Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Player and Manager. He is best remembered for his successful baseball career, as well as his keen sense of humor, and is considered by many to be one of baseball's greatest ambassadors. A left-handed batter and thrower, he played the outfield for the National League teams Brooklyn Dodgers (1912 to 1917), Pittsburgh Pirates (1918 to 1919), Philadelphia Phillies (1920 and part of 1921), New York Giants (1921 to 1923), and the Boston Braves (1924 to 1925). During this time, he played in three World Series; 1916 for the Dodgers and in 1922 and 1923 for the Giants. Born Charles Dillon Stengel in Kansas City, Missouri, he was athletically-inclined and played sports in grade and high school. In 1910, he played minor league baseball and saved the money that he earned to train for dentistry. Because he was left-handed, he had difficulty using dental instruments and he struggled with his training, and he decided to pursue a career in baseball. He was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1912 and spent most of that year with their minor league affiliate in Montgomery, Alabama, where he batted .290 and had a good reputation as a base stealer. He was called up by the Dodgers in September. After his major league career began, he acquired the nickname "Casey." The name originally came from the initials of his hometown ("K. C.") and it evolved into "Casey," influenced by the wide popularity of the poem "Casey at the Bat." In 1914, he became the baseball coach for the University of Mississippi at Oxford, Mississippi, for a year, where he earned the nickname "The Old Professor." In 1925, he left professional baseball as a player and became the player-manager and team president of the minor league Worcester Panthers of the Eastern League. The following year, the Panthers were slated to move to Providence, Rhode Island. However, John McGraw wanted him to take over as manager of their top affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. He was still under contract to the Boston Braves and, to solve this problem, he fired himself as manager, released himself as a player, and resigned as President. Braves owner Emil Fuchs briefly protested, but relented and allowed him move to Toledo. In his second year, he led a roster loaded with former major-leaguers to Toledo's first-ever American Association Pennant. However, his tenure was short-lived as the Mud Hens went bankrupt in 1931, and he was out of a job. He then returned to the Dodgers as a coach under one of his former Pirate teammates, Max Carey. When Carey was fired shortly before the 1934 season, Stengel was named his successor. As manager of the Dodgers (1934 through 1936) and Boston Braves (1938 through 1943), he never finished better than fifth in an eight-team league. In 1944, he was hired as the manager of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers and led them to the American Association Pennant that year. In 1948, he managed the Oakland Oaks to the Pacific Coast League Championship. This caught the attention of the New York Yankees, who were looking for a new manager. He was hired as manager of the Yankees for the start of the 1949 season. With the Yankees, he won record numbers of championships, becoming became the only person to manage a team to five consecutive World Series championships (1949 to 1953). After the streak ended with the Yankees failing to win the American League Pennant in 1954, he and the Yankees continued their dominance, going on to win two more World Championships (1956 and 1958), and five more American League Pennants (1955 through 1958, and 1960). As the Yankees manager, he gained a reputation as one of the game's sharpest tacticians: he platooned left and right-handed hitters extensively and was keen to bring in situational pitchers. After losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1960 World Series, he was involuntarily retired from the Yankees, because he was believed to be too old to manage. In 1962, he became the manager of the new National League expansion team, the New York Mets, and they would finish last in all four years managed by him. On August 30, 1965, he announced his retirement from the Mets, a month after he broke his hip while falling off of a bar stool. During his managerial career, he won 1,905 games and lost 1,842, and played or managed on eight World Series Championship teams. As a player, in 1,277 games, he had a career batting average of .284 with 575 runs scored, 1,219 hits, 60 home runs, and 535 runs batted in. In 1966, he was inducted into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame. He died of cancer in Glendale, California, at the age of 85. Between playing and managing, he is the only man to have worn four of New York's Major League clubs' uniforms. His uniform number 37 has been retired by both the Yankees and the Mets and it is the only number ever to have been issued only once by the Mets. On July 30, 1976, a plaque was dedicated in his honor at Yankee Stadium's Monument Park and, in 1981, he was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame.