The Day Casey Stengel Humiliated Joe DiMaggio, July 7, 1951!

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The Day Casey Stengel Humiliated Joe DiMaggio, July 7, 1951!

…And no gets away with that!

When Casey Stengel took over as Yankee manager in 1949, Joe DiMaggio was in the decline of his great career. His skills had definitely eroded. The always-observant Stengel noticed…and had no choice but to react to what he saw.

Talk about differing personalities! A known loner who kept to himself, Joe would often deflect attention away from himself. Casey, always the clown, never stopped talking – and loved being the center of attention.  

As the 1949 season wore on, situation between the two Yankee icons quickly deteriorated. In July, 1950, Stengel asked Joe to play first base. The always-proud DiMaggio was worried sick over the demotion. According to teammate Tommy Henrich, “Joe’s afraid of making a dumb play because he’s not familiar with first base. It would have killed him to make a stupid play.” 

And sure enough, the old baseball adage was fulfilled: “The ball will always find you!” In one game the great DiMaggio fell while fielding a ground ball. To add insult to injury, there were pictures in the newspapers the next day. Needless to say, Joe did a slow burn…and blamed Stengel for the humiliation. 

Then, in August Joe fell into a slump, and Casey benched him for a week. When he finally returned to the order, Casey moved him out of his customary fourth slot, the one he had occupied since Lou Gehrig retired.

But the most humiliating move of all occurred on July 7, 1951, 67 years ago this week at Fenway Park. Casey had the audacity to remove the great Yankee Clipper in the middle of a game! Here’s an account of what happened:

“In the second inning, Stengel asked reserve first outfielder Johnny Hopp to trot out to DiMaggio in center field. Hopp did not have a glove. Hopp spoke to DiMaggio, who stood still for several moments before jogging off the field. Rookie Jackie Jensen took over as the center fielder.”

Casey later explained his controversial move: “Joe hasn’t been hitting and hasn’t been playing good ball. He has a sore leg and the rest will help him.’”

Needless to say, the move did not sit well with DiMaggio. When asked about it the next day, the still-seething DiMaggio tersely replied: “You’d better talk to Stengel about that…”

Later, after DiMaggio had cooled off, he attempted to defuse the situation, saying that he had pulled a leg muscle. “I didn’t want to take a chance on hurting it anymore, so I got out.” The injury was confirmed by trainer Gus Mauch.

It’s not know if DiMaggio held a grudge against Stengel for the incident. By all accounts, the feud between the two Yankee Hall-of-Famers had cooled sometime after Joe retired. As you can see from the photos in the gallery, they seemed, at least on the surface, to have let bygones-be-bygones.

But one does not easily humiliate the great Joe DiMaggio!

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from article on Joe DiMaggio and Casey Stengel by Harold Friend.

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