If I were playing third base
and my mother were rounding third
with the run that was going to beat us,
I'd trip her.
Oh, I'd pick her up
and brush her off
and say, "Sorry, Mom,"
but nobody beats me.
Leo Ernest Durocher was born June 27, 1905 in West Springfield, Massachusetts to a poor working class family. Eager to escape the life, he picked up baseball, leaving to sign with a traveling semi-pro team when he was 15. He showed enough talent that he was signed to the Yankees farm team in 1922.
Durocher began his major league playing career on the final day of 1925, when he played second base and pinch-hit for the New York Yankees in a doubleheader. He went back down to the minors and did not return until 1928, where he had a respectable rookie season, batting .270 in 102 games (and winning a World Series ring in the process).
Shaky Start
As long as I've got a chance to beat you
I'm going to take it.
Here the murky stories of Leo Durocher begin to blur the line between truth and fiction: it is widely conjectured that Durocher was caught stealing jewelry from teammate Babe Ruth's locker. Ruth beat Durocher up handily, and then demanded Durocher be traded. Whether or not this actually occurred, Durocher was sold to the Cincinnati Reds in 1930. Durocher played 3 forgettable seasons for the Reds, and was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1934, where he immediately put himself in position as team captain. That year, the "Gashouse Gang," as the team was nicknamed (allegedly by Durocher himself), played a wild ragtag season full of exuberant finishes, close calls, and plenty of off-the-field antics. In the end, they won the World Series.
By this time, Durocher had won quite a reputation as a brash slick-fielding shortstop. He jawed a lot with umpires, earning him his nickname, "The Lip." A three-time All-Star], Durocher was known almost exclusively for his glove; he never batted higher than .286 in any season, and only hit 24 home runs in his 17 year career. Babe Ruth, no friend of The Lip's, once called him the "All-American out."
Throughout his career, Durocher's mouth got him in trouble again and again: he made antiunion comments on behalf of his wife's dress business in 1935, causing a boycott of his Cardinals; he got into fights with Casey Stengel, Zeke Bonura, and Joe Medwick, and in 1940 as player-manager he was fined for "inciting a riot" at his new team the Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field.
The Man Could Talk
In 1941, Durocher led his Dodgers to the pennant, losing a close World Series to the New York Yankees. The team continued to finish well in the pennant, although Durocher's 1945 retirement from the on-the-field side of his duties did little to stop his feistiness: in June of that year, he was arrested on charges of hitting a fan while a policeman was holding the man back. He was acquitted in April, 1946, although it is widely believed Durocher was guilty. Durocher's feistiness also proved invaluable in putting Jackie Robinson in a Dodgers uniform that April: of Robinson he said, "I don't care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fucking zebra. I'm the manager of this team and I say he plays." The next month, Durocher took part in an all-out brawl against the Chicago Cubs, and was suspended for 3 games. Still, this was small potatoes compared to what would happen to Durocher next.
Big Apple Business
When you're playing for money,
winning is the only thing that matters.
Durocher's celebrity status and egotistical nature proved to be a dangerous combination. He made friends with many Hollywood and Broadway stars, even marrying Laraine Day in 1947. Sometimes these connections led to less glamorous ones - many a times friends visiting Durocher in the locker room after a game would bring down other friends: gangsters. With racketeering still a major concern (after the 1919 Black Sox scandal), Durocher's friendships were noted with disdain by the local sportswriters. Eventually, Durocher admitted to the Commissioner Happy Chandler he had bet on racehorses, but that the whole thing was blown out of proportion. Unmoved, Chandler suspended Durocher for the entire 1947 season.
After sitting out his year, Durocher returned to manage the Dodgers in 1948, but was released and signed with in-town rivals the New York Giants in July. While his overt gangster connections had cooled, his temper apparently had not. He was arrested again in 1949 for assaulting a fan, although the charges were dropped just days later. In 1951, he took his Giants to the World Series (following the "Shot Heard 'Round The World" by Bobby Thomson), where he again faced his former team the Yankees. Just before the final game, he handed over a letter to Commissioner Ford Frick sent to Durocher anonymously, enticing him with $15,000 to lose the game. His team played hard, but lost on a last-inning, base-clearing triple; Durocher was still named Manager of the Year by the Associated Press.
The Fire Within
I never questioned the integrity of an umpire.
Their eyesight, yes.
Durocher didn't let up after winning the World Series; he was suspended and fined 3 times in 1952 for fighting with umpires, and in 1953, he was fined after ordering a pitcher to bean Dodgers star Carl Furillo. In 1955, the Giants released him as manager, and he effectively retired from baseball.
Any Which Way You Can
Win any way you can
as long as you can get away with it.
