This is the fifth in a series of examinations of baseball-related legends and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of all the previous baseball legends.

This installment is a re-format edition, so these legends have already been posted on this site, just not in this format.

Let’s begin!

BASEBALL LEGEND: Leo Durocher said “Nice guys finish last.”

STATUS: Technically False

Leo Durocher (1905–1991) was a baseball player (a three-time All Star shortstop as a player) and manager for a number of teams, most notably the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. He managed the latter to a 1954 World Series victory. A Hall of Famer, Durocher won 2,909 games, fifth all-time amongst managers.

Durocher was quite a personality. He was known as “Leo the Lip” for the way that he, well, you know, gave people lip.

Most prominently among those that Durocher gave lip were umpires…

But the Commisioner of baseball also got the full Durocher treatment, as well. This did not help him much, as he was always rumored to be involved with a “bad element” (i.e. gamblers), and in 1947, after a particularly vicious feud with Yankees owner Larry MacPhail, Durocher was banned for the season for “association with known gamblers.”

That season, of course, was quite famous as the season that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with Durocher’s Dodgers. Durocher made clear his support for Robinson, even though he did not get to manage him that year.

In any event, the event at issue happened in July 1946, after the Dodgers lost two out of three to their hated rivals, the Giants, who were not having a very good season (entering the series, the Giants were in eighth place out of eight teams - after taking two out of three, they were in seventh place).

According to Gerald Eskenazi’s biography of Durocher, in an interview with Red Barber (the radio voice of the Dodgers) at some point in the series, Durocher was dismissive of the Giants. Barber asked Durocher why doesn’t he try being a nice guy for a change. Durocher responded to Barber’s barb with one of his own -

“Do you know a nicer guy in the world than Mel Ott [Manager of the Giants]? He’s a nice guy. In last place. Where am I? In first place. I’m in first place. The nice guys are over there in last place, not in this dugout.”

In Ralph Keyes’ book, The Quote Verifier, he basically agrees with Eskenazi’s take, only he has Durocher saying “seventh place.”

Of the two, I think Eskenazi is more accurate, since the Giants WERE in last place until the third game had been played, and as part of both men’s story included the fact that the interview took place BEFORE a game, Durocher wouldn’t have referred to the Giants in seventh place, since they were not in seventh until AFTER the last game of the series.

More likely, reporters just changed Durocher’s quote from last to seventh to reflect the change in the Giants’ status after the game, most notably Frank Graham, who wrote a column titled “Leo Doesn’t Like Nice Guys.” That column was picked up by Baseball Digest, who turned Graham’s “seventh place” to “last place.” From there, the phrase was condensed until we got the famous “Nice guys finish last.”

Durocher later claimed (after first claiming not to have said it at all) that his usage of it was meant to be ironic, pointing out that nice guys finishing last is NOT a causal situation (which the condensed quote certainly seems to say) but a non-correlative one, where it really just doesn’t matter whether you are nice or not when it comes to winning.

Whether that was his intent or not, “Nice guys finish last” is how the phrase entered the American lexicon.

So, end of the day, did Durocher say “Nice guys finish last”?

I’m leaning towards false, as I think what people really are interested in is not “Did Durocher say something that basically meant the same thing as ‘Nice guys finish last’?” but rather “Did Durocher say ‘Nice guys finish last’?” in which case the answer is a definitive no.

So how about…if we’re being sticklers, False.

Thanks to Gerald Eskenazi’s book, The Lip: A Biography of Leo Durocher and thanks to Ralph Keyes and his book, The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When for their respective takes on the quote situation. Click on the links to purchase their books!

BASEBALL LEGEND: The very first grand slam hit in the major leagues was a two-out, bottom of the ninth, trailing by three, game-winner.

STATUS: True

First off, we have to define a term (well, two if you don’t know that a grand slam is the highest scoring play in baseball, resulting in four runs being scored) - “major league.”

The National Association was perhaps the first professional baseball league, but Major League Baseball does not count it as a “major league,” even though the National Association (which was founded in 1871 and folded four years later) was the precursor to the National League (two of the teams from the National Association play today - the Braves and the Cubs, although both went by different names back then). The formation of the National League is considered the formation of a “major league” according to Major League Baseball’s official records.

So yes, Charley Gould DID hit a grand slam for Boston of the National Association on September 8, 1871 (the first year of the National Association). It was the first grand slam ever hit in professional baseball. The pitcher who Gould hit it off of, George Zettlein, previously (on May 8th) gave up the first home run PERIOD hit in the National Association. But if we go with “major leagues” (and I think we should, because it makes the story cooler), then Gould’s grand slam does not count.

