Born July 27, 1905, Leo "The Lip" Durocher was one, if not the most, outspoken and controversial ball player/manager. Branch Rickey, the man who signed both Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, is quoted as saying that, "He [Durocher] had the ability of taking a bad situation and making it immediately worse."
He started playing ball for the Yankees in 1925 and finished his playing career with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945. Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1994, Durocher was a lifetime .247 batter with just over 1,300 hits and 567 RBI. He was a 3 time All-Star selection and a 3 time World Series Champion.
He was never an amazing player. In fact, babe Ruth nicknamed him "The All-American Out." But his competitiveness, his passion for the game, his ego and his ability to remember situations on the diamond, all things that he would need as a manager. He was thrown from games 95 times as a manager, which puts him in fifth place on the all time ejection list for managers.
But perhaps he is best known for more than his playing days or his managing efforts. He only coined one of the most memorable phrases in all of sports history.
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10. "God watches over drunks and third basemen."
Which is funny since he, primarily, was a short stop.
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9. "How you play the game is for college ball. When you're playing for money, winning is the only thing that matters."
This is true, right? You play for fun when you’re young, you play to win when your paychecks is determined by how good you are.
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8. "If you don't win, you're going to be fired. If you do win, you've only put off the day you're going to be fired."
Again, this is how it really is, right?
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7. "Show me a good loser in professional sports, and I'll show you an idiot."
Couldn’t have said it any better.
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6. "Win any way you can, as long as you can get away with it."
There’s a very fine line between illegal and legal. If you cheat to win and get caught, you’re labeled as a cheater. But, if you cheat to win and don’t get caught, is ti really cheating?
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5. "You don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain."
If you got what you need to win now, why wait to see if you might need it later? To steal a line from the Cable Guy, "Get ‘er done."
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4. "As long as I've got a chance to beat you, I'm going to take it."
There shouldn’t be any babying of anybody on the diamond or anywhere else I suppose.
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3. "Buy a steak for a player on another club after the game, but don't even speak to him on the field. Get out there and beat them to death."
It shouldn’t matter if it’s your best friend, your girlfriends dad or the priest at your Church, if he is an opponent, beat his ass.
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2. "If I were playing third base and my mother were rounding third with the run that was going to beat us, I'd trip her. Oh, I'd pick her up and brush her off and say, 'Sorry, Mom,' but nobody beats me."
A real cut-throat some-bitch that Leo was.
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1. "Nice guys finish last."
The best advice you can get.
