Ah yes ... Leo “The Lip”. He was a piece work wasn’t he.
It is said that to err is human; to forgive is a Mets fan. Let’s go Mets!!
It is said that to err is human; to forgive is a Mets fan. Let’s go Mets!!
Once upon a time, Met fans---gleefully in their cups when Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley tried to dump second baseman Mike Andrews after Andrews committed a couple of tough errors in the 1973 World Series---held up banners saying, "To Err is Humank, To Forgive Is Not A's Policy."
After the hoopla boiled over and the Series went on, the first Oakland error was greeted by the famous Sign Man at Shea Stadium, Karl Ehrhart: YOU'RE FIRED!.
Which was pretty good for fans of a team who lost their first nine regular-season games in their first season and, winning their first (against former Yankee Tom Sturdivant, who'd beaten them in New York earlier for the Pittsburgh Pirates), inspired an instant gag: BREAK UP THE METS!
But to return to Leo Durocher, you can get the full story of the Cub collapse in two impeccable sources: William Furlong's Look magazine article, "How Durocher Blew the Pennant," republished in Jim Bouton's anthology of baseball managing, I Managed Good But Boy, Did They Play Bad; and, Mr. David Claerbaut's Durocher's Cubs: The Greatest Team That Didn't Win.