Baseball: Exit the Genius-Clown

The face that launched a thousand jokes was frozen grey and grim. The voice that frustrated generations of newsmen and an antitrust subcommittee of the U.S. Senate was curiously grammatical as Charles Dillon ("Casey") Stengel, 75, announced last week that he was retiring as manager of the New York Mets. "At the present time," explained Casey, leaning heavily on a cane, "I am not capable of walking out on the ballfield. If I can't run out there and take a pitcher out, I don't want to complete my service."

Ever since he broke in as a bandy legged minor-league outfielder...

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