FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS - LEO DUROCHER

From TicketCity:
2019 MLB Opening Day will take place on March 28, 2019. Which is the earliest opening day in the history of Major League Baseball (beating out 2018 Opening Day by a day). The World Series champion Boston Red Sox will play on the road for Opening Day 2019, they are at the Seattle Mariners on March 28th.

To mark the beginning of the 2019 baseball season yesterday, we’re going to induct an historical baseball figure who – as a member of the League of Themselves – proved to be quite the TV character….

LEO DUROCHER

From Wikipedia:
Leo Ernest Durocher (July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991), nicknamed Leo the Lip and Lippy, was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an infielder. Upon his retirement, he ranked fifth all-time among managers with 2,009 career victories, second only to John McGraw in National League history. Durocher still ranks tenth in career wins by a manager. A controversial and outspoken character, Durocher had a stormy career dogged by clashes with authority, the baseball commissioner, umpires (his 95 career ejections as a manager trailed only McGraw when he retired, and still rank fourth on the all-time list), and the press.

Durocher was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994.

Durocher appeared on several game shows (for example, 'What's My Line?', and 'I've Got A Secret'), a few variety programs ('The Judy Garland Show' and 'The Red Skelton Hour' among others), plus a slew of talk shows hosted by the likes of Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, and Mike Douglas – a few of the heavy hitters in that category.

But we have enough credits for his fictional televersion and many of those could only have happened in Toobworld!

Here are the TV shows that make him eligible for the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

The Jack Benny Program
- The Giant Mutiny (1954) 

From the IMDb:
Spoofs The Caine Mutiny (1954)  

From Wikipedia:
Jack stages a baseball version of The Caine Mutiny: Benny is Alvin Dark, captain of the New York Giants. During the fourth game of the World Series, Dark stands up to tyrannical Durocher and is court-martialled. Durocher (as the Queeg character) rubs two baseballs together.  

The Beverly Hillbillies 
- The Clampetts and the Dodgers (1963) 

From the IMDb:
Jed and Jethro go golfing with Leo Durocher, coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who wants to recruit Jethro as a pitcher when he sees how well he can throw.  

Buzzie Bavasi:
He can't throw anything that isn't smeared with possum fat.
Leo Durocher:
Look Buzzy, maybe we can get the commissioner to legalize the Possum ball.

Daisy “Granny” Moses:
Elly May can out-throw anybody.
Jethro Bodine:
Oh yes sir, she's got plenty of stuff.
Leo Durocher:
Yeah, we could never hide it under a Dodger uniform.

  Mister Ed 
- Leo Durocher Meets Mister Ed (1963) 

From the IMDb:
Through Wilbur, Mister Ed offers useful batting tips to Los Angeles Dodgers team manager, Leo Durocher.  

Leo Durocher is shown as the manager of the Dodgers. At the time, the Dodgers manager was Walt Alston, Durocher was a coach.  

O'Bservation:  But that was in the Trueniverse.  In Toobworld, what happens on screen is reality.

The Donna Reed Show 
- Play Ball (1964) 
 

From the IMDb:
Alex helps to organize a charity baseball game to benefit the hospital. When Willie Mays, Don Drysdale, and Leo Durocher show up it's no longer a game involving amateurs.  

O’Bservations – Mays and Drysdale are hired on a temporary basis by the hospital to be ringers for their team.  Durocher ended up as the umpire and really enjoyed being on the other side of his usual arguments for once.  Later, when he found out that a photographer was selling copies of pictures of him as an umpire, Durocher paid 100 dollars for them and then ripped them up.  Only then did he find out he was too late to hide these pictures of himself in an umpire uniform – a set of them had been already sold to the local newspaper.

Mr. Novak 
- Boy Under Glass (1964) 

From The Home Theater Forum:
"Boy Under Glass" (Nov. 24, 1964) puts Mr. Novak into a pressure-packed ethical dilemma when he flunks a star athlete pitcher, disqualifying him in an upcoming championship game and putting his major league ambitions in jeopardy, as his father, media and alumni intervene...starring Frank Silvera, Arch Johnson and real life Baseball legend Leo Durocher of the L.A. Dodgers himself...  

Hall of Fame player Leo Durocher, who was third base coach on the 1963 Dodgers World Series Winning team, former Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and World Series Champ as Manager of the 1954 NY Giants, was making a number of TV appearances as himself these last few years...the Beverly Hillbillies "Clampetts and the Dodgers" (Apr. 10, 1963), Mister Ed "Leo Durocher Meets Mister Ed" (Sept. 29, 1963), and The Donna Reed Show "Play Ball" (Oct. 1, 1964, with Don Drysdale and Willie Mays)...his appearance on Mr. Novak was perhaps his only TV drama appearance...  

The Joey Bishop Show
- Double Play from Foster to Durocher to Joey (1964) 

From the IMDb:
Opening Credits:Guest Stars Phil Foster and Phil's Best Enemy Leo Durocher  

The Dodgers need a Master of Ceremonies for a banquet and Joey immediately thinks of their number one NY fan, Phil Foster. A problem arises since Phil has not forgiven the team for moving to Los Angeles. Dodger's coach Leo Durocher is asked to win him over but instead tempers flare.

When Durocher pushes the chair back, he very ostentatiously does so with his middle finger. Although this somehow managed to slip by the NBC censors when originally broadcast, his hand is now blurred in the syndicated rerun.    

The Munsters
- Herman the Rookie (1965)

From the IMDb:
Herman's powerful arm could take him to the Baseball Big Leagues.  

Leo Durocher:
I don't know whether to sign him with the Dodgers or send him to Vietnam!

Here are a few clips from those shows.  I’ve grouped them altogether for that eventuality when they’re all taken down from YouTube…..

And here’s one from Skitlandia, just for gits and shiggles:

Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Durocher!  I’m sure you’ll find a better class of members here than in that Hall out in Cooperstown!  All they’ve got there are humans; we’ve got aliens, monsters, and Muppets!  But you’ll find Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays the Warlock are already here….

Play ball!