Weaver entertains Hot Stove crowd
The Beaumont boys — Earl Weaver, Lee Thomas and Chuck Diering — highlighted another delightful Bob Broeg Chapter Hot Stove Meeting this past Saturday at Mike Shannon’s Restaurant in downtown St. Louis. The evening featured the panel of the trio of Beaumont High School graduates as well as presentations from local baseball luminaries Mike Girsch, Director of Player Development for the St. Louis Cardinals, and Dan O’Neill, columnist from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (view all photos)
As of September 1998, Beaumont High School in St. Louis had no fewer than 15 major league players and one major-league manager, the most of any high school, according to Baseball Digest:
- Bobby Mattick
- Pete Reiser
- Buddy Blattner
- Chuck Diering
- Jack Maguire
- Bobby Hofman
- Jim Goodwin
- Roy Sievers
- Don Mueller
- Earl Weaver
- Bob Wiesler
- Neal Hertweck
- Lloyd Merritt
- Lee Thomas
- Bill Pleis
- Bob Miller
- Roy Branch
Weaver (1948), Thomas (1954) and Diering (1941) all reminisced about their playing days at Beaumont, and Weaver and Thomas traced their success back to their coach, Mr. Elliot. Weaver showed that, while he’s getting older, he’s still got some moxie, mixing in zingers about former umpires and his fellow panelists alike.
Before the Beaumont boys began, Girsch continued in the tradition of Cardinal decision-makers appearing at the Hot Stove, providing insight into his work analyzing data and creating sytems for the team to be able to better assess players. Following Jeff Luhnow in 2006 and John Mozeliak in 2007, the sabermetrics-friendly Girsch similarly demonstrated in his appearance that the team is in competent hands in the player-development side of the business.
O’Neill graciously previewed the DVD version of his new book "Sportsman’s Park," which he narrated a la John Chancellor in Ken Burns’s Baseball. The video had many restored images of the old park, as well as players and St. Louis scenes that were part of the life of the venerable ballyard, home to the most games in major-league history.
As usual, Bob Tiemann stumped the audience with trivia, like "Both Billy Southworth and Earl Weaver had their final minor-league managing stint working for which club?" (Rochester) and "What six different major-league teams, tied for the 20th-century record, did Dick Williams manage?" (California, Boston, Oakland, San Diego, Seattle, Montreal). The meeting also marked the end of chapter president Norm Richards’s term and the beginning of Jim Rygelski’s. Thanks, Norm, for many tremendous years at the helm.