Leo Durocher and Jackie Robinson: “How Different Things Might have Been…”

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Leo Durocher and Jackie Robinson: “How Different Things Could Have Been…”

“I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a f***in’ zebra. I’m the manager of this team, and I say he plays.” -Dodger manager Leo Durocher speaking to his Dodger team about the impending arrival of Jackie Robinson.

I often think about how different things might have been for Jackie Robinson had Leo Durocher been his first manager, as was Branch Rickey’s original plan. As we all know, Leo had a lot of faults, but I’m certain he would have stood up strongly for Jackie and would not have tolerated anyone giving abuse to his star player. 

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A few years later Leo became the mentor and father-figure to Willie Mays as he made his transition to the majors, which, in my opinion, was probably Durocher’s most lasting contribution to baseball. What would have become of the frightened, home-sick Willie Mays if Leo hadn’t been there to console him after his 0-23 start? I still get goose-bumps whenever I think about the scene of Mays crying in the Giants’ club house after the disastrous start and sobbing to his manager: “I don’t belong up here…I can’t play here…I can’t help you Mis-a-Leo, send me back to the minors.” 

Leo, who had been around baseball since the 1920s and had been a teammate of Babe Ruth, just patted Willie on the back and simply said:

“Look son, I brought you up here to do one thing. That’s to play center field. You’re the best center fielder I’ve ever seen. As long as I’m here, you’re going to play center field. Tomorrow, next week, next month. As long as Durocher is manager of this team you will be on this club because you’re the best ball player I’ve ever seen.”

Following this little pep talk from his manager, Willie homered in his next at-bat off Warren Spahn; and the rest, as they say, is history. But meanwhile, back to Leo and Jackie…

In the featured photo above, we see Durocher, not known for having a lot of tact, antagonizing his star player on the first day of Dodger Spring training, 1948 in Vero Beach. He’s letting Jackie Robinson know – in a very precise way – that he reported to camp a couple pounds overweight…and Jackie doesn’t seem too thrilled to be getting the news! 

Can you see my point that things might very well have been quite different for Jackie Robinson if Leo Durocher had been his manager? And it would’ve happened had not the luckless Leo been suspended for the ’47 season by Commissioner Happy Chandler.  He had warned Durocher about his friends, many of whom were gamblers, bookmakers, or had mob connections. Durocher was particularly close with actor George Raft; and admitted an acquaintance with mobster Bugsy Siegel.

Chandler suspended Durocher for the 1947 season for “association with known gamblers.” Leo’s gripe – and he had a point – was that Chandler’s pal, Larry MacPhail, who was largely responsible for Chandler getting the commissioner’s job, had just as many “shady connections,” but he got away with it!

Before being suspended Leo had played a noteworthy role in erasing baseball’s color line. He greatly admired Robinson for his hustle and aggression, calling him “a Durocher with talent.” In the spring of 1947, he let it be known that he would not tolerate the dissent of those players on the team who opposed Jackie Robinson’s joining the club, as the quote above indicates.

Durocher returned for the 1948 season, but his outspoken personality and poor results on the field caused friction with Branch Rickey; and on July 16 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, the Giants.

Leo enjoyed perhaps his greatest success with the Giants – and possibly a measure of sweet revenge against the Dodgers – as the Giants won the 1951 National League pennant in a playoff against Brooklyn, ultimately triumphing on Bobby Thomson’s historic game-winning “Shot ‘Heard ‘Round The World.” Later with the Giants in 1954, Durocher won his only World Series championship as a manager by sweeping the heavily favored Cleveland Indians.

Sadly, we are left only to speculate as to how different things might have been for the courageous Jackie Robinson had Leo Durocher been around to lead interference and clear the way for his star player – the first to break baseball’s odious color barrier.

Gary Livacari

Photo Credit: “The Brooklyn Dodgers Photographs of Barney Stein”; and public domain.

Information: Edited from the same source and from the Leo Durocher Wikipedia page

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