Friday, July 30, 2010

Quote of the Day (Jack Rohan, on Casey Stengel)


''The worst thing you can do is think you're important. Outside of Casey Stengel, how many individuals are important in this world?''—Longtime Columbia University basketball coach (and onetime college baseball player) Jack Rohan, quoted in Frank Litsky, “Jack Rohan, 72, Coach of Columbia Basketball,” The New York Times, September 11, 2004

The influence of Casey Stengel—born on this date in 1890 in Kansas City, Mo.—extended beyond his glory years as Yankee manager from 1949 to 1960. Earlier this week, The New York Times profiled Hall of Fame inductee Whitey Herzog, who recounted how, when he was a minor leaguer with in the Yankees’ farm system, Stengel must have “walked me down the third-base line 75 times a day teaching me that good base running boils down to anticipation and knowledge of the defense.” Herzog would apply such lessons years later as the Mets’ third-base coach, as well as during his stints managing the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals.

(Incidentally, besides Stengel or Herzog, the same article mentions another astute baseball mind of a different kind: my friend Jon Springer, of the superb “Mets by the Numbers” blog (and book by the same name).

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