Casey At The Bench

There are Casey stories that Bob miller, a Mets relief pitcher, loves to tell. That first year, 1962,  Casey Stengel--- who in his day was a much better ball player than a lot of people remember---was the Mets manager. Of course, he had been a great manager and had won all those championships with the Yankees.

But at the end of his career, he was, in a sense a benchwarmer, because he ended up managing the New York Mets from the seat of his pants. And it was his habit, while his lackluster team was getting shellacked, to snooze there on the Mets’ bench.

Bob Miller: One day he was awakened by a roar of the crowd when one of his pitchers gave up a home run. Casey jumps up off the bench, grabs the bull pen phone and tells his pen coach to get Miller up. Now, the pen coach says. “We’ve got two Millers in the pen.” So, Casey says “Get Bob Miller up.” And the bullpen coach says, “Casey, we’ve got two Bob Millers, lefty Bob and Righty Bob”.

And Stengel says, “Surprise me!” and goes back to his bench to finish his nap.