Word: brooklyn
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Brooklyn is a city with an inferiority complex and 22 "chambers of commerce," and it takes its baseball seriously. Manhattan may have taller skyscrapers and Washington more skillful politicos, but in any kind of fair fight-say of nine men on a ball field-Brooklyn expects to hold its own. The great moments in Brooklyn's rowdy baseball tradition have usually been accidental: the time Hack Wilson was hit on the head with a fly ball while sassing the bleachers; the time three Dodgers slid into the same base at the same time; the day Babe Herman almost started...
...knows umpires-and they know him. Beans Reardon deflates Leo by saying, "Stop putting on your act, little boy." The most awe-inspiring of umpires is large, red-faced George Magerkurth, who swells up with majestic rage when his dignity is pricked. Leo's arguments with him are Brooklyn legend. "The Mage," says Leo fondly, "is one of the best umpires in baseball." It is a slow season when The Lip gets less than five notices from National League headquarters. Sample: "For prolonged argument, delaying the game, use of violent, profane language, you are fined...
There was also the Dodger Rebellion, when the team refused to take the field one day until Durocher explained away a crack about Pitcher Bobo Newsom. And the time Leo was charged with bashing a Brooklyn heckler (who was later paid $6,750). Leo was acquitted of criminal charges after testifying meekly that the heckler had "a tremendously loud voice...
...wooed & wedded the girl despite the continuing objections of a California court. Sweet-faced Laraine Day was only 26, a girl of strict Mormon upbringing who neither drinks, smokes nor swears. The Leo & Laraine Page One stories did neither Durocher nor baseball any good. The Catholic Youth Organization of Brooklyn (50,000 members) is boycotting the Dodgers so long as Durocher runs them...
...Brooklyn, where the fans are practiced in spotting phonies, color is something that cannot be faked, and a phony is someone who has color but not ability. Durocher has immense ability. In his day he was a crack fielding shortstop, and in eight years as manager he won Brooklyn its first pennant in 21 years (in 1941) and finished worse than third only once...