The Torre / Stengel connection

Sports / Baseball
Torre’s Parting Shares Similarities With Stengel’s
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: October 19, 2007
Joe Torre’s refusal to accept a contract offer came 47 years to the day after the Yankees dismissed Casey Stengel, who also spent 12 seasons as the team’s manager.

Torre’s Parting Shares Similarities With Stengel’s

Excerpt:

Joe Torre’s refusal to accept the terms of a one-year contract to continue to manage the Yankees yesterday came 47 years to the day after the Yankees dismissed Casey Stengel, who, like Torre, had managed the team for 12 seasons.

Stengel was 70 at the time and looked it, but he still spoke fluent Stengelese. There had been rumors all that season of his demise. Torre, 67, survived speculation in other years that he would be fired and dodged a possible ax this season after the Yankees’ 21-29 start


Torre insulted by Yankees' one-year offer

Excerpt:

Joe Torre knew he wasn’t wanted.

So when the New York Yankees offered him a one-year contract with a hefty paycut, performance-based bonuses — and no room to negotiate — he was insulted and figured he had no choice but to walk away.

“The fact that somebody is reducing your salary is just telling me they’re not satisfied with what you’re doing,” Torre said Friday at a packed news conference. “There really was no negotiation involved. I was hoping there would be, but there wasn’t.



Casey Stengel

Excerpt:

Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel (July 30, 1890 - September 29, 1975), nicknamed The Old Professor, was an American baseball player and manager from the early 1910s into the 1960s. He was born in Kansas City, and was originally nicknamed "Dutch", a common nickname at that time for Americans of German ancestry. After his major league career started, he acquired the nickname "Casey", which originally came from the initials of his hometown ("K. C."), which evolved into "Casey", influenced by the wide popularity of the poem, Casey at the Bat. In the 1950s, sportswriters dubbed him with yet another nickname, "The Old Perfessor", for his sharp wit and his ability to talk at length on anything baseball-related.

Although his baseball career spanned a number of teams and cities, he is primarily associated with clubs in New York City. Between playing and managing, he was connected with all four of New York's major league clubs. He was the first of four men (as of 2006) to manage both the Yankees and the Mets. (Yogi Berra, Dallas Green, and Joe Torre are the others.) He ended his baseball career as the beloved manager for the expansion New York Mets, which won over the hearts of New York due to their "lovable loser" image and the unique character of their veteran leader.

Comment: Picture is of the Casey Stengel that I remember - the manager of the hopeless Mets!