Stengel, "Casey" (Charles D.)
Baseball
b. July 30, 1890, Kansas City, MO
d. Sept. 29, 1975
When Stengel retired from professional baseball in 1967 after nearly sixty years in the sport, he said, "I want to thank all my players for giving me the honor of being what I was." It was a typical Casey Stengel line and an appropriate way for him to bow out.
Stengel at times seemed to cultivate his image as a clown. When he became a very successful manager, that image for years obscured his ability to handle a team. Then, after fans realized he'd been an outstanding manager with the Yankees, he took over the worst team in baseball.
Although he once told a Senate sub-committee, "I had many years that I was not so successful as a ballplayer, as it is a game of skill," Stengel was a pretty good player. He left Western Dental College in his native Kansas City to play in the minor leagues in 1910 and came up to the Brooklyn Dodgers late in the 1912 season, getting 4 hits in 4 at-bats in his first game.
A left-handed outfielder, Stengel played for the Dodgers through 1917 and batted .346 in the 1916 World Series, when Brooklyn lost in five games to the Boston Red Sox. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1918. Dodger fans booed him when he played his first game as a pirate in Brooklyn. The next day, Stengel bowed to the boos, took off his cap, and a sparrow flew out.
After serving in the Navy for most of 1918, Stengel returned to the Pirates and was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies during the 1919 season. He went to the New York Giants in 1922 and played on two pennant-winning teams in two seasons. He batted .400 in the Giants' four-game World Series victory over the Yankees in 1922. In 1923, he hit an inside-the-park home run to win the first game and won the third game with another home run, but the Giants lost to the Yankees in six games.
Stengel spent his last two seasons, 1924 and 1925, with the Boston Braves. He left the major leagues with a lifetime .284 average and became a minor-league playing manager.
In 1934, Stengel became manager of the Dodgers, but was fired after the 1936 season. He took over the Braves in 1938 and had six second-division finishes in six seasons there. At this point, Stengel's managerial record in the major leagues was 581-742 and his future didn't seem bright.
He was successful after he returned to the minor leagues, though, winning two pennants in five seasons, and he was named to manage the Yankees in 1949. He took over a team that looked good on paper but had finished third the year before. The team's biggest star, Joe DiMaggio, was hobbled much of the season.
Stengel installed Yogi Berra as his starting catcher and platooned extensively at six positions. Only shortstop Phil Rizzuto had more than 500 at-bats. The patchwork paid off, as the Yankees edged the Boston Red Sox to win a pennant.
In his first five seasons, New York won five world championships. They finished second in 1954, then won five more pennants and two world championships in the next seven years. Stengel was named AL manager of the year in 1949, 1953, and 1958.
The Yankees lost the 1960 World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games. It was announced that Stengel had resigned shortly afterward, but he told a press conference, "I was told my services would not be desired any longer with this ball club. I had not much of an argument."
He spent 1961 working as a bank executive in California and returned to baseball as manager of the expansion New York Mets in 1962. Still beloved by many New York fans, he helped attract more than a million spectators to watch a team that lost a record 120 games.
But it was a frustrating job, and Stengel showed the frustration as time went on. He once asked, desperately, "Can't anybody here play this game?" And, asked about a poor performance by one of his players, he said, "He's only nineteen years old, and in another year he's got a chance to be twenty."
Midway through the 1967 season, Stengel broke his hip in a fall. He announced his retirement shortly afterward. His overall record as a major-league manager was 1,905-1,842, for a winning percentage of .508.