SAN FRANCISCO — Leo Durocher had lived enough baseball to know what the moment demanded: Sportsmanship, the personal acknowledgment of a job done well by a rival. Jackie Robinson had shown him the way.

Durocher had managed the New York Giants in 1951, when Bobby Thomson’s pennant-winning homer leveled the Brooklyn Dodgers. Even after such a bitter defeat, Robinson visited the Giants’ clubhouse to offer congratulations.