Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
Damn Yankees
Page 114
Ebbets traded him along with George Cutshaw to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Burleigh Grimes, Al Mamaux and Chuck Ward.
The Pirates had been the only National League team to do worse than the Dodgers in 1917, finishing last. Stengel met with the Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss to seek a salary increase, but found Dreyfuss reluctant to deal until Stengel proved himself as a Pirate. On June 3, 1918, Stengel was ejected for arguing with the umpire, and was fined by the league office for taking off his shirt on the field. The US had been fighting in World War I for a year, and Stengel enlisted in the Navy. His wartime
service was playing for and managing the Brooklyn Navy Yard's baseball team, driving in the only run to beat Army, 1–0, before 5,000 spectators at the Polo Grounds. He also occasionally helped paint a ship. He later stated he had guarded the Gowanus Canal, and not a single submarine got into it.
“I had many years that I was not so successful as a ball player, as it is a game of skill.” - Casey Stengel, testifying before a Senate subcommittee, 1958.
The Armistice renewed the conflict between Stengel and Dreyfuss, and the outfielder held out again to begin the 1919 season. Both wanted to see Stengel traded, but no deal was immediately made. By then, Stengel's position as regular right fielder had been