Casey stengel autobiography examples

An Active Retirement. Congressional Record July 9 He resides in New York City. Lunatic Beginning. Five Straight. Elston Howard. Edna Lawson. The Mick. Part Three. Part Four. Saying Goodbye. You never heard of Casey Stengel?! Bookreader Item Preview. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature.

EMBED for wordpress. Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! The Yankees won in four games. Before spring training in , the Yankees had pioneered the idea of an instructional school for rookies and other young players. This was the brainchild of Stengel and Weiss. Complaints from other teams that the Yankees were violating time limits on spring training and were using their money for competitive advantage led to modifications, but the concept survived and was eventually broadly adopted.

Both Mantle and the Yankees started the season slowly, [ 1 ] and on July 14, Mantle was sent to Kansas City to regain his confidence at the plate. He was soon recalled to the Yankees; although he hit only. Much of the burden of winning a third consecutive pennant fell on Berra, who put together an MVP season. Game 2 was a Yankee victory, but Mantle suffered a knee injury and was out for the Series, [ ] the start of knee problems that would darken Mantle's career.

When Sain loaded the bases with none out in the ninth, 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 Giants scored twice, but Kuzava hung on. The Yankees and Stengel had their third straight World Series championship. DiMaggio's retirement after the season gave Stengel greater control over the players, as the relationship between superstar and manager had sometimes been fraught.

Stengel moved Mantle from right to center field in DiMaggio's place. Sportswriters favored the Indians. Younger players, some of whom Stengel had developed, came to the fore, with Martin the regular second baseman for the first time. Mantle proved slow to develop, but hit well towards the end of the season to finish at. Stengel prepared nearly different lineup cards for the season.

The race was still tight in early September, and on September 5, Stengel lectured the team for excessive levity on the train after the Yankees lost two of three to Philadelphia. Embarrassed by the episode, which made its way into print, the Yankees responded by winning 15 of their next 19, clinching the pennant on September With his pitching staff tired, Stengel gave the start to late-season acquisition Ewell Blackwell , who surrendered four runs in five innings, and the Yankees lost the game in 11 innings to the Dodgers behind Carl Erskine 's complete game.

With no tomorrow in Game 7, Stengel sent four pitchers to the mound. Mantle hit a home run to break a 2—2 tie, Martin preserved the lead by making a difficult catch off a Robinson popup, and Kuzava again secured the final outs for a Series victory, as the Yankees won 4—2 for their fourth straight World Series victory, matching the record set in —, also by the Yankees.

The sportswriters had picked other teams to win the pennant in Stengel's first four years as Yankee manager; in they picked the Yankees, and this time they were proven correct. An game winning streak in June placed them well in front, and they coasted to their fifth consecutive league championship, the first time a team had won five straight pennants.

The Yankees and Stengel won the World Series for the fifth consecutive year, the only team to accomplish that feat. Stengel, having taken the managerial record for consecutive pennants from McGraw — and McCarthy — and for consecutive titles from the latter, would say, "You know, John McGraw was a great man in New York and he won a lot of pennants.

But Stengel is in town now, and he's won a lot of pennants too". The Yankees started the defense of their title in with an opening day loss to the Washington Senators in the presence of President Dwight D. By the mids, Stengel was becoming a national figure, [ ] familiar from television broadcasts of the Yankees on NBC's Game of the Week , and from managing in most World Series and All-Star Games during his tenure.

The magazines not only told stories about the manager's one-liners and jokes, but recounted the pranks from his playing days, such as the grapefruit dropped from the plane and the sparrow under the cap. The Yankees won the pennant again in , breaking open a close pennant race in September to take the American League. They played the Dodgers again in the World Series , which the Dodgers won in seven games.

The Dodgers won Game 7, 2—0, behind the pitching of Johnny Podres and Stengel, after losing his first World Series as a manager, blamed himself for not instructing his hitters to bat more aggressively against Podres. Billy Martin stated, "It's a shame for a great manager like that to have to lose". There was not much of a pennant race in the American League in , with the Yankees leading from the second week of the season onwards.

With little suspense as to the team's standing, much attention turned to Mantle's batting, as he made a serious run at Babe Ruth's record at the time of 60 home runs in a season, finishing with 52, and won the Triple Crown.

