(Updated May 12, 2019)
In one of the most intriguing incidents in the long rivalry between the Cardinals and Dodgers, two of baseball’s most colorful characters, Leo Durocher and Casey Stengel, escalated a war of words into a post-game fight.
The animosity between the two was so strong Stengel brought a bat to the showdown.
Their tangle under the stands at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn occurred on May 12, 1936. Durocher was the Cardinals’ shortstop and Stengel was the Dodgers’ manager.
The Dodgers pummeled Dizzy Dean with 13 hits in eight innings and won, 5-2. Boxscore
Tempers flare
Throughout the game, Durocher, the Cardinals’ captain, and Stengel hollered at one another across the field.
“Stengel made the mistake of being personal,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. “He ought to have been in baseball long enough to think up something funny to say without casting reflections on a man’s ancestors.”
At some point during the bickering, Stengel told Durocher he’d see him after the game, The Sporting News reported.
According to the Post-Dispatch, the two had the following exchange on the field:
Durocher: “If you have nerve enough to say to my face what you’ve been saying under the protection of the ballgame, I’ll be surprised.”
Stengel: “I’ll be there _ and I’ll have a bat with me.”
Durocher: “You’ll probably need a bat.”
The Sporting News reported a different version. It said Durocher replied to Stengel, “You’d better have a bat with you.”
After the game, Durocher and Cardinals manager Frankie Frisch were in a runway that led from the dugout to the clubhouse under the stands when Stengel, holding a bat, confronted his nemesis.
In published accounts, Durocher and Stengel told different versions of what happened next.
Durocher’s version
According to the Post-Dispatch, Durocher went after Stengel and Stengel swung the bat. Durocher “took a glancing blow from the wooden weapon and then went to work on the disarmed Stengel,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “He landed a right to the mouth, cutting the Stengel lip and was swinging eagerly when dozens of pairs of arms seized him. He looked around and the runway was full of Dodgers players.”
The St. Louis Star-Times reported Durocher “took credit for landing a square right to Stengel’s mouth” and said Durocher admitted “Stengel struck him a glancing blow with the bat.”
“When we came out of the dugout under the stands, Stengel was waving the bat and shouting, ‘Don’t you come near me. I don’t want any trouble with you. I’ll hit you with this bat if you do,’ ” Durocher told the Star-Times. “I rushed in and in so doing got hit with the bat, right across the right ear, but I got in a few punches before what seemed like the entire Brooklyn ballclub landed on me.”
Frisch was knocked to the ground in the melee, the Star-Times reported.
Stengel’s version
According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, when Durocher made for Stengel in the runway, Stengel “dropped the bat and moved into close quarters, punching.”
Stengel said he hit Durocher with his fists.
“Stengel had his right hand behind Durocher’s head and was messing up the Durocher features with short, jolting left uppercuts,” according to the Daily Eagle.
“That fresh boob is lucky I didn’t knock out his few brains with that bat,” Stengel said, “but nothing like that was necessary. He can’t hit any harder with his fists than he can with a bat.”
Bruised egos
The Sporting News dubbed the incident, “Casey and His Bat.”
According to the Post-Dispatch, Durocher had a red mark “as big as a pencil” where the bat grazed the bridge of his nose. Stengel suffered a split lip.
The Daily Eagle reported Durocher “had bruised and slightly cut Casey’s mouth with a couple of long punches.”
National League president Ford Frick didn’t issue any fines because he said the fight occurred out of sight from the public, not on the field.
Hate to lose
After the season, the Dodgers fired Stengel. A year later, in October 1937, the Cardinals traded Durocher to the Dodgers. He became Dodgers manager in 1939.
Stengel eventually landed with the Yankees and won seven World Series titles and 10 American League pennants from 1949-60. Durocher won National League pennants with the Dodgers in 1941 and with the Giants in 1951 and 1954. His 1954 Giants brought him his lone World Series title as a manager. Cardinals owner Gussie Busch wanted to hire Durocher as manager in 1964 but changed his mind after the club won the World Series championship.
In 1951, in their only World Series matchup, Stengel’s Yankees won four of six games against Durocher’s Giants.
In his book “Nice Guys Finish Last,” Durocher said, “I would make the loser’s trip to the opposing dressing room to congratulate the other manager because that was the proper thing to do. But … I didn’t like it. You think I liked it when I had to go see Mr. Stengel and say, ‘Congratulations, Casey, you played great?’ I’d have liked to stick a knife in his chest and twist it inside him.”
Stengel and Durocher were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for their achievements as managers.
Previously: Like Tony La Russa, ailing Casey Stengel left club
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