#187 Casey Stengel MG - New York Mets

Charles Dillon Stengel
New York Mets
Manager

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  175
Born:  July 30, 1890, Kansas City, MO
Drafted:  Drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers from Aurora (Wisconsin-Illinois) in the 1911 rule 5 draft
Major League Teams:  Brooklyn Dodgers 1912-1917; Pittsburgh Pirates 1918-1919; Philadelphia Phillies 1920-1921; New York Giants 1921-1923; Boston Braves 1924-1925
As a Manager:  Brooklyn Dodgers 1934-1936; Boston Bees 1938-1942; Boston Braves 1943; New York Yankees 1949-1960; New York Mets 1962-1965
Died:  September 29, 1975, Glendale, CA (age 85)
Hall of Fame Induction:  1966

Stengel with the Phillies

Before he became "The Old Perfessor" with a Hall of Fame managing career, Casey Stengel was an outfielder for 14 big league seasons primarily with the Dodgers and Giants.  In 1,277 career games he hit .284 with 60 home runs and 535 RBIs.  His best seasons came in 1914 with the Dodgers when he led the league with a .404 on-base percentage and finished fifth in batting average at .316, and in 1922 with the Giants.  He only appeared in 84 games that year but hit .368 with 48 RBIs.  He won a World Series ring with the Giants in 1922, hitting .400 in that year's World Series against the Yankees.

Following his playing days, Stengel had managing stints with the Dodgers and Bees/Braves but he'd find his greatest success leading the Yankees through one of the most successful stretches in franchise and baseball history.  Stengel's Yankees' teams won World Series titles every year between 1949 and 1953, and then again in 1956 and 1958.  The only years his Yankees teams didn't make the World Series were 1954 when the club still won 103 games and 1959.  He had a .623 winning percentage with the Yankees, winning 1,149 games to just 696 losses.

Stengel and the Yankees parted ways following the 1960 season, and at the age of 71 he was named the first manager for the expansion New York Mets for the start of their inaugural season in 1962.  In the three full seasons Stengel managed the Mets, the team finished each year with at least 100 losses.  He compiled a record of 174-404 with the Mets and retired part way through the 1965 seasons after falling and breaking his hip.

The Mets retired Stengel's #37 on September 2, 1965 and the following year the Hall of Fame waived its five-year waiting period to induct him that summer.  He threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the 1969 World Series between the Mets and Orioles, and the Mets gave him a World Series ring following their series win.  The Yankees retired his #37 in 1970.  He's the only person to have worn the uniform as a player or manager for all four major league teams to have called New York home in the 20th century - Dodgers, Giants, Yankees and Mets.

Building the Set
February 29, 2020 from King of Prussia, PA - Card #81
Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show held on the bottom floor of the Valley Forge Casino on the final day of February.  This was our first baseball card show of 2020 and the fourth show we've attended in Valley Forge since March 2019.  I did a post over at The Phillies Room with a few pictures of Doug taken with some of the show's autograph guests.  We ended up adding 23 cards to our set.

In the general vicinity of the autograph seekers' holding pen was a table hosted by Bel Air Sports Cards out of Bel Air, Maryland.  The dealer had neatly organized stacks of star cards from the 1960s on display and I started browsing through the 1965 Topps stack.  I found four cards I liked, got Doug's approval, and handed the cards to the dealer to tally up my total.  The prices on the four cards totaled $50 and I was prepared to pay that amount as the sign advertising the cards indicated they had already been marked down.  The dealer said, "How about $45 for the lot," and I accepted.  This Stengel card was originally marked at $10.

The Card
I'd consider this, Stengel's last baseball card appearance as an active manager, to be an iconic baseball card.  From the same photo shoot that gave us the photo used on his 1964 Topps card, Stengel is shown mid sentence, likely explaining some baseball axiom or other deep philosophical thought.  He's holding court from the Mets' dugout steps in the Polo Grounds, baseball bat ready to go.  The biography on the back is a great snapshot of Stengel's then 50+ years in the game.

Mets Team Set

1965 Season
In his final season as a manager, Stengel fell in spring training breaking his wrist.  As mentioned above, he fell again at an after party on July 24th following an old-timer's game, and broke his hip.  On the advice of his wife, Stengel finally agreed to retire and Wes Westrum became the club's new manager.  It was Westrum's fourth job with the club in 1965, as he had previously served as the team's bullpen and then first base coach.  He became the Mets' pitching coach on July 14th after the release of pitcher-coach Warren Spahn (#205).

Phillies Career
The Phillies acquired Stengel from the Pirates on August 9, 1919 for Possum Whitted, after Stengel had had a salary dispute with the Pirates' owner.  Upon arriving in Philadelphia, he repeated his salary demands and when the Phillies didn't agree, Stengel went home to Kansas City and played for barnstorming clubs.  He came back to Philadelphia for the 1920 season and had a fairly successful year as the team's regular right fielder.  In 129 games, Stengel hit .292 with a career-high 9 home runs and 50 RBIs.

Injuries slowed him down in 1921 and he'd appear in only 24 games with the Phillies before being traded to the Giants on July 1st with Johnny Rawlings for Lee King, Goldie Rapp and Billy Southworth.  In 153 total games for the Phillies, Stengel hit .294.  He'd later manage the 1950 Yankees team that would sweep the Whiz Kid Phillies in the World Series.

1910 Old Mill Cigarettes T210

1916 Sporting News M101-4 #169

1940 Play Ball #141

1950 Bowman #217

1959 Topps #552

1960 Topps #227

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1910 T210 Old Mill
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7):  1958-1960; 1962-1965
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2019 Topps Allen & Ginter #388

394 - Stengel non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 3/22/20.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
National Baseball Hall of Fame
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia

In some cases, the first and last cards listed above are subjective and chosen by me if multiple cards were released within the same year.  Most recent mainstream card may also be subjective and does not include extremely low serial numbered cards, buybacks or cut autograph cards.

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