In 1969 I was assigned to get a candid portrait of the manager of the Chicago Cubs, the famous and cantankerous Leo Durocher. During the pre-game warmups I began photographing Leo from 20 or 30 feet away, framing just his head and shoulders with a very long and very large telephoto lens.

This seemed to bother him because every few minutes he would turn his back to me as he chatted with a pal. I would circle around and begin again.This went on for maybe five minutes before he asked me to stop--not in so many words but by throwing a baseball bat.

It was a very cool move. Facing straight ahead and not looking he flipped the bat, underhanded, my way.  By some miracle I plucked the bat out of the air before it beaned me on the noggin, which I'm sure was his intention. Or maybe it was just his way of letting a neophyte photographer know the rules of conduct on a major league baseball field.

I didn't realize until later when LIFE returned the outtakes that I had snapped a photo with my second camera of the bat in the air. It never made it into the magazine that week but was later published in the book "Life in Sports".