Casey Stengel Quotes

Baseball Almanac is pleased to present an unprecedented collection of baseball related quotations spoken by Casey Stengel and about Casey Stengel.

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"Managing is getting paid for home runs someone else hits." - Casey Stengel in The Sports Hall of Fame Encyclopedia: Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Soccer (Dave Blevins, Scarecrow Press, 12/23/2011, Page 937)

Casey Stengel Quotes

Quotes From & About Casey Stengel | Baseball Quotes | Casey Stengel

"All I ask is that you bust your heiny on that field." Source: Number 1 (Billy Martin)

"Amazing strength, amazing power - he (Ron Swoboda) can grind the dust out of the bat. He will be great, super even wonderful. Now, if he can only learn to catch a fly ball." Source: The Incredible Mets (Maury Allen)

"As great as the other men were on the ball club, there comes a time when you get a weakness and it might be physical."

"Been in this game one-hundred years, but I see new ways to lose 'em I never knew existed before."

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

"Can't anybody here play this game?"

"Don't cut my throat, I may want to do that later myself."

"Don't drink in the hotel bar, that's where I do my drinking." Source: Slick (Whitey Ford)

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

"He (Babe Ruth) was very brave at the plate. You rarely saw him fall away from a pitch. He stayed right in there. No one drove him out." Source: Babe: The Legend Comes to Life (Robert Creamer)

"He'd (Yogi Berra) fall in a sewer and come up with a gold watch." Source: Baseball Digest (August 1972)

"He (Gil Hodges) fields better on one leg than anybody else I got on two." Source: The Incredible Mets (Maury Allen)

"He (Lyndon B. Johnson) wanted to see poverty, so he came to see my team (1964 New York Mets)."

"He (Mickey Mantle) has it in his body to be great."

"He (Mickey Mantle) should lead the league in everything. With his combination of speed and power he should win the triple batting crown every year. In fact, he should do anything he wants to do."

"He (Satchel Paige) threw the ball as far from the bat and as close to the plate as possible."

"He's throwing grounders."

"Hey Heffner, take them down to that other field (St. Petersburg spring training site) and find out if they can play on the road."

"I came in here and a fella asked me to have a drink. I said I don't drink. Then another fella said hear you and Joe DiMaggio aren't speaking and I said I'll take that drink." Source: The Sporting News (July 7, 1955)

"I couldn't done it without my players."

"I don't know if he throws a spitball but he sure spits on the ball."

"I don't like them fellas who drive in two runs and let in three."

"If anyone wants me tell them I'm being embalmed."

"I feel greatly honored to have a ballpark named after me, especially since I've been thrown out of so many."

"If this keeps up (four game winning streak) I'm about to manage until I'm a hundred."

"If we're going to win the pennant, we've got to start thinking we're not as good as we think we are."

"If you're playing baseball and thinking about managing, you're crazy. You'd be better off thinking about being an owner."

"If you're (a soldier who telegrammed his criticism) so smart, let's see you get out of the Army." Source: The Sporting News (September 14, 1955)

"I got players with bad watches - they can't tell midnight from noon." Source: Mets' Scorebook (1976)

"It's high time something was done for the pitchers. They put up the stands and take down fences to make more home runs and plague the pitchers. Let them revive the spitter and help the pitchers make a living."

"It's wonderful to meet so many friends that I didn't used to like."

"I was such a dangerous hitter I even got intentional walks during batting practice."

"Kid (Phil Rizzuto) you're too small. You ought to go out and shine shoes."

"Look at him (Bobby Richardson) - he doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't chew, he doesn't stay out late, and he still can't hit .250."

"Managing is getting paid for home runs someone else hits." Source: The Macmillan Dictionary of Quotations

"(Mickey) Mantle had more ability than any player I ever had on that club."

"Most ball games are lost, not won."

"Mr. that boy couldn't hit the ground if he fell out of an airplane."

"My health is good enough about the shoulders." Source: The Incredible Mets (Maury Allen)

"Nobody ever had too many of them (pitchers)."

"No, even my players aren't players." Source: Associated Press Wire (August 9, 1985)

"(Rogers) Hornsby could run like anything but not like this kid. (Ty) Cobb was the fastest I ever saw for being sensational on the bases..."

