“A lot of people my age are dead”
Former New York Yankees baseball manager Casey Stengel (1890-1975) was the league’s oldest manager when he took that position on the expansion New York Mets. For Stengel’s 74th birthday (on July 20, 1964), New York (NY) Daily News sportswriter Dick Young asked Stengel if he wanted to coach the Mets for a fourth season. Stengel angrily replied:
“How do I know where I’ll be next year? A lot of people my age are dead.”
The quote is frequently cited as, “A lot of people my age are dead at the present time.”
Wikipedia: Casey Stengel
Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel (/ˈstɛŋɡəl/; July 30, 1890 – September 29, 1975), nicknamed “The Old Perfessor”, was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.
Stengel was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and originally nicknamed “Dutch”, a common nickname at that time for Americans of German ancestry. After his major league career began, he acquired the nickname “Casey”, which originally came from the initials of his hometown (“K. C.”), which evolved into “Casey”, influenced by the wide popularity of the poem Casey at the Bat. In the 1950s, sportswriters dubbed him with yet another nickname, “The Old Professor” (or “Perfessor”), for his sharp wit and his ability to talk at length on anything baseball-related.
30 July 1964, Omaha (NE) World-Herald, “‘Young’ Manager Stengel Observes Birthday No. 74” by Dick Young (New York News Service), pg. 25, col. 2:
If Casey Stengel is beating the game it’s the only thing he’s beating, because he is manager of the New York Mets and has been for three seasons now. Ask him does he want to try for four, and he shouts at you.
“How do I know where I’ll be next year? A lot of people my age are dead.”
27 July 1965, Rockford (IL) Register-Republic, “Rumors Fly During Summer of Discontent” by Tommy Holmes, pg. B4, col. 1:
NEW YORK—“You gotta remember,” said Casey Stengel a while ago, “that a lot of people my age are dead.”
Google News Archive
9 March 1966, Daily Item (Sumter, SC), “Casey Stengel Goes Into Hall Of Fame” by Jack Hand (Associated Press Sports Writer), pg. 10-A, col. 2:
For years Casey has been saying, “You gotta remember that a lot of people my age are dead.”
Google Books
New York Mets
By Mollie Martin
Mankato, MN: Creative Education
1982
Pg. 12:
Though his age was a factor (“A lot of people my age are dead at the present time,” he once laughed), Stengel was a baseball genius.
Google Books
The Yale Book of Quotations
Edited by Fred R. Shapiro
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
2006
Pg. 730:
Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel
U.S, baseball manager, ca. 1890-1975
A lot of people my age are dead at the present time.
Quoted in Leo Rosten, People I Have Loved, Known, or Admired (1970). Paul Dickson, in Baseball’s Greatest Quotations, credits this to Stengel “on being asked by a reporter what people ‘your age’ thought of modern-day ballplayers or, depending on the source, being asked about his future. It appears to date from the spring of 1965.”
Twitter
Hugh Cook
@HughCook_ca
Casey Stengel, NY Yankees manager: “A lot of people my age are dead at the present time.”
2:03 PM - 17 Sep 2015