The Strange Death of Len Koenecke

[Buythatcard]

Originally Posted by jerseygary

Thanks Buythatcard. The more research I did on that story and others that include a pre-Yankees Stengel really deviates from the "ol perfesser" kindly old and wise manager persona he gets credited with.

When he was with the Dodgers and other teams in the 30s he was not at all about helping bring up younger players, just concentrating on veterans who didn't need any work from him. When he won games he took all the credit, and when he lost, like his Dodgers and Bees teams did in the 30s, he blamed select players while trying to win favor with the beat writers by being a clown. Billy Werber wrote about his time playing for him in Toledo and really goes out of his way to discredit him for the way he treated the younger players.

Maybe if Stengel wasn't manager of the Dodgers Koenecke would have lasted a bit longer, but as it was he was already up there in baseball age. Still...

Gary,
Where can I find the story of the pre-Yankees Stengel. You got me hooked on reading your stories.