For those Yankee lovers and Yankee haters and all those in between who have responded to my first two pieces on Charles Dillon Stengel, for you to enjoy and write to me about is another in the series.
Sparing no one including himself, Casey Stengel was equally at ease using the back of his hand or the glad hand. Not unduly concerned about hurting a player’s (or anyone else’s feelings) by a sarcastic or sharp criticism even in front of others, Stengel picked his times.
When the club was losing, he was muted. He even praised players when they were not doing well. When the Yankees were winning, he became almost intolerably edgy, riding his players, trying to prevent a let-down.
“They know when they’re losin‘ and feel bad enough. But they’d better not fall asleep on me when they think everything is going la-de-dah,” he'd say.
