Leo Durocher Quotes

"As long as I've got a chance to beat you I'm going to take it." Source: Nice Guys Finish Last (Leo Durocher, 06/09/1975)

"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."

"Give me some scratching, diving, hungry ballplayers who come to kill you." Source: Nice Guys Finish Last (Leo Durocher, 06/09/1975)

"God watches over drunks and third basemen."

"How you play the game is for college ball. When you're playing for money, winning is the only thing that matters." Source: Nice Guys Finish Last (Leo Durocher, 06/09/1975)

"I come to win." Source: How the Weather Was (Roger Kahn, 1973)

"I don't care if the guy (Jackie Robinson) is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a god-damn zebra. I'm the manager of this team and I say he plays."

"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." Source: Widely Attributed

"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."

"I made a game effort to argue but two things were against me: the umpires and the rules."

"I'm wearing the same socks, shirt and underwear, too!" Source: Widely Attributed (Used during winning streaks)

"I never questioned the integrity of an umpire. Their eyesight, yes." Source: Nice Guys Finish Last (Leo Durocher, 06/09/1975)

"In order to become a big-league manager you have to be in the right place at the right time. That's rule number one."

"In the olden days, the umpire didn't have to take any courses in mind reading. The pitcher told you he was going to throw at you."

"It was Brooklyn against the world. They were not only complete fanatics, but they knew baseball like the fans of no other city. It was exciting to play there. It was a treat. I walked into that crummy, flyblown park as Brooklyn manager for nine years, and every time I entered, my pulse quickened and my spirits soared."

"Luck? If the roof fell in and Diz (Dean) was sitting in the middle of the room, everybody else would be buried and a gumdrop would fall in his mouth."

"Nice guys finish last."

"Nobody ever won a pennant without a star shortstop." Source: Street and Smith Baseball Yearbook (1976)

"Show me a good loser in professional sports, and I'll show you an idiot."

"Some guys are admired for coming to play, as the saying goes. I prefer those who come to kill." Source: The Sporting News (February 1961)

"That (Joe) Medwick never lost a debate in his life, mostly because he didn't bother. He was a one man rampage."

"There are only five things you can do in baseball - run, throw, catch, hit, and hit with power." Source: Time (July 16, 1973)

"There is a thin line between genius and insanity, and in Larry's (MacPhail) case it was sometimes so thin you could see him drifting back and forth."

"What are we out at the park for, except to win?"

"Win any way you can as long as you can get away with it."

"You argue with the umpire because there is nothing else you can do about it."

"You don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain."

"(Leo) Durocher claims he was sacked forty times (by Larry MacPhail) in his five years as Dodger manager, but I was there and I can verify only twenty-seven." - Harold Parrott

"He had the ability of taking a bad situation and making it immediately worse." - Branch Rickey

"You and (Leo) Durocher are on a raft. A wave comes and knocks him into the ocean. You dive in and save his life. A shark comes and takes your leg. Next day, you and Leo start out even." - Dick Young