the team's first pennant there in 1980, and later managed the Chicago Cubs. When asked what he told Royals superstar George Brett about hitting, Frey replied, "I tell him, 'Atta way to hit, George!'" BILLY HUNTER (b. 1928) was the last starting shortstop of the St Louis Browns (1953) and the first starting shortstop of the Baltimore Orioles, when the club moved east in 1954. A slick fielder and weak hitter, Hunter actually made the All-Star team in 1953, but spent the rest of his playing days (through 1958) as a reserve infielder for four AL clubs. Hunter was the Oriole's third base coach from 1961 to 1977, leaving to become manager of the Texas Rangers. In Texas, his teams had a strong winning record, but he was fired at the end of 1978 when players rebelled against his strict discipline. Pencil note (unknown hand) on front and verso. Otherwise, fine condition.