Leo Durocher, who was Reiser's first major league manager, reflected many years later that in terms of talent, skill, and potential, there was only one other player comparable to Reiser-Willie Mays.

Three years later, Durocher suffered one of his most remembered failures.

Nevertheless, he continually faced criticism from Durocher loyalists on the Dodgers — who claimed that Shotton was a poor game strategist and lacked Durocher's competitive intensity — and from noted New York Daily News baseball writer Dick Young, who came to refer to him in print only by the acronym KOBS, short for " Kindly Old Burt Shotton.

Next to Leo Durocher, Dark taught Mays the most when he was a grass-green rookie rushed up to the Polo Grounds 10 years ago this month, to help the Giants win a dramatic pennant.

But in his final game that year, playing against the Houston Astros ( led by manager Leo Durocher, who had once roomed with Babe Ruth ), he was unable to achieve this.

Not only was the mid-season switch unusual, but Durocher had been accused of gambling in 1947 and subsequently suspended for the entire 1947 season by Baseball Commissioner Albert " Happy " Chandler.

In an ironic twist, he walked into a situation where his manager was also the regular shortstop — in this case, Leo Durocher.

Unlike Cronin, however, Durocher was willing to give up his spot in the lineup to Reese.

After his 1946 military discharge he returned to Brooklyn and saw play as a catcher in 1947, joining the team's already solid nucleus of Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese and Carl Furillo ; but the emergence of Roy Campanella made it evident that Hodges had little future behind the plate, and he was shifted by manager Leo Durocher to first base, where his play came to be regarded as exemplary.

) Caray was also seen as influential enough that he could affect team personnel moves ; Cardinals historian Peter Golenbock ( in The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns ) has suggested Caray may have had a partial hand in the maneuvering that led to the exit of general manager Bing Devine, the man who had assembled the team that won the 1964 World Series, and of field manager Johnny Keane, whose rumored successor, Leo Durocher ( the succession didn't pan out ), was believed to have been supported by Caray for the job.

When Leo Durocher was named manager of the Chicago Cubs in 1966, he brought many of his former players to coach on his staff.

During the 1946 postseason, rumors began to swirl that Yankees owner Larry MacPhail was lobbying Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher to leave the Dodgers and manage the Yankees.

Charges were levelled by both sides, including accusations that Durocher was a philanderer because of his alleged involvement with married actress Laraine Day, which ultimately resulted in Day's divorce.

When Durocher subsequently married Day, a local Catholic priest declared that attending Dodgers games was a venal sin.

In 1962 when the Dodgers led the NL for most of the season ( only to find themselves tied with the hated Giants at the season's end ) it was Snider and third-base coach Leo Durocher who reportedly pleaded with Manager Walter Alston to bring in future Hall of Fame pitcher ( and Cy Young award winner that year ), Don Drysdale, in the ninth inning of the third and deciding play-off game.

At the same time, he was doing promotion for several baseball players, including Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, and his radio beginnings may be attributable to his connection with the New York Giants, whose manager, Leo Durocher, was the husband of Laraine Day.

At the beginning of the 1939 season, he was named as the Cardinals ' team captain, taking the job from Leo Durocher who had been traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Durocher liked to tell of a time that he was arguing with Conlan.

The punchline to that story, as Durocher told it, was that Conlan, being the plate umpire on that occasion, " was wearing shin guards and plate shoes ," so Durocher came off the worse for it.

However Lane recanted and apologized after negotiations with Leo Durocher broke down and Gordon was rehired.

Leo Ernest Durocher ( in French Léo Ernest Durocher ) ( July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991 ), nicknamed Leo the Lip, was an American infielder and manager in Major League Baseball.

In a July 6,, interview with Red Barber, 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, notably Mel Ott, he observed that they were all " nice guys ", but would nonetheless finish last ( while his Dodgers were in first place ), summing up his argument with, " Nice guys ; finish last.

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.

Many historians assert, however, that the famous four words never were actually uttered by Durocher ; the quotation as it is remembered actually came from headline writers distilling Durocher's quote that " The nice guys are all over there, in seventh place, not in this dugout " into a pithy soundbite.

Durocher also nearly came to blows with Cubs star Ron Santo during an infamous clubhouse near-riot.

He would return for the season, but his outspoken personality and poor results on the field that season ( Brooklyn briefly fell into the basement ) would again cause friction with Rickey, and on July 16 of that year, Durocher, Rickey and New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham negotiated a deal whereby Durocher was let out of his Brooklyn contract to take over the Dodgers ' cross-town rivals.

" Regarding Robinson's qualities on the field, Leo Durocher said, " Ya want a guy that comes to play.

Martin, along with Cardinals teammates such as Leo Durocher, Dizzy Dean and Joe Medwick among others, became known as the 1934 Gashouse Gang due to their boisterous activities on and off the field.

" And Durocher liked to say of Eddie Stanky, the sparkplug on his 1951 pennant-winning Giants team,

Meanwhile, as Durocher sat out his suspension, the Dodgers won the NL pennant under an interim skipper, scout Burt Shotton, then went on to lose the 1947 World Series to MacPhail's Yankees in seven games.

After leaving the Giants following the 1955 season, Durocher worked at NBC, where he was a color commentator on the Major League Baseball on NBC and host of The NBC Comedy Hour and Jackpot Bowling.

But his season ended on September 6 against the Giants – he was batting against Rubén Gómez in the second inning, and opposing manager Leo Durocher was yelling for Gomez to " stick it in his ear "; Furillo was hit on the wrist by a pitch, and proceeded to first base, but with a 3 – 2 count on the next hitter he charged into the Giants dugout and began choking Durocher.

Gómez created some controversy when, on the order of Giants ' manager Leo Durocher, he hit Brooklyn Dodgers player Carl Furillo with a pitch.

Durocher was relieved of his duties effective immediately on April 12, 2011 after a lackluster season in which the team finished 16th in the league and last in the Atlantic Division with just 41 Points.

In a memorable episode of The Munsters, entitled " Herman the Rookie " ( 4 / 8 / 65 ), Durocher believes Herman ( Fred Gwynne ) is the next Mickey Mantle when he sees the towering Munster hit long home runs.

* Leo Durocher – glimpsed briefly by Darius Just, who reminisces about the days when he was a Giants fan and Durocher was one of his villains ( before Durocher's 1948 move to the Giants ).

As the 1966 season got underway, Kessinger continued to struggle with his hitting when, new Cubs manager Leo Durocher encouraged him to become a switch hitter.

But when MacPhail resigned in October 1942 to rejoin the armed forces and was succeeded by Branch Rickey, Dressen was fired from Durocher ’ s staff — reportedly because he refused to eschew betting on horses.

He called Rickey to ask permission to speak with Shotton, and was stunned when Rickey offered him the opportunity to hire Durocher instead.

Durocher remained at the helm of the Giants through the 1955 season, and those eight years proved to be some of the most memorable for Giants fans, particularly because of the arrival of Willie Mays and arguably the two most famous plays in Giants ' history.

The raids contributed to a public feud between MacPhail on one side and Durocher and Rickey on the other ; ultimately Commissioner of Baseball Albert B. Chandler would suspend Durocher for the entire season for " conduct detrimental to baseball ," suspend Dressen for 30 days for signing a Yankee contract while still an employee of the Dodgers, and fine both clubs and some of their employees.