Casey stengel autobiography examples

Never a Stengel fan, the process left Rizzuto bitter. The World Series opponent that year was again the Dodgers, who won the first two games at Ebbets Field. 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, 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 Stengel chose Johnny Kucks , an game winner that season who had been used twice in relief in the Series. Kucks threw a three-hit shutout as the Yankees won the championship, 9—0, Stengel's sixth as their manager. New York got off to a slow start in the season, and by early June was six games out.

By then, the team was making headlines off the field. Some of the Yankees were known for partying late into the night, something Stengel turned a blind eye to as long as the team performed well. The May 16 brawl at the Copacabana nightclub in New York involved Martin, Berra, Mantle, Ford, Hank Bauer and other Yankees, resulted in the arrest of Bauer the charge of assault was later dropped and exhausted Yankee management's patience with Martin.

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. Martin wrote in his autobiography that Stengel could not look him in the eye as the manager told him of the trade. The two, once close friends, rarely spoke in the years to come. The Yankees recovered from their slow start, winning the American League pennant by eight games.

They faced the Milwaukee Braves in the World Series. Stengel stated in an interview, "We're going to have Burditis on our minds next year". What was seen as a failure to keep discipline on the team hurt Stengel's standing with the Yankee owners, Topping, Weiss and Webb, as did the defeat in the Series. 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.

Former Yankee catcher Ralph Houk , who had been successful as a minor league manager and was Stengel's first base coach, was seen by ownership as the next manager of the Yankees. Stengel's contract, his fifth two-year deal, was up after the season. As ownership debated whether to renew it, the Yankees led by as many as 17 games, [ ] and won the pennant by The Braves won three of the first four games, but the Yankees, backed by the pitching of Bob Turley who got two wins and a save in the final three games stormed back to win the Series.

Firing Stengel under such circumstances was not possible, and ownership gave him another two-year contract, to expire after the season. The Yankees finished 79—75 in , in third place, their worst record since , as the White Sox, managed by Lopez, won the pennant. There was considerable criticism of Stengel, who was viewed as too old and out of touch with the players.

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 Stengel picked Art Ditmar , who had won the most games, 15, for the Yankees, as the Game 1 starter rather than the established star, Whitey Ford. The Pirates knocked Ditmar out of the box in the first inning, and won Game 1.

Shortly after the Yankees returned to New York, Stengel was informed by the team owners that he would not be given a new contract. His request, that the termination be announced at a press conference, was granted and on October 18, , Topping and Stengel appeared before the microphones. After Topping evaded questions from the press about whether Stengel had been fired, Stengel took the microphone, and when asked if he had been fired, stated, "Quit, fired, whatever you please, I don't care".

Topping stated that Stengel was being terminated because of his age, 70, and alleged that this would have happened even had the Yankees won the World Series. Two days after dismissing Stengel, the Yankees announced the hiring of Houk as his replacement—part of the reason for Stengel's firing was so that New York would not lose Houk to another team.

Stengel returned to Glendale, and spent the season out of baseball for the first time since As part of baseball's expansion in the early s, a franchise was awarded to New York, to play in the National League beginning in , and to be known as the New York Mets. It was hoped that the new team would be supported by the many former Giant and Dodger fans left without a team when the franchises moved to California after the season.

There were rumors through the season that Stengel would be the manager, but he initially showed no interest in managing a team that, given the rules for the expansion draft , was unlikely to be competitive. George Weiss had been forced out as Yankee general manager and hired by the Mets. Donald Grant , Stengel was introduced as Mets manager at a press conference on October 2, Look at that guy.

He can't hit, he can't run, and he can't throw. Of course, that's why they gave him to us. Weiss was convinced his scouting staff would make the Mets a respectable team in five to six years, but in the interim New York would most likely do poorly. He 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.

Selected before them all was journeyman catcher Hobie Landrith ; as Stengel explained, "You have to have a catcher or you'll have a lot of passed balls ". The return of Casey Stengel to spring training received considerable publicity, and when the Mets played the Yankees in an exhibition game, Stengel played his best pitchers while the Yankees treated it as a meaningless game, and the Mets won, 4—3.

The team won nearly as many games as it lost in spring training, but Stengel warned, "I ain't fooled. They play different when the other side is trying too". Some light appeared in May, when the Mets won 11 of 18 games to reach eighth place in the ten-team league. They then lost 17 in a row, returning to last place, where they would spend the remainder of the season.

