Bill Stewart's Leg Still Under Treatment
"Will Leo Durocher quit baseball during 1953 or will he be fired as manager of the New York Giants?
These two questions have been bandied about by sportscasters and sportswriters ever since Leo made some remarks about the advantages of television and motion pictures. Harry Wismer, the freelance telecaster, went the prognosticators one better recently when he predicted Durocher would be missing come spring training time.
We have yet to hear speculation for the real reason for Durocher's quandary- baseball or television?
If Santa Claus bought Leo a new pair of skates for Christmas someone ought to warn him about the thin ice. He has been skating on it ever since June 29 when he spiked an umpire in Philadelphia's Shibe Park.
We happen to know that the National League office, headed by the capable Warren C. Giles, has received a medical bill as the result of the spiking of Umpire Bill Stewart.
After five months, Stewart's left leg has apparently failed to heal properly. This is all the more unusual when one takes into consideration all the National Hockey Leagues Stewart refereed. The ice game left him without a scar. And at 57 he appears as healthy as a prize bull, except for his left leg.
Therefore, it is our guess that League President Giles has told Durocher to be the little Lord Fauntleroy he was during the four years following his full-year suspension of 1947. A.B. Chandler was the commissioner when Durocher was told to sit out a season because of 'conduct detrimental to baseball.' While Chandler remained as commissioner, Durocher was a goody-goody and often looked the other way rather than arouse the rath of an umpire.
But in 1952, Durocher was ejected from a game in the spring by Umpire Artie Gore. Two other ejections followed.
These were followed by three suspensions and left the Giants, who were making a vain pursuit of the pennant-winning Dodgers, without their dandy little leader for a total of 11 days. One suspension was for spiking Stewart who ruled against the Giants on a catch by Del Ennis. Stewart refused to accept Durocher's 'I'm sorry' apology. The more recent suspension came in August when Leo put up his dukes a la Sullivan against another umpire. Of course, no blows were struck.
Thus, the collective look over Durocher's 1952 record and the recent medical bill received at Carew Tower in Cincinnati gave a strong hint that either League President Giles or Commissioner Ford C. Frick has told Leo to watch his diamond matters.
Durocher recently stated he would manage the Giants in 1953 and 'as long as they want me.' The 'they' appears to pertain to more than just Giant President Horace Stoneham who last September signed his pilot to a one-year contract for 1953.
Stoneham apparently feels that a suspended manager, even if he sits out one day, is very harmful to his team. He probably also feels that Durocher, who gets about $50,000 a year, no longer draws fans at the gates as he did at Brooklyn.
It is our guess, then, that Mrs. Durocher, better knows as actress Laraine Day, has put here canasta cards on the table and said in effect: 'Look, Leo dear, why go through another humiliating year like 1947? Please be careful.'
Another suspension for Durocher could be his last."
-Frank Eck, Associated Press (Baseball Digest, March 1953)
Leo Durocher, hanging his head in make-believe shame: "Warren Giles (NL prexy) is ruining my reputation fining me only $10. If only he had made it $100 ... "
-Baseball Digest, August 1953
LIP SERVICE
"Leo Durocher of the New York Giants, the noted umpire baiter, occupied a table at the Chez Paree one night recently a half-hour longer than he expected- just to torment two National League umpires. Durocher dropped in to see Jimmy Durante. Because of the huge crowds, tables were at a premium. Just as Durocher was about to depart, he spotted Umpires Larry Goetz and Frank Dascoli in the lobby, waiting for a reservation. Lippy summoned the head waiter and told him, 'Tell those men that I'm leaving in a minute and they can have my table.' Durocher then whiled away 30 minutes, all the time keeping an eye on the two umpires who were fretting in the lobby!"
-Irv Kupcinet in the Chicago Sun-Times (Baseball Digest, September 1953)
TOO MUCH OF AN ANGEL
More of the Old Durocher Needed
"In the course of completing the Little Miracle of '51, Leo Durocher ostensibly underwent so drastic a personality change that such as Red Smith referred to him as 'The Shepherd of Coogan's Bluff.' The diamond's spitfire became one who swallowed his own wrath. The man who gambled on a turn of a card became an advocate of turning the cheek. Baseball's original brat cast himself as a new Fauntleroy.
