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Remembering Casey Stengel By Martin J. Steadman |
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Yankee
great Casey Stengel. |
The unforgettable Casey Dillon Stengel |
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By Martin J. Steadman Of all the colorful figures that played the
game of baseball, Casey Stengel stands alone. Charles Dillon Stengel was born in Kansas
City, Missouri (hence the nickname Casey) in 1889, and played the outfield
for 14 years with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the
Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Giants, and the old Boston Braves. Little mention is ever made of Stengel’s
years with the New York Giants in the two World Series in 1922-23 against the
Yankees.. He came to bat 17 times, had
seven hits, including 2 home runs. He
earned one World Series ring (1922) and his batting average in both series
was .418. Pretty good October
Baseball. Casey was never a Hall of Fame ballplayer
though. His lifetime batting average
was a credible .284, but what got him to Only
one manager in the long history of the game won five consecutive World
Series. That would be Casey Stengel. But Casey’s managerial career spanned 25
years, and his record with the Brooklyn Dodgers , the Boston Red Sox and the
New York Mets was as dismal as the years with the Yankees were
brilliant. All of those other teams finished
in the second division, and his newly-born Mets finished last four straight
years. Things in But in 1949, the Yankees took a
chance on Stengel and what a ride they got for their money. Casey loved life in general and
baseball in particular. In his first
year with the Mets, the team lost a record 120 games (still the record). At that time the New York Daily News had a
wonderful service that was very popular throughout the metropolitan
area. They called it News Information,
and if you called their switchboard and asked for News Information, they put
you on with people who had every fact on any subject at their fingertips. Arguments at the dinner table
and at some friendly neighborhood bar were settled by News Information. It was a given that if News Information
said you were wrong, just pay the bet because they were never wrong. So one night during that dismal 1962 Mets
season, someone called News Information and said, “How did the Mets do
tonight?” The guy at News Information said,
“The Mets scored 24 runs!!!” And the caller said, “Did they
win?” On another occasion, one of
Stengel’s star players Marv Throneberry, drove a pitch into the right-center
field alley for a triple that scored two runs with two outs. But the opposing team spotted a small
problem. They threw over to third
base, the tag was applied and the umpire at second base called Throneberry
out for missing second base. The two
runs scored were nullified and the inning was over. Manager Stengel dutifully
trotted out toward second base to confront the umpire who made the call, but
as Stengel approached, the umpire held up his hands and said, “Slow down,
Case, He missed second base and he
missed first base too.” Which may have prompted Casey
to comment later in the season on a birthday party for Marvelous Marv in the
locker room. Stengel told reporters,
“We wuz gonna give him a birthday cake, but we wuz afraid he would drop it.” But the thing about Casey
Stengel is he was funny when he was winning and he was just as funny when he
was losing. Consider the following. When the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York
Giants stunned Organized Baseball sent Casey
to testify about what a grand American game baseball was, and with Mickey
Mantle in tow, Casey dazzled the Senators and House members at the hearing,
with long, rambling stories about the entire history of baseball as he lived
it.
And in one
never-to-be-forgotten moment, he offered a baseball bromide that good
pitching always defeats good hitting. Except that Casey said into
the Congressional Record, “You know, good pitching always defeats good
hitting. (Pause for effect) “And vice-versa.” How’s that for instructing
the Congress on how to have things both ways? |
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