“Leo Durocher, a lifetime .247 hitter, was the loudest .247 hitter in the annals. . . He was a slick shortstop for four different teams and after that a slick manager across twenty-four [actually 26] seasons. He possessed charm and fire and a gambler’s wit, but cruelty marred his character. . . The cruelty ran strong and deep. Up top Durocher offered flash and glitter, which created a powerfully appealing manner, just the sort of fellow you would love to shoot pool with, even though he’d take your shirt and pants and wallet.” That was author Roger Kahn’s description of Durocher, who managed the New York Giants when Kahn covered the team as a beat reporter, in The Era. In Memories of Summer, Kahn wrote of Durocher, “He was cheap and obscene and devious and suspicious and wholly magnificent.” Larry MacPhail, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ president who gave Durocher his first managerial job, said, “Leo should manage an aspirin company. He has a knack for giving people headaches.”
Durocher played for the New York Yankees (1925, 1928-29), Cincinnati Reds (1930-33), St. Louis Cardinals (1933-37), and Dodgers (1938-41, 1943, 1945), contributing to two World Series winners. He managed the Dodgers (1939-46, 1948), Giants (1948-55), Chicago Cubs (1966-72), and Houston Astros (1972-73), winning three National League pennants, one of which led to a World Series championship. Commissioner Happy Chandler suspended Durocher for the entire 1947 season for “association with known gamblers.” Burt Shotton guided the Dodgers to the 1947 pennant in Durocher’s absence and took a front office position when Durocher returned to the bench in 1948. The 1948 Dodgers got off to a 35-37 start under Durocher. Meanwhile, the Giants contacted Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey and requested permission to hire Shotton as their manager. Instead, Rickey reinstated Shotton as manager and told them they could have Durocher.
Durocher was a demon on the field and a snappy dresser off the field who hobnobbed with celebrities and appeared on many 1960s TV sitcoms, cast as himself. It was alleged that while on the Yankees, he passed bad checks and stole Babe Ruth’s watch. He had four wives, including actress Laraine Day from 1948-60. While he was the Giants manager, Kahn reported in Memories of Summer that Durocher cheated on Day with a blonde, foreign actress. (Speaking at a Book and Author Dinner in Pittsburgh that I attended in 1997, Kahn said his lawyers advised him not to use the actress’s name. I’d hoped that he’d mention her name during his talk, looking forward to a day when I retired and became a writer, just in case I ever wanted to write sleaze.)
“Leo Was Not Fired”
All managers seem to have a shelf life, and when he took the Cubs’ helm, his teams never finished higher than second despite being stocked with talented players. He harassed young players, and his teams were generally exhausted by the stretch run because he rarely gave his regulars days off. On July 25, 1972, with the team on the verge of mutiny, coach Whitey Lockman, who was the Giants’ first baseman under Durocher, was named Cubs manager. Owner Philip K. Wrigley told the Associated Press, “Leo was not fired,” but instead Durocher “agreed with me it was best for his own sake and the club’s best interest to step aside at the halfway mark.” Sounds like a firing to me, but what do I know?
Durocher wasn’t without a managerial gig for long. On August 28, the Astros fired manager Harry Walker and announced that Durocher, then 67, would be their manager. When Walker was fired, the Astros were 67-54, in second place in the NL West Division, nine games behind the Reds, who posted an insane 75-44 record. The old-school Walker battled with players, and some black players accused him of being racist. Durocher accepted minority players but otherwise was just as old-school as Walker and warred with his Cubs players, too. Why would anybody think that Durocher was the right remedy for what ailed the Astros? Astros owner Judge Roy Hofheinz remembered how Durocher fired up the Giants down the stretch in 1951 (aided, we know now, by an elaborate sign-stealing scheme) and thought he could do the same in Houston. Meanwhile, he might generate some headlines, too. Ever the loyal soldier, Astros GM Spec Richardson acted like it was decision, telling the press, “I think he will be a refreshing change.
Leo Durocher, circa 1973 #Astros#Baseball
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Durocher’s Way
For the rest of 1972, the Astros did worse under Durocher than under Walker. They went 16-15 under Durocher and finished 84-69, tied for second place with the Dodgers, 10.5 games behind the first-place Reds in a strike-shortened season. He was happy to manage budding superstar center fielder Cesar Cedeno, who hit .320/.385/.537, 22 HR, and 82 RBI while stealing 55 bases and leading the club with 8.0 WAR in 1972. Indeed, Cedeno’s presence was a key factor in Durocher taking the job. Durocher compared him to Willie Mays, whom Durocher managed with the Giants. It was rare praise indeed. The only player Durocher ever dared compare to Mays was Pete Reiser, the Dodgers center fielder whose career was cut short because he preferred running into concrete walls rather than avoiding them.