"Say, I've got a tip on the market for you fellows (1929 Toledo Mudhens) - buy Pennsylvania Railroad because by tomorrow night about a dozen of you bums will be riding on it..." Source: Boston Herald (April 25, 1990)

"Son, we'd like to keep you around this season but we're going to try and win a pennant."

"That kid can hit balls over buildings."

"The Mets are gonna be amazing." Source: San Francisco Examiner (September 30, 1975)

"There comes a time in every man's life, and I've had plenty of them."

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

"The trouble with women umpires is that I couldn't argue with one. I'd put my arms around her and give her a little kiss." Source: Time Magazine (August 11, 1975)

"The Yankees don't pay me to win every day, just two out of three."

"They got a lot of kids now whose uniforms are so tight, especially the pants, that they cannot bend over to pick up ground balls. And they don't want to bend over in television games because in that way there is no way their face can get on the camera."

"There have been a lot of fast men but none as big and strong as (Mickey) Mantle. He's gonna be around a long time, if he can stay well, that fella of mine."

"They say he's (Yogi Berra) funny. Well, he has a lovely wife and family, a beautiful home, money in the bank, and he plays golf with millionaires. What's funny about that?"

"They say some of my stars drink whiskey, but I have found that ones who drink milkshakes don't win many ball games."

"They told me my services were no longer desired because they wanted to put in a youth program as an advance way of keeping the club going. I'll never make the mistake of being seventy again."

"This club (1969 New York Mets) plays better baseball now. Some of them look fairly alert."

"Wake up muscles we're in New York now."

"We (the Mets) are a much improved ball club, now we lose in extra innings!"

"Well, that's baseball. Rags to riches one day and riches to rags the next. But I've been in it thirty-six years and I'm used to it." Source: The Sporting News (November 3, 1948)

"We've (1962 New York Mets) got to learn to stay out of triple plays."

"What do you (Mickey Mantle) think, I was born old?"

"Why has our pitching been so great? Our catcher (Yogi Berra) that's why. He looks cumbersome but he's quick as a cat." Source: New York Times (April 15, 1981)

"You can't go out to the mound, hobbling and take a pitcher out with a cane." Source: San Francisco Examiner (September 30, 1975)

"You got to get twenty-seven outs to win." Source: You Could Look it Up (Maury Allen)

"You have to go broke three times to learn how to make a living."

"You have to have a catcher, otherwise you will have a lot of passed balls."

"You put the whammy on him, but when he's (Sandy Koufax) pitching, the whammy tends to go on vacation." Source: You Could Look it Up (Maury Allen)

"Casey (Stengel) knew his baseball. He only made it look like he was fooling around. He knew every move that was ever invented and some that we haven't even caught on to yet." - Sparky Anderson

"I don't believe a manager ever won a pennant. Casey Stengel won all those pennants with the Yankees. How many did he win with the Boston Braves and Mets?" - Sparky Anderson

"I'll never forget September 6, 1950. I got a letter threatening me, Hank Bauer, Yogi Berra and Johnny Mize. It said if I showed up in uniform against the Red Sox I'd be shot. I turned the letter over to the FBI and told my manager Casey Stengel about it. You know what Casey (Stengel) did? He gave me a different uniform and gave mine to Billy Martin. Can you imagine that! Guess Casey (Stengel) thought it'd be better if Billy (Martin) got shot." - Phil Rizzuto

"I'm probably the only guy who worked for (Casey) Stengel before and after he was a genius." - Warren Spahn

"It is fashionable to say that successful people, in any field, could have been whatever they wanted, but you could not picture Casey Stengel being anything else but what he was, the greatest showman baseball ever knew." - Mickey Herskowitz in the Houston Post

"I never saw a man who juggled his lineup so much and who played so many hunches so successfully." - Connie Mack

Quotes From & About Casey Stengel
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baseball almanac fast facts

Did you know that Casey Stengel once caught a bird while playing in the outfield of a Major League ballgame?

During the first twelve years as a New York Yankees skipper, 'Case' won ten pennants and seven World Series championships.

The first ever New York Mets manager — IN THEIR ENTIRE HISTORY — was none other than Hall of Famer Casey Stengel.