131 Facts About Casey Stengel

Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel was an American Major League Baseball right fielder and manager, best known as the manager of the championship New York Yankees of the 1950s and later, the expansion New York Mets.

Casey Stengel thereafter enjoyed some success on the minor league level, and Yankee general manager George Weiss hired him as manager in October 1948.

Casey Stengel's Yankees won the World Series five consecutive times, the only time that has been achieved.

Casey Stengel had become famous for his humorous and sometimes disjointed way of speech while with the Yankees, and these skills of showmanship served the expansion Mets well when they hired him in late 1961.

Casey Stengel retired in 1965, and became a fixture at baseball events for the rest of his life.

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Casey Stengel is remembered as one of the great characters in baseball history.

Casey Stengel's ancestry included German and Irish; his parents—Louis Stengel and Jennie Stengel—were from the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa, and had moved to Kansas City soon after their 1886 wedding so Louis could take an insurance job.

Charlie Casey Stengel played sandlot baseball as a child, and played baseball, football and basketball at Kansas City's Central High School.

Casey Stengel played on the traveling team called the Kansas City Red Sox during the summers of 1908 and 1909, going as far west as Wyoming and earning a dollar a day.

Casey Stengel was offered a contract by the minor league Kansas City Blues for $135 a month, more money than his father was making.

Casey Stengel failed to make the ball club, which was part of the American Association, considered one of the top minor leagues.

Casey Stengel returned to the Blues for the final week of the season, with his combined batting average for 1910 at.

Casey Stengel finished the season with Aurora and returned to dental school for the offseason.

Casey Stengel did not graduate, though whenever his baseball career hit a bad patch in the years to follow, his wife Edna would urge him to get his degree.

In later years, Casey Stengel told stories of his coming to Brooklyn to play for the Dodgers; most focused on his naivete and were, at least, exaggerated.

Wheat was from the Kansas City area and watched over Casey Stengel, getting the young player a locker next to his and working with him on outfield technique.

The Dodgers had a new ballpark, Ebbets Field, and Casey Stengel became the first person to hit a home run there, first an inside-the-park home run against the New York Yankees in an exhibition game to open the stadium, and then in the regular season.

Casey Stengel reported to spring training ill and thin; he was unable to work out for much of the time the Dodgers spent in Florida.

Casey Stengel was the life of the party and just kept all us old-timers pepped up all season.

Casey Stengel was benched again in Game 4 against left-hander Dutch Leonard, though he was inserted as a pinch runner, and got another hit in the Game 5 loss, finishing 4 for 11,.

Casey Stengel met with the Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss to seek a salary increase, but found Dreyfuss reluctant to deal until Casey Stengel proved himself as a Pirate.

Casey Stengel occasionally helped paint a ship—he later stated he had guarded the Gowanus Canal, and not a single submarine got into it.

Casey Stengel did so to visit old friends, and discovered that pitcher Leon Cadore had captured a sparrow.

Casey Stengel took it, and quietly placed it under his cap when called to bat in the sixth inning.

Casey Stengel received mixed boos and cheers from the Brooklyn crowd as a former Dodger, took a deep bow at the plate, and doffed his cap, whereupon the bird flew away to great laughter from the crowd.

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The Giants were one of the dominant teams in the National League, and Casey Stengel, who had feared being sent to the minor leagues, quietly placed a long-distance call once informed to ensure he was not the victim of a practical joke.

Casey Stengel had time to learn, playing in only 18 games for the Giants in 1921, mostly as a pinch hitter, and watched from his place on the bench as McGraw led the Giants from a 7.

The only contribution Casey Stengel made to the box score was being ejected from Game 5 for arguing.

When Casey Stengel was not included with the starters when the manager split the squad, some sportswriters assumed he would not be with the team when the regular season began.

McGraw and Casey Stengel sometimes stayed up all night, discussing baseball strategy.

Casey Stengel was obviously limping when he was advanced to second base on another single, and McGraw sent in a pinch runner.

Casey Stengel did not use Stengel again in the Series, which the Giants won, four games to zero, with one tie.

Casey Stengel was ejected several times for brawling or arguing with the umpire, and the league suspended him for ten games in one incident.

Casey Stengel on being traded by the Giants to the Boston Braves.

