Casey Stengel

From The Met Wiki

Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel (nicknamed the Old Perfesser) was the first manager ever for the Mets. He served as the team’s skipper from their inaugural 1962 season until 1965. With the Mets, Stengel led the team to 175 wins and became the club’s most recognized personality. He is the only man to wear the uniforms of all four New York City-based major league teams.

Stengel had a 14-year career as a major league player. He collected 1219 hits (including 60 home runs) and 535 runs batted in between 1912 and 1925. Casey played in the World Series with the Brooklyn Robins (1916) and New York Giants (1922 and 1923.) He batted .393 with two homers and four RBIs in 12 Series games.

After serving as a minor league manager in Worcester (MA) and Toledo (OH), Stengel joined the Dodgers’ coaching staff in 1932. Two years later, he began a three-year stint as manager for the Brooklyn team. Casey managed the Boston Braves from 1938 to 1943. He followed up with five more seasons as a minor league skipper. Stengel then led the Yankees to ten pennants and seven World Championships between 1949 and 1960.

Playing their home games at the Polo Grounds over their first two seasons, the Mets recorded a total of 91 wins under Stengel. The team had a 53-109 record with Casey at the helm in its first year at Shea Stadium in 1964. On April 24, 1965, the Mets chalked up a 7-6 victory at San Francisco to give Stengel his 3,000th win as a manager in professional baseball. Later in the ’65 season, he suffered a hip injury in a fall that forced him to step down as Mets’ manager.

In 1966, Stengel was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He also began a 10-year period as Vice President of the Mets. Casey passed away on September 29, 1975. He was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1981.