Prof to speak on baseball great

A professor of religious studies at The College of Saint Rose in Albany will step up to the plate next month to talk about Leo Durocher, the storied baseball manager who was famous for saying, "Nice guys finish last."

Prof. Jeffrey Marlett will be one of the speakers at the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, held at National Baseball Hall of Fame, June 4-6.

His topic will be "Durocher as Machiavelli: Bad Catholic, Good American."

Why Durocher?

Prof. Marlett chose his topic, he said, after he "ran across Leo Durocher after seeing his 'nice guys finish last' quote in an ethics textbook.

"I had heard that several times, of course, but did some background research. It became clear that, for all his exposure, not much has been done by scholars with his story -- the career, managing Jackie Robinson etc."

The Catholic angle, he continued, arose when he learned that Durocher "rediscovered his faith late in life. That makes it all the more interesting."

Machiavelli

Prof. Marlett will link the manager to Machiavelli's famous, and at times ruthless, rules for leadership by exploring "his management style, which was very aggressive, intuitive and built upon coaxing his players to play their best. [His style] seems to parallel Machiavelli's advice: 'It is better to be feared, not hated nor loved.'"

The manager "didn't care much if his players, the umpires or the other team liked him," Prof. Marlett explained. "He wanted his guys to play their best. If that meant berating them constantly, then that's what he did."

Durocher's tactics alienated some players, but Prof. Marlett cited Willie Mays, the legendary center fielder for the New York and San Francisco Giants, as someone who "always speaks very highly of Leo as a person."

So-so Catholic

The religious side of Mr. Durocher could be just as hard-edged as his management style, Prof. Marlett said.

"Off the field, Leo was no saint," he declared. "In fact, I've thought about titling an article 'St. Rascal' to capture his 'bad' behavior. He was married and divorced four times; he apparently had a hard time observing his vows.

"When he and [actress] Laraine Day eloped in 1947, Leo specifically flouted the Church on divorce and remarriage. Laraine did, too, for her Mormon background. The Brooklyn Diocese also found Leo's gambling tendencies less than admirable. While managing the Dodgers and the Giants, he seemed to enjoy flagrantly ignoring the Church.

"And then, of course, when he was much older, he came right back" to his faith.

Studies

In researching his talk, Prof. Marlett has detected a difference between academic scholars and sports researchers.

"There's a certain professionalism that religion scholars -- like many others in academia -- hold themselves to. That could also be seen as elitist, too.

"Baseball scholars might not be professors like I am, but they are nonetheless committed to studying their subject -- baseball -- quite seriously and rigorously. It seems that the baseball scholars, not surprisingly, care more about 'numbers' (statistics etc.) than religion scholars."

Fan history

Prof. Marlett, who grew up in Missouri, rooted for both the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals as a child.

When those teams met in the 1985 World Series, it was "a big deal in my house." His father cheered for the Royals, who won the Series, while his mother is "a diehard Cardinal fan."

Just as Mr. Durocher drifted away from his faith, only to come back later, Prof. Marlett grew up a baseball fan but lost interest for a while.

"Like many others," he said, "I came back to it in my mid-30s. My wife and I took a trip to Cooperstown, and the Hall of Fame reawakened all the memories I had growing up."

(Prof. Marlett described Leo Durocher as "once a household figure, who now seems rather forgotten. That usually means there are few good stories to uncover there." The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, co-sponsored by the State University of New York College at Oneonta, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, examines the impact of baseball on American culture from inter- and multi-disciplinary perspectives. For more information, go to www.baseballhalloffame.org and click on "events.")

(05/29/08) [[In-content Ad]]