The suspicion, however, existed that Leo's new halo was as ill-fitting as a lion in lamb's wool. It seemed as though he had picked it up in a pull-in shop. There was always the feeling that the Giants manager had begun to walk about as stiff as a deb, knowing that if he but shook his head the halo would flop around his ears.
The time has now come for Leo to stop rubbing his wings together. The feathers have been plucked and the gilt is off the halo. Leo has been signed again for another two years, in the face of critical observers and a dreadful slump which changed the Giants from pennant contenders to a team contending for the leadership of the second division. Leo's retention and the length of the new contract are viewed as President Horace Stoneham's vote of confidence in his new manager, which it is. It is an indication that Stoneham regards Leo as blameless for what happened and that the team must be drastically altered for next year. That, too, may be so.
But if it is, I have the feeling that Durocher can show his gratitude to Horace by getting rid of his Buster Brown collar and again becoming the Durocher Stoneham hired in 1948 as Mel Ott's replacement. This could be the major alteration.
Leo was an exciting baseball man then. It was not just his rhubarbing. That we can still do without, although many of his scuffles were designed affairs based on elementary gutter psychology Durocher always used whether it was in baseball, poker or pool. It was more than profanity and showmanship. Leo played D-day baseball and every day he wanted his players to come roaring from the bench and storm the beach.
It was gambling baseball, with Leo on the coaching lines every day. It was hunch baseball, sometimes playing the percentages and sometimes disdaining them. It was the kind of game where Leo couldn't be figured by the opposition because they couldn't keep a book on Leo's brain. It was baseball played with a lot less talent than Leo had under him this year. And one other thing it was not. It was not smug baseball, overestimating the talent of the men he had or underestimating the opposition's.
That was Durocher's fault this season. For once he miscalculated. He thought he had more than he really did and his constant shifting of the hired hands through the full first half of the season was more of Leo the Angel Face than Leo the Lion. It was an admission of his own error, whether he said so or not. He had the room to maneuver because he had the men to do it, but big league baseball was never meant to be played with every man but the catcher playing more than one position.
I wouldn't know if this made the players unsure of themselves. It is more likely that it made Leo unsure of himself. And for Durocher, that is the strangest twist of all because he once was a man whose confidence was his weapon. But it was the kind of stuff that had to be stoked up regularly as though Leo shoveled coals on the fire of his own being.
At Durocher's re-signing, he said: 'You can bet that there will be changes made. Plenty of changes, if I can get what I want.'
The first change should be the change to the old Leo. After that Leo must go into the market place where he's competing with others besides himself.
What will the Giants need? Pitching, obviously, but not too much. Leo has Ruben Gomez and Al Worthington, who have been carrying the staff. Sal Maglie, if spotted properly with sufficient rest, can be a winner still, even if no longer the staff leader. Hoyt Wilhelm can be magnificent again as he once was, but not if he's pitched until the rubber's gone out of his arm. This is a fair start. There are some kids on the farm who can fit in as Worthington did, if their promotion is delayed until next spring.
With Willie Mays back next season, the Giants get more than just the center fielder who helped make the last miracle possible. There's real life in this kid and a spark that's contagious. With Willie here, Bobby Thomson, a moody and unreliable player, can be shifted back to the infield or be used as trade bait unless sentiment again keeps him with the Giants. They can use a first baseman, who can spring Whitey Lockman back to the outfield. They can use a catcher who can hit and play every day without being hurt. Stoneham signed Leo because they can use him, too. But without the wings, halo and sanctified look. There's nothing wrong with an angel with a dirty face."
-Milton Gross, condensed from the New York Post (Baseball Digest, October 1953)
"Leo is one of the more controversial figures in baseball, and also one of its very best managers.
He joined the Giants as manager during the 1948 season and brought the team to a fifth-place finish. They finished fifth the next season, then were third in 1950, and the miracle team of 1951 won the pennant. They were second in 1952.
Prior to managing the Giants, Leo managed the Dodgers from 1939 through 1946. He began 1948 with Brooklyn, then participated in the historic switch which brought him to the Polo Grounds."
-1953 Bowman No. 55
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