There was just one known challenge to Durocher’s authority in 1972. On September 22, the Astros’ best starter, Larry Dierker, gave up two runs on three walks and a hit in the first inning against the Reds. With two outs, Durocher sent pitching coach Jim Owens to the mound to remove Dierker. Dierker refused to give up the ball at first, and then headed to the dugout before reliever Jerry Reuss came in. Durocher struck back and announced that Dierker wouldn’t start any games for the remainder of the season. “I told these players the day I took over I would demand respect for me and the coaches, and they would get the same from me,” Durocher told United Press International. “I will not show up anyone on the field and I expect the same.”
Durocher Puts His Stamp on the Astros
After the season, Durocher replaced coaches Buddy Hancken and Salty Parker with Preston Gomez and Grady Hatton, although the press speculated that Hatton was a Richardson plant.
Spring training, 1973, began with Durocher asserting himself. In mid-March, he broke up a meeting between the players and Marvin Miller, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, so that the Astros could hold batting practice. Ninety minutes had been blocked out for Miller to meet with players from the Astros and Texas Rangers in Pompano Beach. “It was absurd,” Miller told UPI. “The meeting wasn’t underway a half-hour when Durocher comes blustering up, waving his arms and saying, ‘Okay, okay, meeting over, let’s go.” Miller continued the meeting in center field with the Rangers players. He had his back to home plate as batted balls came flying in his direction. He didn’t look back but suspected it was Durocher hitting fungoes. Durocher was fined $250 by NL president Chub Feeney.
Durocher even fined nine-year-old batboy Mark Mann two dollars for failing to pick up two baseballs in the Astros’ dugout before an exhibition game against the Dodgers. When the kid explained that he didn’t have any money, Durocher told him, “Get it from your grandfather” – who just happened to be Hofheinz. Durocher changed his mind about the fine when the batboy returned with the money.
Strangely, the night before the season opener in Atlanta, Durocher fired Owens and replaced him with Hub Kittle. He said he “wasn’t completely satisfied with the pitching situation and thought a change was in order.”
A New Leo
On May 20, the Astros gained first place in the West Division with an 8-7 win over the San Francisco Giants, thanks to Jim Wynn’s solo homer off Sam McDowell in the bottom of the ninth inning in the Astrodome. The Astros seemed like one big happy family, and the former “Leo the Lip” was now Leo the Pussycat. Durocher seemed like a changed man on May 26 when Jeff Samuels of The Pittsburgh Press interviewed him, even if he may have been guilty of revisionist history. “I don’t know how it all started,” he said. “I read it somewhere years ago [about] what a tough guy I am, how impatient I am. That’s a fallacy. I’m no tougher than any other manager.”
“I don’t holler at them anymore,” he continued. “At least I think I don’t. If they strike out, they strike out. If they make an error, they made an error. I don’t explode or bawl them out on the bench. Always in private. . . The only thing I’m impatient with is no talent. What’s the use of wasting time with a guy who can’t do anything?” Said Astros second baseman Tommy Helms, “He’s been getting along great with everybody.” Everybody but catcher Larry Howard, who was 8-for-48 and was traded two days later after Durocher had him placed on waivers. When Howard confronted Durocher, the manager told him in a loud voice that he had “produced nothing.” Then again, why waste time with a guy who can’t do anything?
On June 27, Reuss defeated the Reds at the Astrodome, 10-2, with a complete game. He ran his record to 10-5. “This is my best start ever,” he told UPI. “If things keep going like they are, I’ve got a chance at 20.” But now they were 43-33, six games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers, and soon the “big happy family” would be unhappy with Dad.
Family Unrest
Reuss may have looked forward to that 20-win season when he took the mound on July 6 in the fourth inning of the first game of a doubleheader at Jarry Park, with a 7-1 lead over the Montreal Expos. However, after giving up two runs on two hits and a walk, Durocher went to the bullpen for Jim Ray. Ray and his successor, Jim Crawford, were ineffective, and the Expos rallied to win, 12-8. Meanwhile, in the visiting clubhouse, Reuss picked up a folding chair and fired it into Durocher’s locker before the clubhouse attendant stopped him. For the remainder of the game and through the second game, Reuss and Durocher had what Reuss called a “spirited discussion” in his book, Bring In the Right-Hander. After the game, Durocher said the meeting was “private,” and he’d missed the second game with an upset stomach.
Reuss, of course, felt that he should have been given a chance to get the last out in the fourth inning. Reuss went on to admit that in hindsight, Durocher was right to remove him that night and regretted calling him a “dummy” after the season when he was traded. They would patch things up years later when Reuss was pitching for the Dodgers. But at the time, Reuss was unhappy, and Houston had dropped to 46-41, in fourth place and seven games out.
