"Leo started in 1925 as a shortstop with Hartford of the Eastern League. He played in the majors with the Yankees, Reds, Cardinals and Dodgers. His playing career came to a practical finish in 1941, but Leo took part in a few games in 1943 and 1945.
He was named manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939. He led the Flatbush team for eight and a half seasons, then was named manager of the Giants in July 1948."
-1950 Bowman No. 228
HOW THE DEAL WAS MADE Durocher Reveals Play-By-Play On Trade
"Leo Durocher didn't toy with his breakfast. One grapefruit, two eggs fried sunnyside up and a couple bottles of milk disappeared with neatness and dispatch. Then the manager of the New York Giants gathered his monogrammed, white-flannel robe a bit tighter around himself and relaxed in a deep-seated chair.
'Well, shoot,' he began ... and then went on: 'Save your breath. Haven't you heard about Alvin Dark and Eddie Stanky feuding? Did you know that we got the dirty end of the stick in that deal with the Braves? Do you realize that the deal may cost me my job as manager of the Giants?'
He hunched down and chuckled. 'Funny thing,' said Leo, 'but if one club makes a deal and gets what it wants and then gives up something that the other club can use, somebody's got to get gypped. Why? Isn't it just possible that each team can feel a little happy about the thing?'
Just as Rome wasn't built in a day, the Giant-Brave swap wasn't effected on the spur of the moment.
'You don't trade players of such ability at the snap of a finger,' Leo explained. 'We knew what we were doing. We made up our minds first and then sat down with Boston and said flatly: 'We want Dark.' The next move was up to them.'
The Braves countered with a demand for outfielder Willard Marshall. His name was written opposite that of Dark. 'But we also need a replacement at short,' said Billy Southworth and asked about Buddy Kerr. His name was listed under that of Marshall. So far so good.
'But the Braves felt that two for one ... for a kid like Dark ... wasn't enough,' Durocher went on, 'and Horace Stoneham and I more or less agreed.
'Who else did Boston want? Well, they named Sid Gordon. They wanted both a right-handed and left-handed hitting outfielder ... Gordon and Marshall.
'So that name was set down, too, but now the edge had swung against us. Three-one. We were in a position to demand more and Boston knew it. A pitcher? Yes, except that would have been hard to get. I knew who else I wanted. Stanky. Now the trade stood three-two. Then the shadow-boxing began.'
Boston, according to Durocher, wanted a fourth man 'just to make it look better from their side.' At this point, Durocher and Southworth withdrew and let Stoneham and Boston Owner Lou Perini do the talking.
Perini asked about pitcher Sam Webb. Stoneham was of a mind to let the whole thing drop ... to the devil with it.
'Horace asked me,' said Leo. 'I put it to him this way: 'Are you going to let a second-string pitcher stand in the way of a deal you want to otherwise make? ... I can go anywhere in the minors and get another flinger as good as Webb ... for $15,000. Why let him stop us?' So Boston got Webb, too ... and I still like our deal.'
Durocher earlier talked to the Cubs, but 'you can't talk to Frank Frisch,' growled Leo. 'He sat right in this same room with me one day last fall and I thought for sure he had gone on the weed.
'You know what he wanted for Johnny Schmidtz? Only Dave Koslo, Buddy Kerr, Sheldon Jones and outfield [sic] Don Mueller ... and he had the nerve to tell me it would be the best trade I ever made.'
Leo thinks he has cured the Boston writers of trying to stir a Dark-Stanky feud. During his first trip to Boston this year a passel of scribes waited on him to find out what the fightin' was about. 'Sure,' rasped Durocher, 'they scrap all the time. Dark is a nitwit ... If I could get a club to take him, I wouldn't have him around. Stanky is a louse and a bum and isn't a quarter to anybody. I'm sorry I ever saw 'em.'
So ending his tirade, Durocher walked away. Some of the scribes followed him. 'But we can't print that!' they pleaded, 'it doesn't sound like it's true!'
'Isn't that what you wanted to hear,' countered the exasperated skipper. 'Well, go ahead and print it ... !'
However, as Leo remembers, nobody did ... and Alvin and Eddie still room together."
-John P. Carmichael, condensed from the Chicago Daily News (Baseball Digest, July 1950)
BILL MCKECHNIE
A SALUTE TO NO-HIT CATCHERS
"It was the good Bill McKechnie, then manager of the Cincinnati Reds, who taught me many years ago to have unlimited respect for catchers of ability. We were talking about Johnny Vander Meer, and I was saying what a fabulous pitcher he had been when he threw two no-hitters in succession, and thereupon the Deacon mildly taught me an unforgettable lesson. 'He was great, surely,' McKechnie said, 'but everybody forgets that Ernie Lombardi had to catch two perfect games if Vander Meer was to pitch them.'"
-Dave Egan in the Boston Record (Baseball Digest, July 1950)
HANK MAJESKI
"Hank was traded to the White Sox by the A's after the 1949 campaign. He hit .277 for the A's in 1949, driving in 67 runs.
He started in the majors with the Braves in 1939. He was sold to the Yankees in 1942 but entered military service before playing for them. He split 1946 between New York and the A's.
In 1947 Hank set a major league fielding record for third basemen with .988. He hit .310 for the A's in 1948."
-1950 Bowman No. 92
PETE SUDER (Yankee Prospect of the Past)
"Pete has been in organized baseball since 1935, and with the A's since 1941. He spent two years in military service. In 1947 Pete led the league's second basemen in fielding at .984. In 1949 he hit .267 and drove in 75 runs.
He can play second, short or third, but second is his regular spot. A great fielder, Pete makes a difficult chance look easy."
-1950 Bowman No. 140
GERRY PRIDDY
"Gerry had a good year with the 1949 Browns but went in a trade to the Tigers at the end of the campaign. He was in 145 games, batting .290 and driving in 63 runs.
He came up through the minors to the Yankees in 1941. He was sent to the Senators for 1943.
Gerry was purchased by the Browns for $25,000 at the end of the 1947 season. He hit .296 in 151 games in 1948 and got 40 doubles, nine triples and eight homers."
-1950 Bowman No. 212
DICK KRYHOSKI
"Dick broke into organized ball in 1946 with the Yankees' Amsterdam farm. He later played for Kansas City and Binghamton.
He began 1949 with the Yankees, but they switched him to Oakland, Pacific Coast League, after 54 games. He was recalled by the Yanks in December 1949 and traded to Detroit. Dick has proceeded to do a workmanlike job for the Tigers in 1950."
-1950 Bowman No. 242
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