July 16, 1948: Leo Durocher is named manager of the New York Giants -- after having been manager of their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, for 9 of the previous 10 seasons. This shocks fans of both teams: Now, Dodger fans hate a man they had previously loved; and Giant fans, having hated him before, welcome him with open arms.
Durocher had been a good-field-no-hit shortstop, who played on the New York Yankees' 1928 World Series winners (but hadn't yet been promoted for their 1927 "greatest team ever"). In 1929, when the Yankees introduced uniform numbers, based on their batting order, Durocher became the 1st Yankee to wear the Number 7 that would later become legend on Mickey Mantle. But after the 1929 season, the Yankees got rid of him, and he was never employed by another American League team. Legend has it that Babe Ruth accused Durocher of stealing his watch.
He also played for the 1934 World Series winners, the St. Louis Cardinals, a scrappy bunch known as the Gashouse Gang. This team's style of getting runs any way you can would influence his later managing.
In 1938, he was traded to the Dodgers, and was named their manager in 1939. He ceded the shortstop position to Harold "Pee Wee" Reese in 1940, and in 1941, he managed them to their 1st Pennant in 21 years. They lost the World Series to the New York Yankees.
When Spring Training came in 1947, he had to contend with the arrival of Jackie Robinson, the 1st black player in modern baseball. Durocher had grown up in West Springfield, Massachusetts, of French-Canadian descent and Roman Catholic faith, and had been discriminated against for both reasons. So when he learned that some Southerners on the Dodger roster had circulated a petition against Robinson's presence on the team, he stood up for Robinson.
Of course, Durocher was also concerned about winning. And, as a poor kid who became a rich man, and also became a compulsive gambler, he was also concerned about money. So this is what he told them:
You know what you can do with that petition? You can wipe your ass with it. I do not 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. He's gonna win a lot of games for us, and he's gonna make a lot of money for us. And he's only the first. There's a lot more coming.
But Durocher would not be the manager in that critical first season of 1947. He had been connected with mobsters and gamblers. The City's Catholic Youth Organization was also upset over Leo's affair with the woman who would become the 3rd of his 4 wives, actress Laraine Day, and promised a boycott of Ebbets Field if something weren't done.
Baseball Commissioner Albert "Happy" Chandler took the decision out of Dodger president Branch Rickey's hands, and suspended Durocher for the entire season. With Burt Shotton as manager, and Robinson playing superbly under the greatest pressure any American athlete has ever known, the Dodgers won the Pennant -- but, again, lost the World Series to the Yankees.
In the next year's Spring Training, the Dodgers' 1st at the "Dodgertown" complex at Vero Beach, Florida, where they could control things and keep the racists out, Robinson showed up showing the effects of the off-season after-dinner-speaking circuit. Durocher, now eligible to manage again, said, "Jackie Robinson had gotten fat, just for me." Once supportive, Durocher now belittled Robinson, to the point where Robinson called him "a cologne-soaked bully."
Durocher also didn't like Mel Ott. Once the greatest slugger the National League had ever seen, he was now the manager of the Giants, and not a good one. Durocher was once quoted as saying, "Look at Ott. He's a nice guy, and he's gonna finish 8th. All nice guys, and they'll finish 8th with him."
The implication was that, in the 8-team National League, 8th place was last, and that they didn't have enough of a mean streak to win some of the games they could have won. This got turned into "Nice guys finish last," and while it's not Durocher's exact words, he used it as the title of his 1975 autobiography.
Giants owner Horace Stoneham was looking to fire Ott for his lack of success. Rickey, a one-quarter owner of the Dodgers, was looking for a way to get rid of Durocher. It's not clear who made the phone call, but they decided that the easy thing to do was to "trade" Durocher. Ott was bought out of his contract, Durocher was hired by the Giants, and Rickey brought Shotton back, and he remained Dodger manager through the end of the 1950 season.
Leo Durocher, the embodiment of the tough, scrappy, underdogs-for-the-underdogs Brooklyn Dodgers -- managing the aristocratic New York Giants? It was a shock. Sure, Louis Armstrong had played Carnegie Hall, but this was like Frank Sinatra singing at The Met, with his bobby-soxers mixing with the the big donors. Horrors!
Dodger fans, who valued loyalty, now hated him. They said they were betrayed. They called their once-beloved Leo the Lip a traitor and a sellout. They had no idea that it wasn't his idea to make the move. It was Rickey's and Stoneham's. On the other hand, Giant fans who hated him quickly realized that he was just the kick in the pants their team needed, and embraced him.
What's more, it worked -- for both teams. Without Durocher, the Dodgers won Pennants under Shotton in 1949, under Charlie Dressen in 1952 and 1953, and under Walter Alston in 1955 and 1956. With Durocher, the Giants won an amazing Pennant race with the Dodgers in 1951 (See: "Thomson, Bobby"), and another Pennant in 1954. Durocher led the Giants to win the World Series in 1954, and Alston led the Dodgers to win it in 1955.
Both teams moved to California after the 1957 season. In Hollywood, where he spent his off-seasons, Durocher was re-hired by Walter O'Malley, who had bought out Rickey and the other Dodger partners after the 1950 season, and didn't care that Leo was friends with mobsters and gamblers. Durocher later managed the Chicago Cubs, blowing a sure National League Eastern Division title in 1969; and was still managing in the majors as late as 1973, with the Houston Astros.
He died in 1991, without having been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame -- the rumored reason being that no one wanted to hear his acceptance speech. He was posthumously elected in 1994.
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July 16, 1948 was a Friday. Two very different musical legends were born that day: Israeli classical violinist Pinchas Zukerman, and Panamanian singer Rubén Blades.
These baseball games were played that day:
* The Giants were supposed to play the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, but got rained out. The game was rescheduled for September 2, and the Giants won, 5-4. Walker Cooper and Jack Lohrke hit home runs in support of Larry Jansen.
* The Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Gene Hermanski hit a home run. Robinson went 0-for-4. Joe Hatten outpitched Ewell Blackwell.
* The New York Yankees lost to the St. Louis Browns, 10-4 at Yankee Stadium. Allie Reynolds did not have good stuff. Joe DiMaggio went 0-for-3, although he did draw a walk. The Yankees did get a home run, from Phil Rizzuto.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams did not play in this game.
* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-5 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 3-2 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.
* The Boston Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 12-10 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The wind was blowing out: Home runs were hit for the Braves by Earl Torgeson and Phil Masi, and for the Cubs by Andy Pafko and Bob Scheffing.
* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 0-for-2, but had 2 walks and 2 RBIs.
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