Durocher, Leo (1905-1991)

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Durocher, Leo (1905-1991)

Leo Durocher, states one baseball publication, "was squarely at the center of some of the most exciting and controversial events in the history of the game." Durocher's colorful and eventful baseball career spanned nearly 50 years as a major league player, manager, coach, and television commentator. But it was his tenure as a manager in New York City from 1941 to 1955 that made him a national sports celebrity and placed him at the heart of so many significant baseball events. Baseball writer Roger Kahn fondly remembered that era "when the Yankees, Giants, and Dodgers ruled the world." On the field, Durocher managed both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants; was directly involved in the controversy surrounding the game's first black player, Jackie Robinson; and was a participant in what many sports writers consider the greatest game in baseball history—the 1951 final playoff between the Giants and the Dodgers.

Born in the industrial slums of West Springfield, Massachusetts, the young Durocher worked in factories and hustled pool to make money. He was suspended from high school for slapping a teacher and never returned. He began playing baseball on a railroad company team and made it to the major leagues in 1925. His playing career was mediocre at best, and his hitting was weak, but his flashy and acrobatic fielding was enough to make him an All-Star in 1936, 1938, and 1940. Durocher played for two of the most celebrated teams of the early twentieth century: in 1928 he spent his first full season in the major leagues with the legendary New York Yankees, led by Babe Ruth; and in 1934, he captained the St. Louis Cardinals, a team better known as the "Gas House Gang." Those boisterous Cardinals were a hell-raising group that played hard on and off the field. Durocher and the Cardinals won the 1934 World Series.

In 1939, Durocher became player-manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He helped the Dodgers to a National League pennant in 1941 and, in what was perhaps his finest moment in baseball, stymied a 1947 rebellion by some Dodgers players protesting the presence of Jackie Robinson on the team. During spring training, Durocher discovered that several Dodgers were circulating a petition vowing they would never play on the same team as Robinson. Durocher called the team together and told them that Robinson was a great player and would help them to victory. He declared that, "He's only the first, boys, only the first! There are many more colored ballplayers coming right behind him and they're hungry, boys. They're scratching and diving. Unless you wake up, these colored ballplayers are going to run you right out of the park. I don't want to see your petition, I don't want to hear anything else. This meeting is over."

But he never had the opportunity to manage Jackie Robinson. A controversial figure, Durocher was suspended by the baseball commissioner for the entire 1947 season on the vague charge of moral turpitude. He had been under suspicion for being too friendly with New York gamblers and other shady characters, such as mobster Bugsy Siegel; and he had married movie actress Laraine Day in Mexico before her California divorce was final. Already a twice-divorced Catholic, Durocher had made enemies of powerful Roman Catholic Church officials and politicians in Brooklyn. Thus, public pressure, and the threat of keeping Catholic youth organizations from the ballpark, forced Durocher's year-long sabbatical.

When he returned in 1948, the Dodgers faltered and he was fired early in the season. To the amazement of New York fans, however, he was immediately hired as manager of the cross-town rival, the New York Giants. He was also managing the Giants at the time of the legendary 1951 playoff game with the Brooklyn Dodgers on 12 August 1951. The Giants, trailing the first-place Dodgers by 131/2 games, tied their rivals by season's end and forced a three-game playoff. In game three, the Dodgers were leading 4-1 in the final inning when Bobby Thomson hit a dramatic home run to win the pennant for the Durocher-led Giants. Durocher took the team to two World Series, winning the 1954 contest, but despite these successes, the Giants finished a weak third in 1955 and Durcoher was fired at the end of the season.

After working as a television commentator and coaching for several years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Durocher returned to manage the Chicago Cubs in 1966. The Cubs had been one of the worst teams in baseball for nearly three decades, but Durocher helped turn them into winners. In 1969, his Cubs held a 9 1/2-game lead in early August, but they folded in the last two months of the season and lost the National League pennant to the New York Mets. Durocher was criticized for not resting his players during the humid days of summer. He left the Cubs in 1972 and managed one more season with the Houston Astros before retiring.

Leo Durocher remains among the all-time leaders in games managed (3,740) and games won (2,010). In addition, he is the only baseball player cited in Bartlett's Quotations. His quote, "Nice Guys Finish Last," is also the title of his autobiography, which he wrote after leaving baseball. That renowned quotation was attributed to Durocher in 1947 and referred to his opinion of then Giants manager Mel Ott, whose team had been underachieving during the season. "Leo the Lip," as the irascible Durocher was called, maintained that Ott and most of the Giants players were nice guys, but they would never be winners because nice guys finish last.

—David E. Woodard