Don Wilson was apparently another unhappy Astro. Around this same time, according to Durocher’s book, Nice Guys Finish Last, Wilson boarded the team bus, where Durocher was seated up front. Durocher wrote, “So here comes Wilson and he looks right at me and says, ‘Leo Durocher, you [two-word obscenity], you.’ And he walked on by with a little wise-guy grin on his face.” Durocher ran to the back of the bus to challenge him, but the big slugging first baseman Lee May blocked the aisle. Durocher fined Wilson $300 and Richardson fined him another $1,000. Later, Wilson apologized to Durocher and his teammates.
Dean and Johnny
The Astros were back in Pittsburgh in August, and when they left on the 23rd, they were 66-63, still in fourth place, and12.5 games behind the first-place Dodgers. Before the final game, with the season spiraling out of control, Durocher sat in his office, regaling the press about his friendships with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, George Burns, Don Rickles, and Johnny Carson, referring to them by their first names. “Dean” and “Johnny” both wanted him on their shows. The Dean Martin Show paid $5,000 for one show. But The Tonight Show paid just $300. Durocher didn’t need that.
Meanwhile, there were whispers that Durocher cared more about those celebrity friendships and his fancy wardrobe than the team’s performance. That’s unlikely, given his competitive nature, but in the end he didn’t get enough out of what was a talented club. Despite being 11 games over .500 as early as May 12, they finished 82-80, “good” for fourth place and 17 games behind the first-place Reds, who got hot down the stretch. This, despite four players – May, Cedeno, Doug Rader, and Wynn – hitting at least 20 home runs and three Gold Glove Award winners in center fielder Cedeno, third baseman Rader, and shortstop Roger Metzger. Yet in virtually every key offensive and pitching category, Houston landed in the middle of the pack.
Leo Retires
On October 1, the day after the Astros’ season ended, Durocher resigned and announced it was his retirement from baseball. Third base coach Gomez was named as his successor. One might think he was fired, but Richardson told the press he tried to talk Durocher out of quitting. Durocher didn’t attend the press conference announcing his resignation, but UPI caught up with him. Durocher said, “Baseball has been 45 years of wonderful life. But I have a lot of things to do now. I’m going out to Palm Springs and I’m going to tee it up and play a lot of golf. . . I feel fine. My wife has been after me to resign, though. She had a lot to do with it.”
Leo the Pal
Durocher’s record was even worse than it seems. On April 19, he was hospitalized with inflammation of his lower intestine. Gomez took over for 17 games, over which the Astros were 14-3. Reuss wrote, “There was an entirely different atmosphere with Preston leading the club. The focus was solely on the game,” suggesting that perhaps Durocher’s attention was elsewhere after all.
Reuss noted that Durocher decided to be a “pal” to the players, and that was where he went wrong. “What Leo failed to understand was that the Astros needed a manager the players could trust and respect,” wrote Reuss. “When you’re a ballplayer in your mid-twenties, do you really want a sixty-eight-year-old ‘pal’ who takes your money in the daily card games?”
Wynn liked playing for Durocher better than he liked playing for Walker, who tried to change Wynn into an opposite-field hitter. However, in 1974, Wynn acknowledged to Si Burick of The Dayton Daily News that “maybe [Durocher] was too bold to get the most out of us.” Bold or old?
“They Do It Their Way”
There are two sides to every story, and probably at least a grain of truth in both. In Nice Guys Finish Last, Durocher wrote of the modern player, “They do it their way. I’ve had some of the best drinkers in baseball, and some of the best drunks. Some of them I’d loved, and some of them I’d laughed with. The difference was a difference in attitude. In the olden days, it was fun and games. It was ‘Catch me if you can.’ Today there’s a meanness about it. It’s ‘Who are you to tell me not to drink?’ and ‘What are you going to do about it?’”
However, Durocher saved his harshest criticism for Cedeno. The 22-year-old had another good season, hitting .320/.376/.537, 25 HR, and 70 RBI to go with 56 steals in 139 games. He was an All-Star and garnered votes for the NL Most Valuable Player Award. It was that “139 games” part that irked Durocher. “Willie Mays was never sick. He was never hurt. He never had a bellyache,” wrote Durocher. “He came to the park every day to put on the uniform and play. With Cedeno, it was: ‘Not feeling good today, got tummyache. Got headache, I dunno if I can play.’ Even when he was playing, he was complaining. . . and then there was his temperament on the ball field. I never saw Mays throw his helmet. I never saw him get mad over a called third strike. . . In other words, I never saw Talent do that.”
Durocher summed it up thusly: “One day, I started to think I’d had about all I needed of the modern player. It was Cesar Cedeno who made up my mind.”
Too Many Alimonies?
In 2018, fans on the Astros Baseball Talk message board discussed the burning question of who was the worst manager in Astros history. It was suggested by “s_t_u_r_t” that “Leo the Lip may be a decent candidate,” but Durocher was absolved by “Bob H,” who posted, “Durocher managed in an era where there was no such thing as a retirement plan and men worked until they keeled over. He probably had a few alimonies to pay too.”
