Forging Genius: The Making Of Casey Stengel

by Steve Goldman

Baseball insiders were stunned when Casey Stengel was named manager of the New York Yankees for 1949. His work managing the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves was long on personality but remarkably short on success. The media thought the Yankees would never be able to compete with the Red Sox or Indians with "that clown" in charge.
The quintessentially resilient Stengel endured bad breaks, learned from them, and emerged stronger for the experience. In trying to win with the star-poor Dodgers and Braves, he learned strategic techniques that would later help him win with the Yankees. Thus Steven Goldman refutes claims that Stengel's Yankees were so talented that any manager could have won with them. Rather, the Yankees required constant rebuilding, and after running two of the game's sad-sack franchises Stengel knew how to cope. Goldman retraces Stengel's baseball education in playing for the great John McGraw, from whom he also learned that success permits no room for nostalgia. Goldman follows Stengel through those formative years with the Dodgers and Braves, his return to the minors, a spat with Bill Veeck, and his success as a businessman away from the diamond, all of which contributed to his Yankees success.

Genres: Baseball

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ray]

The prose is somewhat unusual for baseball history, but if you're familiar with the author's podcast "The Infinite Inning", it won't come as too big a surprise. I've never made such an effort looking up various marsupials while reading a baseball history.

I was somewhat confused as to the direction of the book halfway through as we start with Stengel's ascension to the Yankees in 49 and then backtrack to his humble beginnings in Kansas City (hence the nickname Casey) and his days as a player. But Goldman builds a narrative that explores and implodes the myth of the bumbling buffoon to look deeper into the making of Stengel the manager. The last chapter, capturing Stengel's efforts with a depleted Yankee team in 49, is perfect. Made me want to go back and reread all those lengthy paeans to the Yankee/Dodger/Red Sox rivalry of the 50s all over again.

The book was enhanced by reading it in Goldman's voice (again from his podcast), so start there, listen to a few episodes to catch the dry humor and subtle, cheeky wit, and then enjoy this book. I loved it.