On days when the Mets were less than amazing—and there were many more days like that—he stepped into the vacuum and diverted the writers' attention, and typewriters, to his own flamboyance The Mets appealed to the younger generation of fans and became an alternative to the stuffy Yankees. As the losing continued, a particular fan favorite was "Marvelous" Marv Throneberry , who was a "lightning-rod for disaster" in the season, striking out to kill rallies, or dropping pop flies and routine throws to first base.

Stengel came from the dugout to argue, only to be told that Throneberry had missed second base as well. Stengel tried incessantly to promote the Mets, talking to reporters or anyone else who would listen. He often used the word "amazin ' " as he put it and soon this became the "Amazin' Mets", a nickname that stuck. Stengel urged the fans, "Come out and see my amazin' Mets.

I been in this game a hundred years but I see new ways to lose I never knew existed before". The team was less successful on the field, finishing with a record of 40—, the most losses of any 20th century major league team. The season unfolded for the Mets much like the previous year's, though they lost only eight games to begin the season, rather than nine, but they still finished 51—, in last place.

Stengel played to win; the Yankees under Houk possibly less so, and the Mets beat the Yankees, 6—2. In , the Mets moved into the new Shea Stadium ; Stengel commented that "the park is lovelier than my team". By this time, the fans were starting to be impatient with the losing, and a number of people, including sportscaster Howard Cosell and former Dodger Jackie Robinson, criticized Stengel as ineffective and prone to fall asleep on the bench.

Stengel was given a contract for , though Creamer suggested that Weiss, Grant and Payson would have preferred that the year-old Stengel retire. And we have this fine young catcher named Goossen , who is only twenty years old, who in ten years, he has a chance to be thirty. The early part of the season saw similar futility. Sometime during that evening, Stengel fell off a barstool and broke his hip.

The circumstances of his fall are not known with certainty, as he did not realize he had been severely injured until the following day. Stengel spent his 75th birthday in the hospital. Recognizing that considerable rehabilitation would be required, he retired as manager of the Mets on August 30, replaced by Wes Westrum , one of his coaches.

The Mets would again finish in last place. The Mets retired Stengel's uniform number, 37, on September 2, , after which he returned to his home in California. He was kept on the team payroll as a vice president, but for all intents and purposes he was out of baseball. His life settled into a routine of attending the World Series especially when in California , 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 Stengel should have to wait the usual five years after retirement for election, and waived that rule. On March 8, , at a surprise ceremony at the Mets spring training site in St. Petersburg, Stengel was told of his election; he was inducted in July along with Ted Williams.

Thereafter, he added the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony to his schedule. 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. Stengel also participated in Old-Timers' Day at a number of ballparks, including, regularly, Shea Stadium.

By this time, the Yankee ownership had changed, and the people responsible for his dismissal were no longer with the team. He accepted and attended, and Stengel became the fifth Yankee to have his number retired. He thereafter became a regular at the Yankees' Old-Timers' Day. By , Edna Stengel was showing signs of Alzheimer's disease , [ ] and in , following a stroke, she was moved into a nursing home.

Stengel himself showed signs of senility in his last years, and during the final year of his life, these increased. In mid-September, he was admitted to Glendale Memorial Hospital, but the cancer was inoperable. He died there on September 29, The tributes to Stengel upon his death were many. Maury Allen wrote, "He is gone and I am supposed to cry, but I laugh.

Every time I saw the man, every time I heard his voice, every time his name was mentioned, the creases in my mouth would give way and a smile would come to my face". He wouldn't want you to He was the happiest man I've ever seen". Edna Stengel died in , [ ] and was interred next to her husband. In addition to the marker at their graves in Forest Lawn Cemetery, there is a plaque nearby in tribute to Casey Stengel, which besides biographical information contains a bit of Stengelese: "There comes a time in every man's life, and I've had plenty of them".

As part of professional baseball's centennial celebrations in , Stengel was voted its "Greatest Living Manager". He 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 by the late Sparky Anderson , who had called Stengel "the greatest man" in the history of baseball.

Stengel is the only man to have worn the uniform as player or manager of all four Major League Baseball teams in New York City in the 20th century: the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees and Mets. Stengel re-invigorated platooning in baseball. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email required. Something went wrong.

Please enter a valid email and try again.