Evening star., 1952-04-15
For Your Bookshelf
|Luruine Duy
| Tells OfLife

By Betty Miles

DAY WITH THE GIANTS
BY Laraine Day. Doubleday G.
Co., Inc; S2.75J
Today is big day for the famed
Laraine-it's the opening game
of the season for the Giants.
Judging from her warm hearted
account of her life as Mr.. Leo
Durocher, the teams manager,
this will mean much more to her
than the fact that this is also the
date of her books publication.
Miss Day knows that women the
country over were a little taken
aback when she married Mr..
Durocher. She is as aware as any
that he is known nationally as
Leo the Lip" whose mercurial
temper makes the hair curl. These
outbursts are confined to the dia-
mond, she declares. His kindness
has commanded her deep devo-
ton. and she obviously counts her
career on the screen we'll lost.
When Mr.. Durocher, then man
ager of the Brooklyn team. was
first pointed out to her, Miss Day
seriously inquired, What is a
Brooklyn Dodger?"
| When she was first married, she
regarded baseball as merely a
backdrop before which her ro-
nance was played out. IF I had
known that baseball could also
be a maelstrom, a gigantic NAV,
a concrete mixer, I would prob
ably have been less blithe in those
pleasant spring days of 1947." she
reports.
Today, she is an ardent and
serious baseball fan thoroughly
familiar with the game and its
legends. She even has a TV show
built around the sport. Her book
is generously favored with anec-
dotes about yesterdays and to-
days favorites and their home
| life. So
The game is most certainly the
thing in the uncertain lives of
baseball wives. Their family's
next meal. as a matter of fact, de-
pends on it, and the tenseness
with which Giant wives watch the
game from Section 10 of the Polo
Grounds or on their television sets
can be easily understood. Each
has her own philosophy for help
ing her husband after q losing
game, including avoiding second
guessing" or the use of clairvoy-
ant hindsight which is as a red
flag to a bull to the losing player.
| Baseball wives learn not to ex-
pect any help with the chores
from their husbands. Players need
their rest. Their efficiency on the
diamond has been known to drop
after a lawn moving or grocery
shopping session. One manager
had to stop a players children
from playing with him, because
they were getting him up too early
after night games.
/ Mrs. Durocher feels with her
husband the public's scorn for q
loser. II can't ever remember q
stranger congratulating me when
the Giants won a game" she re-
marks, 'but if we lose, a driver is
sure to lean out Of his cab and
yell across at us: 'WaSSa matter
you guys?'" She's in the game for
keeps, though. heartaches and all
and counts as one of her most
satisfying experiences the feeling
of belonging she had when the
New York baseball writer's pre-
Sented her with a handsome silver
tray last year for her work on
their annual dinner.
1T meant that I belonged to
the great fraternity of baseball at
last. with all privileges, rights and
responsibilities" she explains. 1T
may seem foolishly sentimental
but I never move without packing
that beautiful tray and Juggling il
right along. It's as precious to me
as an American passport-and I'm
taking no chances of losing it,"