Casey Stengel: Baseball's Greatest Character

CASEY STENGEL                                            MARTY APPEL

There was nobody like Casey before him, and no one like him since. For more than fifty years, Casey Stengel lived baseball, first as a player (he was the only person in history to play for all the New York teams--the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, and Mets), and then as a manager (for the Yankees and Mets, among others). He made his biggest mark on the game, revolutionizing the role of manager while winning an astounding ten pennants and seven World Series Championships (including FIVE STRAIGHT!) with the Yankees. Playing with and against a Who's Who of Cooperstown--Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb--and forming indelible, and sometimes complicated, relationships with Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Billy Martin, Casey Stengel was, for an astonishing five decades, the undisputed, hilarious, and beloved face of baseball.
For a man who spent so much of his life in the limelight, he still remains an enigma. New York Times bestselling author Marty Appel paints an intimate portrait of a private man who was larger than life and remains the embodiment of the national pastime. 

PAT'S REVIEW

A fantastic book about a wonderful baseball character. This book will fill you with Casey Stengel’s life from Kansas City where he grew up to Glendale California where he lived with his wife Edna when not playing or managing a baseball team. He started in pro ball minor leagues in 1910 and would stay around the game until 1974. He not only traveled the country but also went to the Far East twice on good will baseball tours. He also had one time in front of a senate hearing committee which is in the back of the book, and it has his answers to the questions. You think Yogi was bad I think Yogi learned from Casey because even the senators did not understand his answers which I thought were very funny but also very Casey. The book opens with Casey deciding whether or not about returning to Yankee Stadium for a day of honor for him. He has not been back since they fired him after the loss in the 1960 World Series to the Pirates. You are then taken on a journey through his career. First as a ball player who makes the majors in 1912 with Brooklyn and would stay in the majors until 1925. He would play with Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, N Y GIANTS, and then Boston Bean Eaters. All national league teams. Part of 25 he would be with Boston’s minor league team Toledo, and the from 26 thru 1931 he was player manager for Toledo. He was a good player and it was when he was with the Giants and McGraw was the manager was when he really was taught the game by him. He would manage Brooklyn for three years, then Boston for five always with the same problems of the owners not wanting to pay for good players or trading them away. Back in the minors, it would be years later after coaching Oakland for three years and winning the championship final in 1948 after two losses. He is hired as the manager of the Yankees in 1949 where he would become famous and is still the only manager to have five straight World Series wins. He would win seven and lose three from 1949 thru 1960, then he went to the Mets for four years. This book is more than just about baseball, but about all of the people, he came into contact with and also his loving relationship with his wife which I thought was a great part of this book. Too much information to put in a review, but a very good book. Worth the read. I got this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com