Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Wisdom of Casey Stengel

From bostonbaseball.com

"I broke in with four hits and the writers promptly declared they had seen the new Ty Cobb. It took me only a few days to correct that impression."

"All right, everybody line up alphabetically according to your height."

"I made up my mind, but I made it up both ways."

"Being with a woman never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in."

"Good pitching will always stop good hitting, and vice versa."

"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided."

On hearing that a rival manager was trying to win the pennant with just three pitchers:
"Well, well, well, I heard it couldn't be done,but it don't always work."

On players who did not drink:
"It only helps them if they can play."

On winning the 1958 World Series:
"I couldna done it without my players."

On being asked how the Mets were doing:
"Well, we've got this Johnny Lewis in the outfield. They hit a ball to him yesterday, and he turned left, then he turned right, then he went straight back and caught the ball. He made three good plays in one. And Greg Goossen, he's only twenty and with a good chance in ten years of being thirty."

On being asked about his future in the spring of 1965:
"How the hell should I know? Most of the people my age are dead. You could look it up."

To his excuse-prone Mets:
"You make your own luck. Some people have bad luck all their lives."