60 YEARS AGO/118: LEO'S LIP, DUKE'S RETURN...AND HANK'S HAMMER

One of the stranger aspects of the Dodger-Giant pennant race in 1962 was the presence in the Dodger third base coaching box of a man who'd previously managed both teams and had worn out his welcome in both places.

That would be the one and only Leo Durocher, a fine defensive shortstop whose lack of offensive skills at home plate had been overcompensated for by a superabundance of offensive personality characteristics. As a manager, Durocher could make his bluster work for him, and he was a capable, intuitive helmsman--just not quite as visionary as he preferred to believe. He would manage again--in Chicago and Houston--but he would not add to the three pennants he won with the Dodgers (1941) and the Giants (1951, 1954).

Hired by the Dodger ownership as a way to bring him back into the game, Durocher was not a loyal underling. He began second-guessing Walt Alston's managerial decisions, sometimes within earshot of the local press. In late June, when the Dodger offense sputtered and the team suffered through a stretch where they lost eight of twelve, Leo popped off about how the team needed their veteran outfielders back in the lineup. ("Where's the Duke?" was the headline of a squid in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner).

Fortunately, without full-blown social media in place, Leo's rash words did not go viral. In fact, the Duke was undergoing treatments on his banged-up legs while remaining on the roster as a pinch-hitter; meanwhile, the Dodger youth movement proved that it was on track in July when Frank Howard had a month for the ages (covered here).

But after the Dodgers' five-game slide in early August, Leo returned to his rant about veterans. A quote from Pittsburgh got picked up back in LA, without mentioning Leo by name as its source. The gist of it was that the way things were being managed in the Dodger clubhouse, the team would squander its lead. The solution: more playing time for veterans like Snider and Wally Moon (who, after all, had hit .328 the previous season).

Walt Alston, a particularly taciturn man, was aware of the quotes; he decided to let them roll off his back. But he also knew that he had a hole at third base that was often affecting his offense, which was worrisome because he was now without his best pitcher (Sandy Koufax) for an indefinite period of time. So in mid-August, after there was some distance from the "anonymous" quotes, he switched Tommy Davis to third and began to give his veteran outfielders more playing time. On August 19, 1962, he brought back Duke Snider, an event that Snider himself likened to "raising the dead."

In fact, the Duke had appeared in the outfield earlier in August, after a pinch-hitting appearance, to test his legs. What was more relevant, however (and what Alston had noticed) was that pinch-hitting was not enough to keep the aging Hall of Famer's bat sufficiently ready for in-game action; since his last start in the outfield on June 3rd, Snider was hitting just 143 (3-for-21). 

With Joey Jay on the mound for the Reds, Alston decided to double his veteran pleasure and start Wally Moon at first in place of Ron Fairly, who'd started 75 consecutive games. 

The veteran duo was still a little rusty: they went a combined 0-for-8 in the game. Snider had trouble making his usual solid contact, hitting grounders and pop-ups in his five at-bats. 

Fortunately for LA, Don Drysdale was on his game that night, allowing just a single run in the fourth inning. But Jay had the Dodgers shut out through eight innings, extricating himself from several tricky situations (including a bases loaded, one out opportunity).

The ninth would change all that: Frank Howard led off with a homer to tie the score. Bunt singles by Maury Wills and Jim Gilliam got in the go-ahead run and left two men on; Willie Davis then proceeded to hit a wickedly hard ground ball that skeetered up the Crosley Field embankment in right field and took a sudden, violent hop over Frank Robinson's head. Before the Reds' superstar could retrieve the ball, the man who would soon be known as "3-Dog" was in high gear: he beat the throw to the plate for a three-run, inside-the-park homer. Final score: Dodgers 5, Reds 1.

IN Milwaukee, Hank Aaron dropped the hammer on the Giants and Billy O'Dell: his 32nd and 33rd homers, hit in consecutive innings, knocked the Giants' struggling lefty out of the game and helped the Braves build a 10-3 lead. The Giants made a valiant attempt at a rally, with Willie McCovey hitting two homers to cut into the Braves' lead, but Stu Miller served up a three-run homer to Lee Maye to give Milwaukee some crucial breathing room in the bottom of the eighth. Final score: Braves 13, Giants 8.

(It was a hitting day around the major leagues on that Sunday: this was also the day that the NewYork Yankees beat the Kansas City A's, 21-7. MLB hit 34 homers in 12 games that day--seven of them hit in Milwaukee.)

SEASON RECORDS: LAD 82-43, SFG 78-46