Quote of the Day: Line Up, Everyone!

 

“All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height.” — Casey Stengel

Truth be told, my dad watched a lot of sports when we were growing up, but I don’t recall him electing to watch nearly as many baseball games as football games. That may just be the fuzzy memory of youth, of course – a detail that at the time wasn’t important to note. He did watch baseball mostly so that he could have sports happening somewhere in the vicinity while he read. Baseball was, in his opinion, perfect for reading.

However, I do know that the sense of humor of men like Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel appealed to my dad, and he’d use their quotes frequently accompanied by a big grin as if he told the joke successfully himself. The above Stengel quote was a favorite of his – and Casey Stengel had plenty of good ones – and he’d use that on the kids’ soccer team he coached, eyes twinkling with amusement as grade school soccer players tried to figure out how to work this one out. Eventually, he’d let them off the hook. Eventually. Usually, when he was nearing the point he couldn’t contain the laughter.

I’ll have to admit, I inherited my dad’s sense of humor and appreciation of quotes like the one above. And I may or may not have used it on a Sunday school class I was teaching. By “may or may not” I mean I actually used this quote. I’m certain my eyes twinkled with amusement as the kids tried to work just how they could accomplish this. Eventually, I let them off the hook. Eventually. It was about when I was nearing the point I couldn’t contain the laughter.

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  1. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

     

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

     

    — Casey Stengel

    • #1
  2. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    See that fella over there? He’s 20 years old. In 10 years, he’s got a chance to be a star. Now that fella over there, he’s 20 years old, too. In 10 years he’s got a chance to be 30.

    — Casey

    • #2
  3. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    I heard someone tell this Casey Stengel story.    I have no idea if it’s true.   I hope so….

    Spring training game.    Stengel has some highly touted kid out in center field.   Kid is having an awful day.    Can’t get to lots of balls and dropping ones he does get to.    Stengel has finally had it.    Storms out of the dugout, calls time and makes a bee-line for the kid in the outfield.   Gets out there and grabs the kids glove shouting “Get off the field!    I’ll show you how to play center!”     “Get in the dugout!”

    Kid trots off.  Stengel looks at his pitcher and yells. “What are you looking at?   Pitch!!!”

    Oookaaay.    Everybody shrugs their shoulders and the game goes on.    Pitch or two later the batter hits s line drive right at Stengel.    Toughest play for an outfielder is the ball hit right at you.   Stengel takes a few steps in … realizes his mistake and starts backpedaling furiously.  Ball goes over his head and rolls to the wall.   

    Stengel stops running, takes off the mitt and slams it to the turf.    Glares and points  at the poor kid in the dugout …. “You have center field so screwed up nobody can play it!!!”

    • #3
  4. Mike-K Member
    Mike-K
    @

    Yogi, “i’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia ! They can walk to school like I did !”

    • #4
  5. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    Pitch or two later the batter hits s line drive right at Stengel. Toughest play for an outfielder is the ball hit right at you.

    I used to prefer that, and I was usually pitching or playing short stop.  Hit a line drive at my face and I’ll catch it every time.  No time to do anything but react.  Put me in the outfield with a pop up, where I have five seconds to stand under it waiting for it to get there, and I’ll drop it every time.

    • #5
  6. Vectorman Inactive
    Vectorman
    @Vectorman

    This conversation is an entry in our Quote of the Day Series. We have only one opening left on the April Schedule, and many openings on the May Schedule.

    If this reminds you of a quotation that is important to you, why not sign up today?

    • #6
  7. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    ‘I never said half the things I said’.      — Which is actually true because a lot of them came from sportswriters pens.

    • #7
  8. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    An excerpt of Casey Stengel’s testimony before the Senate Monopoly and Anti-Trust subcommittee, July 8, 1958:

    I had many years that I was not so successful as a ballplayer, as it is a game of skill, And then I was no doubt discharged by baseball, in which I had to go back to the minor leagues as a manager. I became a major league manager in several cities and was discharged. We call it discharged because there was no question I had to leave.

    Mickey Mantle’s subsequent testimony on the same day:

    My views are just about the same as Casey’s.

    • #8
  9. Quake Voter Inactive
    Quake Voter
    @QuakeVoter

    C. U. Douglas: “All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height.” — Casey Stengel

    It’s actually a fun party trick.  Give it a try.  Have to make it sound spontaneous, like all good party tricks.

    Five foot eleven … five foot one … four foot nine …  six foot nine … 

    More fun later in the evening.

    • #9
  10. Tutti Inactive
    Tutti
    @Tutti

    I believe Casey said, during a particularly brutal spring training workout for the inaugural season of the NY Mets, walked out onto the field and asked, “Can anyone here play this game?” 

    • #10
  11. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    Tutti (View Comment):

    I believe Casey said, during a particularly brutal spring training workout for the inaugural season of the NY Mets, walked out onto the field and asked, “Can anyone here play this game?”

    That was the ‘62 Mets.    And the answer was “No”.  They went 40-120.

     

    • #11
  12. Tutti Inactive
    Tutti
    @Tutti

    Ekosj (View Comment):

    That was the ‘62 Mets. And the answer was “No”. They went 40-120.

     

    My dad was a huge Dodgers (and then Giants) fan and for him, baseball didn’t exist in the years between the Giants exodus and the beginning of the Amazin’ Mets. I’m not certain about the figures but I think the ’62 Mets came close to having greater attendance than the Yankees, who won the World Series that year. 

    • #12
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