Casey Stengel: Baseball's
David Cataneo
Baseball legend Casey Stengel is considered by many to be the greatest manager in baseball history. He was certainly one of the most successful. He managed the fabled New York Yankees from 1949 to 1960 and compiled ten American league pennants and seven world championships during that time. He was also without question one of the game's all-time characters, best known for conversing in a mangled form of English that came to be known as "Stengelese."
Beyond the comedy and world championships, however, his baseball life spanned the ages, from the dead-ball era to AstroTurf. He began his big league career by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1912 and endured it by managing the hapless New York Mets in 1965. Between the first and last stop, Stengel was a World Series hero; a failed manager with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves; a washed-up, aging manager in the minors; and the wacky interloper who took over the stuffy, staid Yankees in 1949 and reformed them into a dynasty.
In Casey Stengel: Baseball's 'Old Professor,' dozens of former players, friends, and associates recall the Stengel myth and the Stengel reality. They explore his managing style with great teams and with horrible teams; his pioneering, controversial techniques; his humor, his edginess, and his weaknesses; why some players hated him while others loved him; why some think he was a genius and others think he was merely the right man in the right place at the right time. What emerges is a fascinating ride through baseball history and a thoughtful look at the life of a man who was counted out, mocked, and underestimated — and yet he never gave up, finally finding success in his later years.
| DAVID CATANEO is a veteran sportswriter, freelance writer, and former baseball writer who covered the Boston Red Sox for the Boston Herald. He has written a number of other baseball books, including I Remember Joe DiMaggio, Tony C, and Peanuts and Crackerjack. He lives with his family in New Hampshire. |
$9.99, Paperback
ISBN-10: 1-58182-327-4 (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-58182-327-1 (Paperback)
Paperback Currently Available
