Manager Casey Stengel
This post is part of a series that includes material originally written for The New York Yankees All-Time All-Stars but had to hit the cutting room floor prior to publication. For other posts in the series you can search for the label "Author's Cut" on this site.
The New York Yankees were at a crossroads in 1949. They had enjoyed unthinkable success under Joe McCarthy in the 1930’s and early 1940’s, but in the five years from 1944 through 1948 they had won only one World Series and were underwhelmed by Bucky Harris’ two-year stint as manager. Instead they handed the keys over to Casey Stengel, who in nine years as a manger in the National League compiled a record that stood 161 games below .500 and never finished better than fifth place.
The move was understandably ridiculed, but Stengel was supremely blessed with the gift of gab and ate up the New York spotlight. He also turned out to be a hell of a manager when given talent to work with. The run of success he had with the Yankees is inarguably the best in baseball history.
A product of Kansas City, MO, Charles Stengel grew up playing sandlot baseball and at 20 years old signed his first professional contract with a local minor league team. After two years in the minors, the Brooklyn Dodgers acquired the young outfielder and by 1912 he broke into the big leagues.
It didn’t take long for Stengel to establish himself as a quality hitter and fielder with a quirky personality. As a rookie he was given the painfully unoriginal nickname “Kansas City” which was eventually shortened to “K.C.”, or “Casey” and that name would stick for the rest of his life. Stengel put together a long and distinguished career as a left-handed outfielder. Across 14 years he spent time in Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York – where he won the World Series over the Yankees with the Giants – and ended his career in Boston with the Braves.
When his playing career was over, Stengel transitioned right into managing and spent six years as manager of the minor league Toledo Mud Hens. In 1932 he was brought back to the major leagues to serve as a coach for his former team in Brooklyn. Two years later the Dodgers promoted him to manager and during a three year stint he never finished better than fifth in the National League.
In 1938 Stengel resurfaced as manager for another one of his former teams, this time in Boston. Stengel did nothing to change the fortunes of a team that consistently finished near the bottom of the league in his six year reign. During his nine years as a major league manager he finished above .500 just once and returned to managing minor league teams. This included a brief tenure as skipper for the Yankees minor league affiliate in Kansas City for the 1945 season. By 1949, George Weiss - the man who had hired Stengel for that job - was promoted to general manager and brought Stengel on to manage the big league club as his first order of business.
At 58 years old, Stengel was widely regarded as nothing more than a sideshow, a colorful character who was a loveable loser at best. All of that would change with the Yankees. With so many quality players at his disposal, Stengel quickly established a tactic where he would frequently change his lineups based on the handedness of the opposing starting pitcher.
By platooning his players Stengel was able to keep them well-rested while maximizing their production on the days they did play. In truth, it was an idea that he borrowed from his former managers Wilbert Robinson and John McGraw who deployed him the same way as a player with the Dodgers and Giants. It worked to perfection. He navigated the Yankees to 97 wins, an American League pennant, and an easy World Series win over his former team in Brooklyn.
Over the next four years he would seamlessly transition the Yankees from a team spearheaded by Joe DiMaggio to one paced by budding superstars. His willingness to rely on rookies paid off in droves. Not only did Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford break into the big leagues under Stengel, but others like Gil McDougald proved to be indispensable complementary players.
Perhaps Stengel’s best work, though, was with a young, awkward catcher struggling to find his way in the big leagues. As Peter Golenbock once wrote, “Stengel was often criticized for being a push-button manager during his career, but it is doubtful that another manager would and could have undertaken the transformation of Yogi Berra from a woefully inadequate receiver to a Hall-of-Famer.”
By 1953, the Yankee players handsomely rewarded Stengel's faith in them with their fifth straight World Series championship. The loveable loser had broken the managerial record of four straight set by Joe McCarthy just 14 years prior and still holds the record to this day.
On top of the baseball acumen that Stengel had put on full display, he was as entertaining a manager as there has ever been in baseball. His manner of speaking alone made him unique among his peers. Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith, in their retrospective on Mickey Mantle’s 1956 season, offered the following description: “Scouting talent, [Stengel] called inferior players ‘road apples,’ a good fielder was a ‘plumber,’ and a rookie was a ‘green pea.’…He admired tough players, the kind who ‘could squeeze your eyebrows off.’”
Stengel's rants would often times continue endlessly and without direction, but the authors went on to describe what made him such an irresistible character to beat writers that became putty in his hands: “He spoke in constant animation, contorting his leathery ‘gargoyle face’ into twisted winks, waving his arms like an orchestra conductor.” Winning helped turn these traits from quirky to charming.
For the first and only time in Stengel’s Yankee tenure, they won over 100 games in 1954. Thanks to a red hot Cleveland Indians team that won 111 games that year, the Yankees failed to reach the World Series. However Stengel, well into his 60’s by this point, and the Yankees would prove that they had plenty left in the tank as they took home another four straight American League pennants from 1955 through 1958.
Remarkably, each of the four World Series played during this period went the full seven games. The Yankees won two and lost two, splitting a series each with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves. In his first ten seasons as Yankee manager, Stengel brought home nine pennants and seven World Series rings. Even George Weiss couldn’t have seen that coming.
After a full decade of dominance under Stengel, the Yankees struggled in 1959. They finished in third place with a 79-75 record and the general feeling among Yankee brass was that the 68-year old Stengel was too old to effectively lead young men anymore. A playboy himself during his playing days, Stengel had generally turned a blind eye to the skirt-chasing ways of Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and Whitey Ford. He once said, with tongue fully in cheek, “It ain’t getting it that hurts them. It’s staying up all night looking for it. They gotta learn that if you don’t get it by midnight, you ain’t gonna get it, and if you do, it ain’t worth it.” The feeling was that giving his star players such a long leash was hurting the team.
Stengel entered the 1960 season on the final year of his contract and the Yankees returned to the World Series where they thoroughly outplayed the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, they just couldn’t seal the deal. Bill Mazeroski won the series for the Pirates with an all-time dramatic, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game Seven. Stengel was a natural scapegoat, especially considering that he only gave his ace Whitey Ford two starts in the series when he had the opportunity to pitch him three times.
The Yankees promoted first base coach Ralph Houk as manager rather than bringing Stengel back for the 1961 season. After a year away from baseball he returned to New York to manage the expansion Mets in 1962, which was an exercise in futility. During four seasons with the Mets he never won more than 53 games and with his health failing in 1965, he called it quits for good.
Thanks entirely to his career with the Yankees, Stengel is often in the conversation when discussing the greatest managers in baseball history. The way he went about his business has also earned him praise as one of baseball’s greatest showman. As Stengel himself once put it, it was all very simple, “Keep the five guys who hate you away from the five who are undecided.” The real secret, though, is that once he got going, it was impossible to hate Casey Stengel.
“He knew how to hold a ball club together. He was a master psychologist. I thought he was a very brilliant man in many ways. He’d leave one player alone. He’d get one mad. Like Yogi he’d leave alone, and me he’d get mad all the time.” – Billy Martin
The move was understandably ridiculed, but Stengel was supremely blessed with the gift of gab and ate up the New York spotlight. He also turned out to be a hell of a manager when given talent to work with. The run of success he had with the Yankees is inarguably the best in baseball history.
A product of Kansas City, MO, Charles Stengel grew up playing sandlot baseball and at 20 years old signed his first professional contract with a local minor league team. After two years in the minors, the Brooklyn Dodgers acquired the young outfielder and by 1912 he broke into the big leagues.
It didn’t take long for Stengel to establish himself as a quality hitter and fielder with a quirky personality. As a rookie he was given the painfully unoriginal nickname “Kansas City” which was eventually shortened to “K.C.”, or “Casey” and that name would stick for the rest of his life. Stengel put together a long and distinguished career as a left-handed outfielder. Across 14 years he spent time in Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York – where he won the World Series over the Yankees with the Giants – and ended his career in Boston with the Braves.
When his playing career was over, Stengel transitioned right into managing and spent six years as manager of the minor league Toledo Mud Hens. In 1932 he was brought back to the major leagues to serve as a coach for his former team in Brooklyn. Two years later the Dodgers promoted him to manager and during a three year stint he never finished better than fifth in the National League.
In 1938 Stengel resurfaced as manager for another one of his former teams, this time in Boston. Stengel did nothing to change the fortunes of a team that consistently finished near the bottom of the league in his six year reign. During his nine years as a major league manager he finished above .500 just once and returned to managing minor league teams. This included a brief tenure as skipper for the Yankees minor league affiliate in Kansas City for the 1945 season. By 1949, George Weiss - the man who had hired Stengel for that job - was promoted to general manager and brought Stengel on to manage the big league club as his first order of business.
