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» = ■ Stengel Wears Crushed Look Every Time His Yankees Lose Losey Just aits ana moans As He Forecasts Impending Doom to All Who Will Listen By MILTON RICHMAN United Press Sports Writer NEW YORK, N. Y., June 27.— Each time the Yankees drop a ball game, Casey Stengel wears the crushed look of a rejected suitor and moans more than a millionaire who has just lost a buck and a half. Step into the Yankee clubhouse after the world champions lose an occasional ball game and youd think it was a morgue. Stengel sits dejectedly on a green cot in his private room and sadly forecasts im pending doom. "We aint playing good at all," he mutters, shaking his head ominously. "I dont know whats got into us. The big guy aint been hitting like he should, the other guy made two bad plays in the field today and the little guy looks like he needs a rest." "But you still have a big lead," someone will remind him quickly. "It dont mean at thing," Stengel snaps back. "We could blow it in less than two weeks. Look at Brooklyn in 1951. They had a bigger lead than we have and lost, didnt they?" Fears Are Subject to Change To hear Stengel talk, its still an eight-team race in the American league. His immediate fears always are subject to change on short notice, depending on which team his Yankees are facing tomorrow. Rather than look on the brighter side, the victory-accustomed Yankee manager prefers to dote on the gloomyv side. "Look at those Chicagos," he says. "Look how theyre beating us. And to think everybody is counting em out already. They could beat us. I mean it." Those who listen to Stengel have heard the same sad refrain for the past four years and when Casey suspects he is losing his audience, hell sigh deeply, close his eyes in weariness and then ask in a low, beaten voice: "Has anyone got a cigarette?" Actually, the Yankee players do not grow alarmed -half as quickly as Stengel and that bothers Casey no little. "Sure," he snaps sometimes, waving his hand toward where the players are dressing, "they think they got the pennant locked up already, but theyre gonna find out differently in a hurry." Even rival American League managers know of Stengels tendency to cry wolf but they pay little or no attention to it. Once, when Paul Richards of the White Sox was informed that Casey was worrying about the doubleheaders that were piling up for the Yankees in July and August, Richards observed: "Does he know that the other seven clubs have to play just as many doubleheaders?" Another time, Stengel was concerned about the condition of his pitching staff and the information was learned by manager Marty Marion of the Browns. "Tell Casey," Marion said to a writer, "Ill glady trade problems with him." _ "Even up?" Marion was asked. "Heck no," he replied. "Ill even throw ina little cash."
