KG Erwin
Posts: 8981
Joined: 7/25/2000 From: Cross Lanes WV USA Status: offline
|
The history of the Dodgers is filled with a mix of accepted myths and unbelievable truths. How I came to manage the team is a mix of these. The story goes that I managed a team of major leaguers that entered the Marines, played against teams from the Army, Navy and Army Air Force, and won an Armed Forces' World Series in Hawaii in 1945. Anyway, that's what the newspapers said. It was a good morale builder for the folks back home. The real story is that I got wounded in a mortar barrage (I served in an HQ company) on Peleliu, and somehow got shipped to Hawaii. A couple of former major leaguers were serving with Nimitz's HQ there. I'd managed a minor-league team back in the states, so somehow or other we put together a few pickup games with the Army & Navy REMFs. A reporter picked up the story, and thus a legend was born. After the war ended, I got discharged and got a job managing a team in the Dodgers' organization. We did well in 1945 and 1946, and in early 1947 I got a call from Branch Rickey. Leo Durocher had gotten suspended for the season, so Rickey needed a fill-in. Somehow he'd heard about my Marine background and my recent successes in the minors, so he offered me a temporary job as manager of the Dodgers. Naturally, I accepted. Note: with the release of 1.70 (final), I'm embarking on a new start.
< Message edited by KG Erwin -- 10/2/2007 2:03:40 AM >
|