Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Nice Guys Finish Last
    Nice Guys Finish Last
    Nice Guys Finish Last
    Ebook425 pages9 hours

    Nice Guys Finish Last

    By Leo Durocher and Ed Linn

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    “I believe in rules. Sure I do. If there weren't any rules, how could you break them?”

    The history of baseball is rife with colorful characters. But for sheer cantankerousness, fighting moxie, and will to win, very few have come close to Leo “the Lip” Durocher. Following a five-decade career as a player and manager for baseball’s most storied franchises, Durocher teamed up with veteran sportswriter Ed Linn to tell the story of his life in the game. The resulting book, Nice Guys Finish Last, is baseball at its best, brimming with personality and full of all the fights and feuds, triumphs and tricks that made Durocher such a success—and an outsized celebrity.

    Durocher began his career inauspiciously, riding the bench for the powerhouse 1928 Yankees and hitting so poorly that Babe Ruth nicknamed him “the All-American Out.” But soon Durocher hit his stride: traded to St. Louis, he found his headlong play and never-say-die attitude a perfect fit with the rambunctious “Gashouse Gang” Cardinals. In 1939, he was named player-manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers—and almost instantly transformed the underachieving Bums into perennial contenders. He went on to manage the New York Giants, sharing the glory of one of the most famous moments in baseball history, Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard ’round the world,” which won the Giants the 1951 pennant. Durocher would later learn how it felt to be on the other side of such an unforgettable moment, as his 1969 Cubs, after holding first place for 105 days, blew a seemingly insurmountable 8-1/2-game lead to the Miracle Mets.

    All the while, Durocher made as much noise off the field as on it. His perpetual feuds with players, owners, and league officials—not to mention his public associations with gamblers, riffraff, and Hollywood stars like George Raft and Larraine Day—kept his name in the headlines and spread his fame far beyond the confines of the diamond.

    A no-holds-barred account of a singular figure, Nice Guys Finish Last brings the personalities and play-by-play of baseball’s greatest era to vivid life, earning a place on every baseball fan’s bookshelf.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateSep 15, 2009
    ISBN9780226173894
    Nice Guys Finish Last

    Related to Nice Guys Finish Last

    Related ebooks

    Sports & Recreation For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Q&A with Mike Schmidt:

      Jan 17, 2020

      Fan: Mike, even though you’re one of the Top 10 players in baseball history, I think you were underappreciated in Philadelphia, probably because you made it look so easy. I know it wasn’t easy and that you worked hard. Is that how you see it? Schmidt

      4 min read

    • Article

      Back In The Saddle

      Feb 2, 2022

      Back In The Saddle
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Surreal Life

      Apr 5, 2021

      THESE MOMENTS just keep arriving. Immanuel Quickley is conscious of not getting complacent, of not allowing himself to feel settled in the NBA, not now as a rookie and maybe not ever. But if he were ever tempted to relax, to take any of this for gran

      5 min read

    • Article

      We Poppin'

      May 31, 2022

      We Poppin'
      7 min read

    • Article

      Nigel Pearson

      Jan 13, 2021

      Nigel Pearson
      16 min read

    • Article

      Something To Prove

      Mar 8, 2022

      Something To Prove
      2 min read

    • Article

      Reefer Rant

      Apr 7, 2020

      Reefer Rant
      4 min read

    • Article

      Atlanta Braves Top 10 Prospects

      Nov 3, 2021

      AGE: 21. B-T: L-L. HT: 6-0. WT: 195. DRAFTED: HS—Stockbridge, Ga., 2019 (3rd rd). SIGNED BY: Kirk Fredriksson. TRACK RECORD: Most of the amateur scouting industry seemed to prefer Harris as a lefthanded pitcher out of high school in 2019. He touched

      9 min read

    • Article

      Organization Reports

      May 9, 2023

      Organization Reports
      33 min read

    • Article

      Actions Speak Loudest

      Feb 13, 2023

      Actions Speak Loudest
      2 min read

    • Article

      Bull Market

      Feb 1, 2022

      Bull Market
      7 min read

    • Article

      Bullish Market

      Apr 5, 2021

      “THROUGHOUT THE organization, the line on Sexton is that he does not ‘know how to play.’” That’s a real quote that ran in a real outlet in November of 2018. The report came from The Athletic’s Joe Vardon just nine games into Collin Sexton’s NBA caree

      5 min read

    • Article

      Are Fantasy Sports Really Gambling?: The Web:Fantasy sports are more skill-based than real ones.

      Aug 4, 2016

      Early one Saturday morning in Las Vegas, I sat down at a Texas Hold ‘em poker table with seven or eight other men, all middle-aged. Being 30 at the time, I was the youngest player by about a decade. A couple of them were wearing Hawaiian shirts. It w

      12 min read

    • Article

      Barry Bonds’ LEGACY

      Apr 25, 2017

      Barry Bonds’ LEGACY
      4 min read

    • Article

      Where Are They Now?

      Apr 1, 2020

      Where Are They Now?
      2 min read

    • Article

      PWI 40th Anniversary

      Jul 3, 2019

      PWI 40th Anniversary
      32 min read

    • Article

      Unparalleled Experience

      Feb 13, 2024

      Unparalleled Experience
      2 min read

    • Article

      Living The American Dream

      May 3, 2021

      Living The American Dream
      2 min read

    • Article

      Super Scout

      Dec 2, 2021

      Super Scout
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Book Of Bates

      Apr 5, 2021

      IT’S A FREEZING Tuesday afternoon in mid-February and a snowstorm has blanketed a good portion of southeast Michigan. So much so that hundreds of schools in the region have canceled classes. Yet, in the southeast outskirts of Ann Arbor, right off US

      8 min read

    • Article

      Season Of Change

      Apr 6, 2022

      Season Of Change
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Pot of Gold

      Oct 1, 2019

      A Pot of Gold
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Nice Guys Finish Last

    4/5

    26 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Terrific storyteller, enjoyed reading about the hundreds of major sports and entertainment people that Durocher knew first-hand. Favorite stuff, though are those few places where he reveals his management philosophies. Building winners in Brooklyn and New York through shrewd talent evaluation, then coaxing the maximum out of twenty-five diverse clubhouse personalities, he shows better than anyone just what it takes to be a success in baseball... and how easy it is to fail. Great book for any fan of the game.
    • 4/5
      Nothing about Durocher was boring, and neither is his autobiography.
    • 4/5
      Fun and readable, and definitely interesting. Baseball personalities and Hollywood personalities. Lots of exciting baseball. And excellent descriptions of how he made his teams succeed, both in the dugout and by working with the front office. All this in a generally light tone and usually sympathetic to everyone involved, even in disputes. (There *are* lots of disputes, of course.)Except for the last two chapters. One tells how Marvin Miller ruined the game; the other's a rant about the no-good younger generation. In the end Leo turns into a cranky (old) guy to match his reputation.

    Book preview

    Nice Guys Finish Last - Leo Durocher

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1