Leo Durocher - Leaves Baseball Temporarily

Disagreements with the team's owner, Horace Stoneham, led Durocher to resign as Giants manager at the end of the 1955 season. He spent several years as a color announcer for NBC's Game of the Week and also appeared in episodes of television series such as Mister Ed and The Beverly Hillbillies. (In the 1940s, he had often appeared on radio with the likes of Jack Benny and Milton Berle.) Durocher was divorced from Laraine Day in 1960. He had attained celebrity status and was known as a charming and dapper man off the field. He was proud of his friendships with entertainers such as Danny Kaye and Frank Sinatra.

Durocher was back in baseball as third base coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1961 to 1964. He often questioned the moves of Dodger manager Walter Alston, sometimes publicly, leading to controversy.