Stengelese in Action

With a Congressional committee soliciting testimony from baseball players, the time seems right to mention when Casey Stengel addressed Congress -- not about steroids, but on the perennial issue of baseball's antitrust exemption. On July 8, 195, ol' Casey told the Senate Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee:

Well, I started in professional ball in 1910. I have been in professional ball, I would say, for forty-eight years. I have been employed by numerous ball clubs in the majors and in the minor leagues. I started in the minor leagues with Kansas City. I played as low as class D ball, which was at Shelbyville, Ky., and also class C ball, and class A ball, and I have advanced in baseball as a ballplayer.

I had many years that I was not so successful as a ballplayer, as it is a game of skill. And then I was no doubt discharged by baseball in which I had to go back to the minor leagues as a manager, and after being in the minor leagues as a manager, I became a major league manager in several cities and was discharged, we call it "discharged," because there is no question I had to leave. (Laughter). And I returned to the minor leagues at Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Oakland, Calif., and then returned to the major leagues.

and so on. You can get the entire transcript from Baseball Almanac at:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/
casey_stengel_senate_testimony.shtml