Word: leos
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...roar from the bleachers. It drowned out the news that Ben Chapman, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, had been fired the same day. Loyal Giant rooters vowed never to set foot in the Polo Grounds again. In Brooklyn, there were stand-up-&-fight arguments in Flatbush bars. Breezy Leo Durocher, once referred to as a "moral bankrupt" by a baseball club owner (out of print, he has been called worse names), was not the kind of person who invited neutrality...
When Horace Stoneham, the Giants' president, asked Ott what the club needed, Mel replied: "Maybe a new manager." Stoneham agreed. At last week's All-Star game in St. Louis,* Mel Ott and his boss secretly called it quits and set out to hire Durocher. But could Leo Durocher be hired...
...Lucky Leo. Only a few insiders knew how extremely available Leo was. His trouble dated from the Fourth of July too. That was the day the Dodger road secretary took Leo aside at Ebbets Field and said: "I hate to tell you this, Leo, but the boss [Branch Rickey] wants you to resign." What had he done this time, Leo wanted to know. "Oh, nothing at all," said the boss's emissary, retreating...
...Dixie Walker and Eddie Stanky. And the Dodgers were wallowing in next to last place. Rickey couldn't help remembering the calm, sure way Burt Shotton had run the team (and won a pennant) when Durocher was kicked out of baseball last season (TIME, April 21, 1947). But Leo wasn't going to oblige. Said he to the messenger: "Hell no, I won't resign. He's going to have to fire me ... man to man." Then the Dodgers won seven of their next nine games, climbed to fifth place-and Rickey couldn't fire...
...Belligerent Air. After the first shock wore off, Giant fans began to act like Communists the day after a switch in the party line. They grudgingly admitted that Leo would give the Giants a belligerent air. He might even breathe some fire into a club which hadn't known a man-sized blaze since the late great John J. McGraw left 16 years ago. Leo was the McGraw type-aggressive, hot-tempered, hell on umpires and a great tactician...