Durocher was quite “The Lip” during his career as both a player over his 17-season career and then manager for 24 years, with some overlap as he was one of the successful player-managers in the late-30’s/early-40’s with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
If you haven’t done so already, read up on his biography, it’s quite a barn-burner with his outspoken and fiery character, Hollywood extra-curricular “activities”, and of course quotes, like the ever-famous (though not accurately attributed) “Nice guys finish last”.
As a player he put in 17 decent years, starting out with the Ruth & Gehrig New York Yankees in the late-20’s, even playing with the famous “Gashouse Gang” St. Louis Cardinals of the 1930’s, and finishing up with a .247 average in 1637 games as a shortstop between 1925 and 1945.
In the meantime, in the late-30’s he put in a few seasons as a player-manager with the Brooklyn Dodgers, turning the team around and eventually making them the force that they would be in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Overall as a Big League skipper, he put in 24 years, won 2008 games, and won three Pennants and a World Championship, in 1954 guiding the New York Giants after shocking the baseball world going from the cross-town rival Dodgers to the Giants in 1948.
By the time this card here would have hit the candy-stores in 1971, he was managing the Chicago Cubs, keeping them in the first division while already in his late-60’s.
He would even go on to manage the Houston Astros in 1972 and 1973, leading them to a respectable 82-80 record in ‘73, his last as a Major League manager, wrapping up a Hall of Fame career that started some 50 years prior!
A true baseball “lifer”!
“The Lip”!
