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Leo Ernest Durocher (July 27, 1905 - October 7,
1991), nicknamed "Leo the Lip", was an American
infielder and manager in Major League Baseball.
Upon his retirement, he ranked 5th all-time among
managers with 2008 career victories, and second
only to John McGraw in National League history.
Through 2004, Durocher still ranked 8th in career
wins by a manager. A controversial and outspoken
character, Durocher's career was dogged by
clashes with authority and the press.

Born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, Durocher
joined the New York Yankees briefly in 1925 before
rejoining the club in 1928 as a regular, if
unspectacular, player. Babe Ruth, who Durocher
disliked intensely after Ruth accused Leo of
stealing his watch, nicknamed him "The
All-American Out". Durocher's outspokenness did
not endear him to the Yankee management, and his
habit of passing bad checks, to finance his
expensive tastes on clothes and nightlife, did not
help. After helping the team win its second
consecutive World Series title in 1928, he was
waived before the 1930 season.

He spent the remainder of his professional career
in the National League. After three years with the
Cincinnati Reds, he was traded to the St. Louis
Cardinals in mid-1933. That team, whose nickname
"Gashouse Gang" was supposedly inspired by Leo,
were a far more appropriate match; in St. Louis,
Durocher's characteristics as a fiery player and
vicious bench jockey were given full rein.
Durocher remained with the Cardinals through the
1937 season, captaining the team and winning the
1934 World Series (their third title in nine
years) before being traded to the Brooklyn
Dodgers.

Primarily a shortstop, Durocher played through
1945 (excluding the 1942 and 1944 seasons), and
was known as a solid fielder but a poor hitter. In
5,350 career at bats, he batted .247, hit 24 home
runs and had 567 RBI. He was named to the NL's
All-Star team three times - once with St. Louis,
and twice with the Dodgers.

While with the Dodgers in 1939, however, Durocher
assumed the position for which most would remember
him, that of manager. As a manager, his
temperament came into its own, and the most
enduring images of Durocher are of him standing
toe-to-toe with an umpire, vehemently arguing his
case until his inevitable ejection from the game.
In assembling his teams, he valued the same
characteristics in his players, his philosophy
best expressed in the widely quoted – but
misunderstood – phrase for which he now best
remembered: "Nice guys finish last". In an
interview while with the Dodgers, Durocher had
been commenting on the common belief at the time
that if a team's players got along well, they
would naturally play better than teams with
difficult or irascible players; noting some of the
players on the Giants who had reputations as
personable individuals, he observed that they were
all "nice guys", but would nonetheless finish
last, summing up his argument with, "Nice guys;
finish last." The remark was quoted accurately in
the published interview, but came to take on a
different meaning when some incorrectly thought he
meant that such a team would finish last because
it included "nice guys", when in fact he had
meant that there was no correlation between the
personalities on a team and their level of play.

Coming off six straight losing seasons, he made a
quick turnaround; apart from the war year of 1944,
he would not have a losing campaign with the team.
In 1941, just his third season of managing, he led
the Dodgers to the National League pennant (their
first in 21 years) with a 100-54 record. Durocher
managed the Dodgers continuously until 1946, but
clashed regularly with Commissioner Albert
"Happy" Chandler. Throughout his tenure Leo had
been warned away from his friends, many of whom
were gamblers, bookmakers or had mob connections,
and who had a free rein at Ebbets Field. (He was
particularly close with actor George Raft, with
whom he shared a Los Angeles house, and admitted
to a nodding accquaintance with Bugsy Siegel.)
Furthermore, Durocher encouraged and participated
in card schools within the clubhouse, and followed
horse racing closely. Matters came to a head when
Durocher's affair with married actress Laraine
Day became public knowledge, drawing criticism
from Brooklyn's influential Catholic Youth
Organization; the two later eloped and married in
Mexico in 1947, divorcing in 1960. Under pressure
from Dodger owner Walter O'Malley (who was
looking to undermine general manager Branch
Rickey), Chandler suspended Durocher for the 1947
season for "association with known gamblers".

Prior to being suspended, however, Durocher played
a noteworthy role in erasing baseball's color
line. In the spring of 1947, he let it be known
that he wouldn't tolerate the dissent of those
players on the team who opposed Jackie Robinson
joining the club, stating:

    "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."

He greatly admired Robinson for his hustle and
aggression, and once said of Eddie Stanky, the
sparkplug on his 1951 pennant winning Giants
team,

    "He can't hit, he can't field, he can't
run -- all he can do is beat you."

Durocher meant it as a great compliment.

He would return for the 1948 season, but his
outspoken personality would again cause friction
with team executive Branch Rickey, and Durocher
was fired mid-season. He was immediately hired,
however, by the Dodgers' cross-town rivals, the
New York Giants. He enjoyed perhaps his greatest
success with the Giants, and possibly a measure of
sweet revenge against the Dodgers, as the Giants
won the 1951 NL pennant in a playoff against
Brooklyn, triumphing on Bobby Thomson's historic
game-winning home run.

And with the Giants in 1954, Durocher won his only
World Series championship as a manager by sweeping
the heavily favored Cleveland Indians, who had
posted a record of 111-43 in the regular season.

Durocher managed the Giants through 1955 before
leaving the field, working as a television
commentator. He served as a coach for the Dodgers,
now relocated in Los Angeles, from 1961 to 1964.
He returned to the managerial ranks in 1966 as
leader of the Chicago Cubs, whom he managed until
1972. While with the Cubs, Durocher had regular
disagreements with their aging superstar, Ernie
Banks, whose injured knees made him a liability
but whose legendary status made him impossible to
bench. The problems would be symbolic of
Durocher's difficulty in managing the new breed
of wealthier, more outspoken players who had come
up during his long career. He then managed the
Houston Astros for the final 31 games of the 1972
season and the entire 1973 season before
retiring.

Durocher finished his managerial career with a
2008-1709 record for a .540 winning percentage. He
posted a winning record with each of the four
teams he led, and was the first manager to win 500
games with three different clubs.

Durocher died in Palm Springs, California at the
age of 86, and is buried in Forest Lawn, Hollywood
Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. He was inducted
into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994.