The Wilmington morning star., 1941-02-03
BY Y TALBOT

ld1lo
called since ne burst upon an un-
prepared baseball horizon at the
start of this decade, the most quo
table probably r brilliant
screwbalI' and "raucous red
head"
Many of the most colorful cpl
thets applied to the mercurial pres
ident of the Brooklyn Dodgers by
his perplexed fellow magnates
can't be printed.
For Larry MacPhail has re-
ceived the earnest vocal attentions
of men considered artists in their
line. Some of Larry's more classic
exchanges have been with his
manager, Lippy Leo Durocher, on
the rare occasions when MacPhall
has invaded the Dodgers dugout
during a game and attempted to
tell Durocher how to handle his
pitchers.
If there is one outstanding char
acteristic of the loud, breezy guild
ing genius of the Brooklyn club,
it is this faculty for stirring up
rivals and associates.
Nobody has succeeded in ignor-
ing MacPhail. His ready tongue
has taken the hide off some thick
skinned individuals. Some of them
probably will forgive him,
but they admit privately that he
has plenty on the ball.
BY his own statement, MacPhail
is the second highest paid front
office man in baseball, with only
Branch Hickey of the st. Louis
| Cardinals drawing a bigger salary
check. A guess of $35, 900 a year
might not be far off the figure,
and then Larry's travelling ex-
penses must be colossal.
When MacPhail's office in
Brooklyn says it doesn't know
where the boss is, it usually means
that it doesn't know what state he
is in or what section Of the
country he might be flying over.
He gets around at a terrific clip.
If a hotel happens to have a super
deluxe suite with four baths and
a door cutting off traffic halfway
down the hall, that's the r Mac
Phail will have.
A press interview in one Of these
suites is something to remember,
especially if Durocher is there, too,
and he and MacPahil are having
one Of their arguments.
Larry, his auburn locks tousled,
usually brandishes a glass in one
hand and g~esticulates with tn e
ether. He talks loud and pungent-
ly. His attire on such an occasion,
if it is around noon, probably will
consist of a cream-colored gar
ment he must have thought up
himself, a sort Of cross between
pajamas and a parachutist's uni
form.
MacPhail possibly developed his
argumentative disposition in l a W
school. Born so years ago at Cass
City, Mich, he got his law degree
at George Washington and did
postgraduate work at the Univer-
sity of Michigan. He is a red-hot
Michigan football fan.
MacPhail's claim to lasting no.
tice probably lies between w o
events in his life. He introduced
night baseball to the big leagues
in 1885, when he was running the
Cincinnati club, and he was one
Of eight American soldiers w h o,
after the armistice in 1918, invaded
the former German kaiser's LODI
ging in the Netherlands, bent on
kidnapping him. They didn't sue
coed, but MacPhail pocketed a
fine ash tray to show he had been
there. It's on his mantel now.
MacPahil maintains a town
house in fashionable Sutton Place
here and has a country house at
Larchmont. The MacPhails have a
daughter, Marian, a social work
err; and two sons, L. S. MacPhail,
Jr., and William. Larry Jr. is en-.
tering baseball this year as bust
ness manager of Brooklyn's Farm
club at Reading, Pa. William is
an undergraduate at Swarthmore.
MacPhail likes to buy and trade
baseball players. Since taking over
the Dodgers in 1888, at the solicit
tation of the Brooklyn Trust COM
pany, he has paid close to 81, OOO,-
600 cash for the stars he wanted.
He probably has caused the bank
officials to catch their breath
sharply now and then, but they
have given him his head, and the
result is that Brooklyn will enter
the approaching campaign with a
good chance of beating Cincinnati
for the National league pennant.
Larry believes that every club
in the majors should make at least
one player deal each winter, if on
ly to give the fans some new faces
to look at. He was holding forth
on this topic about z o'clock one
morning during the 1888 winter
meeting when Warren Giles of Gin
cinnati challenged him:
"All right, you and Bob Quinn
of Boston are such great traders,
let's e you make a deal"
No O n said than done. Mac
Phail wrote a name On a Slip of
paper and dropped it in a hat.
| Quinn did likewise. That was how
Joe Strip went to Boston and
Fred Farmhouse joined the bod.