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"I put that fella* [Bob Cerv] in left and he can't field now, somebody else would use him maybe, but I can't. So I wait, and then my big fella [Mickey Mantle] gets hurt because he's goin' at half-speed and he's got to bunt once in a while because he can't always swing from his heels. Especially when he hits the ball to either side of the other fella [the opposing pitcher] he's sure to get on because nobody can catch him. But he [Cerv] wants to hit now and I give him his chance to play center and he does me a good job because he's a strong fella. But some fellas don't know about getting a bat with a thick handle like that Chicago fella [Nellie Fox] does. He knows when you get it on the fists your muscle ain't worth a damn. But do you think these fellas understand that?"
I Play the Percentages. "All my fellas came through. You take this fella who pitches left-handed [Tommy Byrne]. Why, he deserves the comeback of the year. No, make it that other one on second that I moved to third, but he can play anything. McDougald, I mean.
"The other fella [Billy Martin] comes out of the Army but he don't look at big-league pitching and I put him at short, but the Little Old Man [Phil Rizzuto] comes up with a good job for me and I shift the second baseman [McDougald] to third and put the Army guy [Martin] where he belongs, on second with the Old Man [Rizzuto] back on short and we click pretty good.
"Another fella deserves credit and where would I be without him? Phew! He can give me a job in the outfield and he can catch, too [Elston Howard, first Negro ever to play with the Yankees]. Good kid, too, if they leave him alone and stop fighting the Civil War all over and they almost ruined him. He's good.
"That fella on first, he gives me the big pinch-hit with 16 home runs in his first 32 hits [of his three first basemen. Casey is now talking about Ed Robinson]. So they say he won't be an outfielder [now, Joe Collins], but I'm not afraid to stick him in the outfield in the '53 series, and phew! What do they say in Brooklyn about me using a first baseman in the outfield? But he does me a good job.
"I've got to say something for that other fella in right [Hank Bauer]. I even used him as a catcher and I gamble and I lose [here Casey remembers a game with the White Sox when Berra.
Silvera and Howard, all his catchers, were gone and he had to call on Bauer]. But the fella hustles all the time.
"I think that the biggest reason this club has stayed in the fight is because of Mickey Mantle, who showed tremendous improvement this year and came nearer to fulfilling his potential than ever before.
"I don't know when I'm going to get a well-pitched game out of any of my fellas. In the beginning, it was an old fella [Jim Konstanty, ineligible for the Series] and a kid [Johnny Kucks] hold ing me up. So I had to send the old fella [Konstanty] down to the minors, but he comes back with the proper attitude.