NICE GUYS FINISH LAST
By
A slugging biography of the author's nearly fifty years in baseball, highlighted by reminiscences as rousing as the utterances of Leo the Lip himself. Raised in a French Catholic household in West Springfield, Mass., Durocher later broke in as a shortstop with the 1925 Yankees. Besides being a swinger in this pool-hustling, nightclub-hopping era, he rounded out his baseball education by studying the moves of manager Miller Huggins. A natural with St. Louis' raggedy Gas House Gang a few years later, Leo went on to manage the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Giants, his philosophy being: ""win any way you can."" Although suspended for associating with gamblers, Durocher bounced back to coach and manage--his last seasons as skipper were spent with the second-division Cubs and Astros. There are anecdotes galore of the Babe, Rickey, MacPhail, Jackie Robinson, Dusty Rhodes, favorite ""son"" Willie Mays. . . not to mention Cletus Elwood (""Boots"") Poffenberger. Spunky, beefing-with-the-umpire days you'll want to read and remember--Leo is ""a guy who has to do it his way"" and always did.