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The Origins of:
“Nice Guys Finish Last!”
“Leo Durocher has the uncanny ability to make a bad situation worse!” -Branch Rickey
One definition of an aphorism is, “A concise saying expressing a general observation about human behavior.” Exactly eighty years ago today, Leo Durocher got off one of the most famous aphorisms in the English language: “Nice guys finish last.” You can find it in the current edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. attributed to Durocher.
In probably the most popular version of the actual derivation of the remark, Leo was responding to team announcer Red Barber’s observation about the “gentile Giants” and their gentlemanly manager, Mel Ott. Durocher, at the time the manager of the Giants’ arch-rival Dodgers, quips to Barber, “Nice guys finish last.”
But did Leo actually utter the famous words? Many baseball scholars believe Leo never said the exact four words as it is attributed to him. It may actually be a polished paraphrase, compressed by sportswriters and headline writers of the day into the memorable line.
According to this version, on July 5, 1946, Leo pointed toward the New York Giants and said: “The nice guys over there, in seventh place.” Despite the paraphrased nature of the remark, it became so famous that Bartlett’s includes it under Durocher’s name. Leo proved to be prophetic, as the Giants did indeed finish the 1946 season in last place with a 61-93 (.396), 36 games behind the pennant-winning Cardinals. Just as Leo said, a bunch of nice guys…but dead last. Of course, two years later, in 1948, Leo shocked the baseball world by leaving the Dodgers to become the Giants’ new manager.
Ironically, Durocher himself joked in his 1975 autobiography, Nice Guys Finish Last, that getting into Bartlett’s meant the phrase would outlive him. Over the years, Leo got a lot of mileage out of his most famous quote, playing it up for all that it was worth. It personified his approach to the game and his fiercely competitive nature. Once when asked to elaborate about what he actually meant, he had this ready response:
“I never did say that you can’t be a nice guy and win. What are we at the park for except to win? I said that if I was playing third base and my mother rounded third with the winning run, I’d trip her up. Sure…I’d help her up, brush her off, tell her: ‘I’m sorry. But mother don’t make it to third.’ “
Other versions have him saying: “If I was coaching third base, I’d trip my grandmother if she was rounding third.”
Leo had a way with words, and he was one of the most quotable ball players of his generation. Some of his more famous quotes include:
- Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.
- Win any way as long as you can get away with it.
- I never questioned the integrity of an umpire. Their eyesight, yes.
- Show me a good sportsman, and I’ll show you a player I’m looking to trade.
- Stick a fork in him. He’s done.
- There is a thin line between genius and insanity, and in Larry’s (MacPhail) case it was sometimes so thin you could see him drifting back and forth.
- When you’re in professional sports, winning is the only thing that matters
- You don’t save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain.
In addition, Leo is credited with coining the phrase, “The Gashouse Gang,” to describe the 1934 zany St. Louis Cardinals of Dizzy Dean, Frankie Frisch, Leo Durocher, and Pepper Martin.
Durocher’s quotes often reflect his straightforward and sometimes controversial views on baseball, emphasizing winning above all else. His contributions to the game and his memorable sayings continue to resonate even to this day. As many players hated his guts as loved him, but his mentoring of a frightened rookie named Willie Mays in 1951 is probably his most lasting contribution to the game. But that’s a topic for another day. In the meantime, “Nice guys finish last,” will always be the signature saying associated with the brash, highly competitive Leo Durocher, who, as Branch Rickey said above, had an uncanny ability “to make a bad situation worse!”
Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All found on Google search
Source: ChatGPT; Leo Durocher Wikipedia page
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