So that leads us to Roger Connor, who is the man who held the all-time home run record for 23 years until Babe Ruth took it in 1921. Conner hit 138 home runs in his 18 year career (Ruth, by the way, hit more than 138 homers in just 1919-1921), and was the premier home run hitter of his day (although Ned Williamson, not Conner, held the single-season record of 27 homers. Williamson held that particular record from 1884 until 1919!)

On September 10, 1881, Connor came to bat for the Troy Trojans in the ninth inning. There were two outs. There were men on first, second and third base. The Trojans were trailing the Worcester Ruby Legs 7-4. Lee Richmond was pitching.

What came next was remarkable, and you can only imagine how it was viewed by the people (and the ballplayers themselves) in attendance.

Connor hit a home run off of Richmond, scoring the four runs that the Trojans needed to win the game, 8-7.

The very first grand slam in the history of the major leagues was a bottom of the ninth, two-out, down three, walk off home run.

Amazing, no?

Thanks to the Baseball Library for some help with dates!

BASEBALL LEGEND: Major League Baseball used to allow injured players to have another player run for them and still allow the injured player to return later.

STATUS: True

A common occurrence in baseball is for an injured player on the basepaths to be replaced by a pinch-runner. If a player tweaks an ankle or pulls a hamstring or any number of reasons, the ballplayer is pulled from the game and a pinch-runner is put in their place.

Interestingly enough, in a few occasions, when an injury takes place during a scoring play (like if a runner on first base gets injured during a home run by the following batter, like this game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox in 2005, when baserunner Gabe Kapler blew out his knee while running from first on a home run by the following batter), managers are allowed an injury pinch-runner (normally, pinch-runners are only allowed to be substituted during a stoppage in play).

This was the case in the past, as well, but oddly enough, prior to 1950, Major League Baseball had a rule that allowed “courtesy runners” to come in and run for injured players, but if the injured player was healthy enough to return to the game the next half half inning, they were allowed to return. It was called a “courtesy” runner because the other team’s manager had to consent to the move.

Baseball’s amazing historical site, Retrosheet, thanks to the tireless efforts of historian Dave Vincent, have listed all the known occasions where courtesy runners were used.

Here are a few examples:

June 19, 1923 (Tigers @ Yankees) - Lu Blue singled to right in the top of the first inning. The Tigers were allowed to pinch-run Ray Francis for Blue, who was still pretty groggy from an injury he suffered during fielding practice before the game (a batted ball had knocked him unconscious). Blue would return to the game to play first base in the bottom half of the first, where he would remain the rest of the game.

September 1, 1944 (Giants @ Dodgers) - In the second, the Giants’ Joe Medwick was hit on the elbow and needed treatement. Dodger manager Leo Durocher allowed Medwick to get a replacement runner, but Durocher insisted on choosing the replacement, which was 39-year-old back-up catcher, Gus Mancuso, one of the slowest runners in the league. The next batter was Ernie Lombardi, who was most likely THE slowest runner in the league. Unsurprisingly, Lombardi then grounded into a double play. Medwick returned to the game the next inning.

June 14, 1949 (Indians @ Red Sox) - Joe Gordon hit a grand slam in the top of the first inning off of Joe Dobson to put the Indians up 5-0. Dobson promptly hit the next batter, Lou Boudreau. Boudreau was replaced by Ken Keltner, who was in the game as the third baseman, and who had already scored in that inning on the grand slam. Later in the first, Keltner scored on a single by the pitcher, Bob Feller. So Keltner scored two runs from different spots in the lineup! in the bottom of the inning, Keltner and Boudreau both took their normal positions at third and first base, respectively.

There have even been examples of courtesy FIELDERS allowed, if a fielder had a problem.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

Tags: Babe Ruth, Baseball Hall of Fame, Bob Feller, Brooklyn Dodgers, Charley Gould, Dave Vincent, Ernie Lombardi, Frank Graham, Gabe Kapler, George Zettlein, Gerald Eskenazi, Gus Mancuso, Jackie Robinson, Joe Gordon, Joe Medwick, Ken Keltner, Larry MacPhail, Lee Richmond, Leo Durocher, Loe Boudreau, Lu Blue, Mel Ott, National Association, Ned Williamson, New York Giants, Ralph Keyes, Ray Francis, Red Barber, Roger Connor, Troy Trojans, Worchester Ruby Legs