Casey Stengel had enjoyed his time in New York and was initially unhappy at the trade, especially since he had become close to McGraw.

Casey Stengel soon cooled down, and later praised McGraw as "the greatest manager I ever played for".

Casey Stengel met King George V and the Duke of York, later to become King George VI; Edna sipped tea with Queen Mary, an experience that strained her nerves.

Casey Stengel started 1925 on the active roster of the Braves, but was used as a pinch hitter and started only once, in right field against the Pirates on May 14, a game in which he got his only MLB hit of 1925, the final one of his major league career, a single.

Appel noted that in joining the Panthers, Casey Stengel was "starting out on a managing career that would eventually take him to Cooperstown".

McGraw, with whom Casey Stengel had remained close, wanted him to take over as manager of the Giants' top affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association, at an increase in salary.

Casey Stengel was still under contract to the Braves, and Mud Hens president Joseph O'Brien was unwilling to send them money or players in order to get him.

When Casey Stengel asked Fuchs what to do if a higher-level club wanted to draft him, Fuchs half-heartedly suggested releasing himself as a player, which would automatically terminate his Braves contract.

Casey Stengel took up Fuchs on his suggestion, releasing himself as a player, then firing himself as manager and resigning as president, clearing the way for him to move to the Mud Hens.

Casey Stengel missed part of the 1927 campaign, as he was suspended by the league for inciting the fans to attack the umpire after a close play during the first game of the Labor Day doubleheader.

Casey Stengel continued as an occasional player as late as 1931 in addition to his managerial role, hitting a game-winning home run in 1927 for the Mud Hens.

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Casey Stengel had approached the new manager of the Dodgers, Max Carey, an old teammate from his time with the Pirates, seeking a job, and was hired as first base coach.

Casey Stengel thus ended an exile of seven years from the major leagues: Appel suggested that Casey Stengel's reputation as a clown inhibited owners from hiring him although he was known as knowledgeable and able to manage the press.

Sportswriter Dan Daniel described Casey Stengel's hiring as "the return of an ancient Flatbush landmark", which might satisfy old Dodger fans upset at Robinson's dismissal at the end of 1931.

McGraw, Casey Stengel's mentor, was too ill to issue a statement on seeing him become a major league manager; he died the following day.

Casey Stengel, hired only days before spring training, had a limited opportunity to shape his new ballclub.

Richard Bak, in his biography of Casey Stengel, noted that the victories over the Terry-led Giants represented personal vindication for the Dodger manager.

Dodger management felt Casey Stengel had not done enough with the talent he had been given, and he was fired during the 1936 World Series between the Yankees and Giants.

Casey Stengel was paid for one year left on his contract, and he was not involved in baseball during the 1937 season.

Casey Stengel considered going in the oil business full-time, but Braves president Bob Quinn offered him the Boston managerial job in late 1937, and he accepted.

Spahn, who would go on to a Hall of Fame career, much of it with the Braves, would play again for Casey Stengel on the woeful New York Mets in 1965, and joke that he was the only person to play for Casey Stengel both before and after he was a genius.

Casey Stengel missed the first two months of the season, receiving many well-wishers, and reading get-well cards jokingly misaddressed to the hospital's psychiatric ward.

Also attractive to Casey Stengel was that the league had three teams in Southern California, allowing him to spend more time at his home in Glendale.

Casey Stengel managed the Oaks for a third year in 1948, with the roster heavy with former major leaguers.

Casey Stengel was impressed by Martin's fielding, baseball acuity, and, when there were brawls on the field, fighting ability.

Casey Stengel had been talked about as a possible Yankee manager in the early 1940s, but longtime team boss Ed Barrow refused to consider it.

Casey Stengel's name was mentioned for the job before Harris got it; he was backed by Weiss, but Larry MacPhail, then in charge of the franchise, was opposed.

MacPhail could no longer block Casey Stengel's hiring, as he had sold his interest in the Yankees after the 1947 season.

Weiss, who became general manager after MacPhail's departure, urged his partners in the Yankees to allow the appointment of Casey Stengel, who aided his own cause by winning the championship with Oakland during the time the Yankee job stood open.