At 58 years old, Stengel was widely regarded as nothing more than a sideshow, a colorful character who was a loveable loser at best. All of that would change with the Yankees. With so many quality players at his disposal, Stengel quickly established a tactic where he would frequently change his lineups based on the handedness of the opposing starting pitcher.
By platooning his players Stengel was able to keep them well-rested while maximizing their production on the days they did play. In truth, it was an idea that he borrowed from his former managers Wilbert Robinson and John McGraw who deployed him the same way as a player with the Dodgers and Giants. It worked to perfection. He navigated the Yankees to 97 wins, an American League pennant, and an easy World Series win over his former team in Brooklyn.
Over the next four years he would seamlessly transition the Yankees from a team spearheaded by Joe DiMaggio to one paced by budding superstars. His willingness to rely on rookies paid off in droves. Not only did Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford break into the big leagues under Stengel, but others like Gil McDougald proved to be indispensable complementary players.
Perhaps Stengel’s best work, though, was with a young, awkward catcher struggling to find his way in the big leagues. As Peter Golenbock once wrote, “Stengel was often criticized for being a push-button manager during his career, but it is doubtful that another manager would and could have undertaken the transformation of Yogi Berra from a woefully inadequate receiver to a Hall-of-Famer.”
By 1953, the Yankee players handsomely rewarded Stengel's faith in them with their fifth straight World Series championship. The loveable loser had broken the managerial record of four straight set by Joe McCarthy just 14 years prior and still holds the record to this day.
On top of the baseball acumen that Stengel had put on full display, he was as entertaining a manager as there has ever been in baseball. His manner of speaking alone made him unique among his peers. Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith, in their retrospective on Mickey Mantle’s 1956 season, offered the following description: “Scouting talent, [Stengel] called inferior players ‘road apples,’ a good fielder was a ‘plumber,’ and a rookie was a ‘green pea.’…He admired tough players, the kind who ‘could squeeze your eyebrows off.’”
Stengel's rants would often times continue endlessly and without direction, but the authors went on to describe what made him such an irresistible character to beat writers that became putty in his hands: “He spoke in constant animation, contorting his leathery ‘gargoyle face’ into twisted winks, waving his arms like an orchestra conductor.” Winning helped turn these traits from quirky to charming.
Casey Stengel flashing a trademark wink.
Baseball Digest/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
For the first and only time in Stengel’s Yankee tenure, they won over 100 games in 1954. Thanks to a red hot Cleveland Indians team that won 111 games that year, the Yankees failed to reach the World Series. However Stengel, well into his 60’s by this point, and the Yankees would prove that they had plenty left in the tank as they took home another four straight American League pennants from 1955 through 1958.
Remarkably, each of the four World Series played during this period went the full seven games. The Yankees won two and lost two, splitting a series each with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves. In his first ten seasons as Yankee manager, Stengel brought home nine pennants and seven World Series rings. Even George Weiss couldn’t have seen that coming.
After a full decade of dominance under Stengel, the Yankees struggled in 1959. They finished in third place with a 79-75 record and the general feeling among Yankee brass was that the 68-year old Stengel was too old to effectively lead young men anymore. A playboy himself during his playing days, Stengel had generally turned a blind eye to the skirt-chasing ways of Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and Whitey Ford. He once said, with tongue fully in cheek, “It ain’t getting it that hurts them. It’s staying up all night looking for it. They gotta learn that if you don’t get it by midnight, you ain’t gonna get it, and if you do, it ain’t worth it.” The feeling was that giving his star players such a long leash was hurting the team.
Stengel entered the 1960 season on the final year of his contract and the Yankees returned to the World Series where they thoroughly outplayed the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, they just couldn’t seal the deal. Bill Mazeroski won the series for the Pirates with an all-time dramatic, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game Seven. Stengel was a natural scapegoat, especially considering that he only gave his ace Whitey Ford two starts in the series when he had the opportunity to pitch him three times.
The Yankees promoted first base coach Ralph Houk as manager rather than bringing Stengel back for the 1961 season. After a year away from baseball he returned to New York to manage the expansion Mets in 1962, which was an exercise in futility. During four seasons with the Mets he never won more than 53 games and with his health failing in 1965, he called it quits for good.
Thanks entirely to his career with the Yankees, Stengel is often in the conversation when discussing the greatest managers in baseball history. The way he went about his business has also earned him praise as one of baseball’s greatest showman. As Stengel himself once put it, it was all very simple, “Keep the five guys who hate you away from the five who are undecided.” The real secret, though, is that once he got going, it was impossible to hate Casey Stengel.
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