Nice Guys Finish Last

by Leo Durocher

Book Overview

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 result is baseball at its best. Durocher began his career riding the bench for the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671220578
• ISBN13: 9780671220570
• Release Date: June 1975
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Leo's tale is one worth reading

Leo Durocher's autobiography is easily one of the top 5 baseball books ever written. This is a man who sat on the bench for the '27 Yanks and managed Jerry Reuss. That's covering quite a bit of history.Leo's takes on what he was around such as the differences between Ruth and Gehrig, Hugh Casey's passed ball in the '41 WS, Jackie Robinson's signing, the Bobby Thompson HR, the '69 pennant race and the coming of free agency in the 70's are written from an inside perspective, and full of humor.Although he is often over boastful (he claims to be the best friend of both Ruth & Sinatra, for instance), he is never boring. The chapter of his relationships with the umpires is alon worth getting the book. Any baseball library is incomplete without this classic.

Leo's a Nice Guy, Really

Usually considered to be one of the best baseball autobiographies ever written (by that small subset of us who actually consider the quality of such books), "Nice Guys Finish Last" is a terrific window onto 50 years of baseball history.Leo Durocher began his career riding the bench in the shadow of Babe Ruth, and ended it as the manager of the glorious 1973 Houston Astros, led by their star outfielder Cesar Cedeno (and we all know what happened to him...). In between such humble beginnings and endings, however, Durocher was there for just about every pivotal moment in baseball history. Rest assured he has opinions on all of them. And he wants to set the record straight."Nice Guys Finish Last" is densely packed, full of satisfying venom, and leaves no stone -- or vendetta -- unturned. Whether or not the reader believes all of what Leo is saying is less important than the fact that this is a must read for anyone interested in baseball's previous generations.They don't make managers like Durocher anymore, and, sad to say, there will be very few baseball autobiographies quite like this in the years to come.

Irrascible, Iritable, Controversial = Leo The Lip

Durocher never shied away from controversy while he was manageing, nor did he back down when he wrote this book. Read his candid (and less than flattering) opinions of Ernie Banks, Milt Pappas, Joe Pepitone and many others. It would be nice to have Leo still around to deal with the players union today. Bet there wouldn't be the labour problems that the sport has been plagued with !!!