Through my employer’s digital library, I checked out a copy of “Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character,” a book rich in baseball lore and laughs that I highly recommend.
Author Marty Appel combed through many records and historical sources to pen this biography of “the Ol’ Perfessor.” Stengel was managing the Mets when I was a kid, and I can remember my father laughing about some of his antics and sharing those stories.
The book takes the reader back to Casey’s childhood and teen years in Kansas City, Missouri, as he embarked on a life in baseball, with a short detour into dental school!
The book chronicles Casey’s development as a player and, ultimately, manager, taking the reader through a travelog of minor- and major-league ballparks from coast to coast. Although often considered a clown, he was a fine player. He hit the first home run at Ebbetts Field when it opened in 1913, and that’s just one of the many details that Appel weaves into the book, which has a long stretch on the New York Yankees’ glory years of the 1950s.
The anecdotes about Casey that everyone seems to know are here — doffing his cap and having a bird fly out, the “can’t anybody here play this game?” quote — and scores of other tales in and about Stengelese.
One of the major subplots, if you will, is Casey’s long love affair with his wife, Edna, who met him at a ballgame and accompanied him around the world.
I read the book over several nights and thoroughly enjoyed it. I reckon most baseball fans will, too. ⚾️
The Ball Caps Blog 
Thanks for mentioning the book. Sounds like a great read. I didn’t know about Casey’s detour to dentistry. If he were my dentist, I’d eat more candy in the hopes of having more cavities providing an opportunity to sit in the chair and listen to him talk.