Casey at the Bat

There was no joy on Coogan's Bluff. The fumbling New York Mets, starting their first season in the newly expanded National League, lost their first nine games--tying a National League record for frustration. The $2,500,000 team hit a dismal .225. was better at bat than in the field. For the first time in his illustrious career, crusty Casey Stengel, 71, seemed unable to do anything right. "I start my best pitcher," he complained, "and what happens? Right away they get five runs off him." Somebody told Stengel that a photographer had been assigned to cover the Mets until they won a game. "Do you suppose he'll be with us till June?" asked Casey.

Not quite. The Mets finally won one--then whiffed three more, and Old Case found himself striking out again, this time with Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick. Never a slow man to pick up an extra piece of change, Stengel had been posing for a series of ads in his new Mets uniform. One had him winking at a washing machine; another showed him bunting a baseball and selling beer with Miss Rheingold. That was too much for Frick, who has rules against uniformed ballplayers, even old ones, endorsing alcoholic beverages. He called Stengel on the carpet, added insult to injury by reminding him: "If Casey is going to teach bunting, he should be a little more careful to keep his eye on the ball. It's behind him in the picture."

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