Casey Stengel faced obstacles to being accepted—Harris had been popular with the press and public, and the businesslike Yankee corporate culture and successful tradition were thought to be ill matched with a manager who had the reputation of a clown and who had never had a major league team finish in the top half of the standings.

Casey Stengel tried to keep a low profile during the 1949 Yankee spring training at St Petersburg, Florida, but there was considerable media attention as Casey Stengel shuttled rookies from one position on the field to another, and endlessly shuffled his lineup.

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Casey Stengel had the advantage of diminished expectations, as DiMaggio, the Yankee superstar, was injured with a bone spur in his heel, and few picked New York to win the pennant.

Casey Stengel hit four home runs in three games to help sweep Boston and extend the Yankees' league lead.

The Red Sox took the lead the following day with a comeback win in a makeup game, as Casey Stengel lost his temper at the umpire for the first time in Yankee uniform; although he was not ejected, he was fined by the league.

The Yankees won Game 3, and during Game 4, a Yankee victory, Casey Stengel left the dugout to shout to catcher Yogi Berra to throw the ball to second base, which Berra did to catch Pee Wee Reese trying to take an extra base.

Casey Stengel was more forceful in running the team, not always to the liking of veteran players such as DiMaggio and Phil Rizzuto.

Casey Stengel considered DiMaggio's decline in play as he neared the end of his stellar career more important than his resentment.

Casey Stengel on sending Mickey Mantle to the minor leagues, 1951.

Casey Stengel moved Mantle from shortstop to the outfield, reasoning that Rizzuto, the shortstop, was likely to play several more years.

When Sain loaded the bases with none out in the ninth, Casey Stengel brought in Bob Kuzava, a left-hander, to pitch against the Giants, even though right-handers Monte Irvin and Bobby Thomson were due to bat.

The Yankees and Casey Stengel had their third straight World Series championship.

Casey Stengel moved Mantle from right to center field in DiMaggio's place.

Younger players, some of whom Casey Stengel had developed, came to the fore, with Martin the regular second baseman for the first time.

Casey Stengel prepared nearly 100 different lineup cards for the 1952 season.

The Yankees and Casey Stengel won the World Series for the fifth consecutive year, the only team to accomplish that feat.

Casey Stengel lectured the team before Game 3 at Yankee Stadium and the team responded with a victory then and in Game 4.

For Game 5, Casey Stengel pitched Don Larsen, who had been knocked out of Game 2, and who responded with a perfect game, the only one in major league postseason history.

Many expected Whitey Ford to start Game 7, but Casey Stengel chose Johnny Kucks, an 18-game winner that season who had been used twice in relief in the Series.

Some Yankees were known for partying late into the night, something Casey Stengel turned a blind eye to as long as the team performed well.

Casey Stengel was close to Martin, who took great pride in being a Yankee, and Topping and Weiss did not involve the manager in the trade talks that ensued.

Casey Stengel stated in an interview, "We're going to have Burditis on our minds next year".

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Casey Stengel was by then aged 67 and had several times fallen asleep in the dugout, and players complained that he was growing more irritable with the years.

Casey Stengel was delighted with the acquisition and batted Maris third in the lineup, just in front of Mantle, and the new Yankee responded with an MVP season in 1960.

The Yankees played the Pittsburgh Pirates, again a team Casey Stengel had played for, in the 1960 World Series, and Casey Stengel picked Art Ditmar, who had won the most games, 15, for the Yankees, rather than the established star, Whitey Ford.

Shortly after the Yankees returned to New York, Casey Stengel was informed by the team owners that he would not be given a new contract.

Casey Stengel returned to Glendale, and spent the 1961 season out of baseball for the first time since 1937.

Casey Stengel turned down several job offers to manage, from the Tigers, San Francisco Giants and the expansion Los Angeles Angels.

Casey Stengel spent the summer of 1961 as vice president of the Glendale Valley National Bank, which was owned by members of Edna Stengel's family.

Leonard Koppett of The New York Times suggested that Casey Stengel took the job to give something back to the game that had been his life for half a century.

Casey Stengel hoped to overcome the challenge of attracting supporters to a losing team in the "City of Winners" by drafting well-known players who would draw fans to the Polo Grounds, where the Mets would initially play.

Casey Stengel came from the dugout to argue, only to be told that Throneberry had missed second base as well.

Casey Stengel tried incessantly to promote the Mets, talking to reporters or anyone else who would listen.

Casey Stengel was given a contract for 1965, though Creamer suggested that Weiss, Grant and Payson would have preferred that the 74-year-old Casey Stengel retire.

Casey Stengel was kept on the team payroll as a vice president, but for all intents and purposes he was out of baseball.

Casey Stengel's life settled into a routine of attending the World Series, the All-Star Game, Mets spring training, and the baseball writers' dinner in New York.

The writers, who elect members of baseball's Hall of Fame, considered it unjust that Casey Stengel should have to wait the usual five years after retirement for election, and waived that rule.

Casey Stengel attended the Series, threw out the first ball for Game 3 at Shea, and visited the clubhouse after the Mets triumphed in Game 5 to win the Series.

Casey Stengel participated in Old-Timers' Day at a number of ballparks, including, regularly, Shea Stadium.

Casey Stengel accepted and attended, and Stengel became the fifth Yankee to have his number retired.

Casey Stengel thereafter became a regular at the Yankees' Old-Timers' Day.

Casey Stengel himself showed signs of senility in his last years, and during the final year of his life, these increased.

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Casey Stengel was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale.

Casey Stengel had his uniform number, 37, retired by both the Yankees and the Mets.

Casey Stengel is the first man in MLB history to have had his number retired by more than one team based solely upon his managerial accomplishments, and was joined in that feat in 2011 by the late Sparky Anderson, who had called Stengel "the greatest man" in the history of baseball.

Casey Stengel was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1981.

Casey Stengel is the only man to have worn the uniform of all four Major League Baseball teams in New York City in the 20th century: the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees and Mets.

Casey Stengel is the only person to have played or managed for the home team in five New York City major league venues: Washington Park, Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, Shea Stadium and the original Yankee Stadium.

Casey Stengel reintroduced it to the Yankees, and its prominent use amid the team's success caused it to be imitated by other teams.

Rather than have a regular pitching rotation to maximize the number of starts a pitcher will have, Casey Stengel often rested pitchers longer to take advantage of situational advantages which he perceived.

For example, Casey Stengel started Eddie Lopat against Cleveland whenever possible, because he regularly beat them.

James noted that Casey Stengel was not only the most successful manager of the 1950s, he was the most dominant manager of any single decade in baseball history.

Casey Stengel used his entire squad as Yankee manager, in contrast to other teams when he began his tenure, on which substitutes tended to get little playing time.

Additionally, according to James, Casey Stengel "rotated lineups with mad abandon, using perhaps 70 to 100 different lineups in a 154 game season".

Casey Stengel often rotated infielders between positions, with the Yankees having no real regular second baseman or shortstop between 1954 and 1958.

Casey Stengel gave great attention to the double play, both defensively and in planning his lineup, and the Yankees responded by being first in the league in double plays as a defense six times in his twelve-year tenure, and the batters hit into the fewest double plays as a team eight times in that era.

Marty Appel wrote of Casey Stengel, "He was not a man for all seasons; he was a man for baseball seasons".

Casey Stengel remains the only manager to lead his club to victory in five consecutive World Series.

Casey Stengel has been praised for his role in successfully launching the Mets.

Casey Stengel was the booster that got them off the ground and on their journey.

Child of the Jim Crow era, and from a border state with southern characteristics, Casey Stengel has sometimes been accused of being a racist, for example by Roy Campanella Jr.

Bak noted, though, that Casey Stengel was a "vicious and inventive" bench jockey, hazing the other team with whatever might throw off their performance.

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Casey Stengel had poor relations with Robinson; each disliked the other and was a vocal critic.

One widely quoted Casey Stengel comment was about catcher Elston Howard, who became the first black Yankee in 1955, eight years after Robinson had broken the color barrier, "they finally get me a nigger, I get the only one who can't run".

Howard, though, denied that Stengel had shouted racial epithets at the Dodgers, and said "I never felt any prejudice around Casey".

Al Jackson, a black pitcher with the Mets under Casey Stengel, concurred, "He never treated me with anything but respect".

Conscious of changing times, Casey Stengel was more careful in his choice of words while with the Mets.

Casey Stengel was sometimes considered thoughtless or even cruel towards his players.