Now retired, Durocher continued to associate with Hollywood stars, and made several appearances on TV and radio. He appeared as a guest on "What's My Line?", "The Jack Benny Show", "The Judy Garland Show", and appeared as himself on both "Mr. Ed" and "The Beverly Hillbillies." However, "The Lip" didn't stay away from baseball long: after his divorce from Laraine in 1960, he returned to the Dodgers as third base coach. In 1962, charges that Durocher had been stealing signs via a telescope throughout his Giants tenure were vehemently denied, but it was revealed to be true by sources close to the Giants management. In August, Durocher nearly died of a fatal reaction to penicillin. Not his best year.
In 1965, the Chicago Cubs named Durocher manager. He spent 6 chilly seasons there, disliked by almost all of his players. One interesting note is that his ejection in a 1970 spring training game made him only the 4th person to be ejected in 6 different decades. In 1972, Durocher quit as manager of the Cubs and was hired in August to manage the first-place Houston Astros. The team buckled and finished second; Durocher retired again from baseball in 1973 after a third-place finish. In 1976, Durocher was offered a job managing a Japanese League team, the Yokohama Taiyo Whales, but he begged off, suffering from hepatitis.
A Not-So-Nice Guy
Leo "The Lip" Durocher died October 7, 1991 in Palm Springs, California. He was elected posthumously to the Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1994. He finished his baseball career with 3 World Series rings (2 from on the field), 3 pennant titles, 2000 wins as a manager, and served as one of the most colorful personalities ever to grace the game.
Nice guys
finish last.
Lifetime Statistics
Year TEAM G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA
1925 NYY AL 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
1928 NYY AL 102 296 46 80 8 6 0 31 1 4 22 52 .270
1929 NYY AL 106 341 53 84 4 5 0 32 3 1 34 33 .246
1930 CIN NL 119 354 31 86 15 3 3 32 0 0 20 45 .243
1931 CIN NL 121 361 26 82 11 5 1 29 0 0 18 32 .227
1932 CIN NL 143 457 43 99 22 5 1 33 3 0 36 40 .217
1933 CIN NL 16 51 6 11 1 0 1 3 0 0 4 5 .216
STL NL 123 395 45 102 18 4 2 41 3 0 26 32 .258
TOT NL 139 446 51 113 19 4 3 44 3 0 30 37 .253
1934 STL NL 146 500 62 130 26 5 3 70 2 0 33 40 .260
1935 STL NL 143 513 62 136 23 5 8 78 4 0 29 46 .265
1936 STL NL 136 510 57 146 22 3 1 58 3 0 29 47 .286
1937 STL NL 135 477 46 97 11 3 1 47 6 0 38 36 .203
1938 BRO NL 141 479 41 105 18 5 1 56 3 0 47 30 .219
1939 BRO NL 116 390 42 108 21 6 1 34 2 0 27 24 .277
1940 BRO NL 62 160 10 37 9 1 1 14 1 0 12 13 .231
1941 BRO NL 18 42 2 12 1 0 0 6 0 0 1 3 .286
1943 BRO NL 6 18 1 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 .222
1945 BRO NL 2 5 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 .200
CAREER 1637 5350 575 1320 210 56 24 567 31 5 377 480 .247
Managerial Career
YEAR TEAM G W L WP Finish
1939 Brooklyn NL 157 84 69 .549 3
1940 Brooklyn NL 156 88 65 .575 2
1941 Brooklyn NL 157 100 54 .649 1
1942 Brooklyn NL 155 104 50 .675 2
1943 Brooklyn NL 153 81 72 .529 3
1944 Brooklyn NL 155 63 91 .409 7
1945 Brooklyn NL 155 87 67 .565 3
1946 Brooklyn NL 157 96 60 .615 2
1948 Brooklyn NL 73 35 37 .486 3
1948 New York NL 79 41 38 .519 5
1949 New York NL 156 73 81 .474 5
1950 New York NL 154 86 68 .558 3
1951 New York NL 157 98 59 .624 1
1952 New York NL 154 92 62 .597 2
1953 New York NL 155 70 84 .455 5
1954 New York NL 154 97 57 .630 1
1955 New York NL 154 80 74 .519 3
1966 Chicago NL 162 59 103 .364 10
1967 Chicago NL 162 87 74 .540 3
1968 Chicago NL 163 84 78 .519 3
1969 Chicago NL 163 92 70 .568 2
1970 Chicago NL 162 84 78 .519 2
1971 Chicago NL 162 83 79 .512 4
1972 Chicago NL 91 46 44 .511 2
1972 Houston NL 31 16 15 .516 2
1973 Houston NL 162 82 80 .506 4
TOTAL 3739 2008 1709 .540
Sources
- TheBaseballPage.com - http://www.thebaseballpage.com/past/pp/durocherleo/default.htm
- Baseball-Reference.com - http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/durocherle01.shtml
- BaseballLibrary.com - http://www.pubdim.net/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/D/Durocher_Leo.stm
Index
Hugh Duffy | Billy Evans