Love Him or Hate Him, He Was One of Baseball’s Best : Reaction: An intense desire to win gave Durocher a fiery demeanor that offended some. But he had another side, too.

It was with sadness and regret that Buzzie Bavasi, a member of the Hall of Fame veterans committee, learned Monday of Leo Durocher’s death at 86.

“The two things I’m most disappointed about in my career is that I couldn’t win a pennant for Gene Autry and couldn’t get Leo in the Hall of Fame,” Bavasi, the former general manager of the Dodgers and Angels, said from his La Jolla home.

“We came within one vote last year, and he would have made it, but two of his supporters, Red Barber and Roy Campanella, couldn’t be there because of illness.

“Leo gave no quarter and asked none. Finishing second didn’t mean anything to him. Leo deserved to be in the Hall, and I really feel badly about the vote of last year.

“The Hall was something of an obsession with him and he told me recently that he had instructed his people not to accept it if he was voted in after he died, but I can’t believe he really did that.”

An aggressive commitment to winning and an intense caring for the game were the characteristics most often mentioned as baseball people reflected on the man known as the Lip and the Lion.

Bill Rigney, an infielder with Durocher’s 1951 New York Giants, architects of the Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff, said it was a tribute to Durocher and the feeling for the game he generated that six future managers played or coached for that memorable team.

“Not everyone who played for him liked him, but if you cared about winning, he brought out the best in you and you could learn a lot from him,” Rigney said from his Bay Area home.

“He was a great motivator, and winning came first at all costs. That never changed for him. He loved the spotlight, whether it was baseball or the entertainment business, that’s for sure, but I think of him as a good SOB. He had a whale of a life.”

Said Gene Mauch from his Rancho Mirage home:

“If a team didn’t have a personality, Leo gave it one. He made other teams hate him and made that work for him. He could also endear himself. I don’t know if he could get a guy going, but he could keep a guy, a Willie Mays, a Dusty Rhodes, going better than anyone alive. He knew what to say, when to pat ‘em on the back.

“He was one of those personality managers--I mean, powerful--and there’s not many left. He wasn’t into X’s and O’s. He didn’t know who hit what against whom. He didn’t worry about that.

“So many managers today put the game in a computer. I don’t know if Leo knew how to spell computer, but he had a mind that worked like one.”

Mauch was an impressionable rookie infielder with Durocher’s 1944 Dodgers and recalled the powerful personality, the uninhibited flamboyance and the gambling instinct.

Durocher came out of retirement on orders by Branch Rickey that year to play second base in an attempt to help shortstop Mauch acclimate more quickly.

“Leo was 37 or 39 then and I remember getting too close and throwing too hard and I broke his thumb,” Mauch said.

“I think he was happy about it because he didn’t have to play anymore.

“I sometimes think about the legendary people I grew up with and so many are gone. I had been around Leo recently and there was definitely a sadness that he hadn’t made the Hall of Fame.”

In other recollections, as reported by Associated Press:

--Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda: “Leo was my idol. He had an electrifying personality and he was the most aggressive manager I have ever seen. I took his number (2) because of the respect I had for him.”

--Commissioner Fay Vincent: “He was colorful, outspoken, inspirational to his players and infuriating to opposing teams. He was a magnetic figure right to the end, almost 40 years to the day after his greatest triumph (with the ’51 Giants). Baseball has truly lost one of its legends.”

Not everyone who knew Durocher was fond of him, but some say his public persona was misleading.

Retired broadcaster Lindsey Nelson, who worked with Durocher on NBC’s “Game of the Week” for three seasons, 1957-59, is one of those.

“There were two different Leos,” Nelson said by phone from Knoxville, Tenn.

“Over breakfast, there was the inquisitive Leo. He always wanted to learn as much as he could. The questions might be something your 16-year-old son would ask.

“But he was a brilliant man, and a quick study. He would remember everything you’d tell him. You know, Leo never had a formal education. He used to say, ‘I wasn’t born on the wrong side of the tracks, I was born on the tracks.’ His father was a railroad man.”

Nelson said he always enjoyed those breakfast conversations with Durocher, who, he said, came across as humble and pleasant.

“Then, after breakfast, we’d get up and go to the hotel elevator,” Nelson said.

“All it would take would be for one other person to be on that elevator, and Leo would switch into character--a loud braggart. But that wasn’t the real Leo at all.”

Joe Garagiola never worked with Durocher as a broadcaster, but he was the backup catcher on Durocher’s 1954 New York Giant team that swept the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.

“There are so many Leo Durocher stories, I could talk all night,” Garagiola said on the phone from New York. “But there’s one that sticks out in my mind.

“We had already clinched the pennant and were just playing out the string. We were playing the Phillies and Leo wanted to give Wes Westrum, our regular catcher, the day off, so I was in the lineup.

“In my first at-bat, Murry Dickson, the Phillies’ pitcher, threw me a submarine pitch, a rising curveball that I missed by a mile to strike out.

“I came back to the dugout saying, ‘I can’t believe I struck out out on that lousy roundhouse American Legion curveball. I’ll be waiting for it next time.’

“Well, two innings later, here it comes. I hit it as hard as I ever hit any ball, but it went right back to Dickson, who caught it and ended the inning with a double play.

“Leo says to me, ‘Why not keep striking out. At least you’ll keep the inning alive.’ ”

Garagiola said he would periodically call Durocher at his home in Palm Springs, but hadn’t talked with him since spring training.

“I don’t think many people bothered to call, because he was always so glad to hear from me,” Garagiola said.

“I know this about Leo--despite what he says, he was terribly disappointed he never made the Hall of Fame. He probably didn’t make it because he alienated so many people. But it’s wrong that he didn’t make it. Maybe he still will, but it’s a little late now.

“He should have been in long ago. Leo was a good player and a good manager.

“Other managers managed against Leo rather than his team. They were more concerned about what Leo would do than what his team would do, and that is a real tribute to Leo.”

Gerry Gross was another longtime close friend.

Gross, who during the 1970s produced “The Way It Was” series for PBS and the syndicated “Sports Challenge” shows, produced the “Leo Durocher Show” for Mutual Radio during the ‘50s.

“Leo was extremely competitive, maybe the most competitive person I’ve ever known,” Gross said from his home in Palm Springs. “Leo simply could not stand to lose, even when we had him as a guest on ‘Sports Challenge.’

“I can remember back when Leo was managing the Giants and we were doing his radio show. After a game, he could recall what every batter did--and I mean every batter on both teams. He even remembered what the count was when they did it.

“He may not have been the greatest manager ever in baseball, but he was probably the greatest mind ever in baseball.”

Times staff writer Larry Stewart reported from Los Angeles.