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Some vintage Stengelese:

Blanchard! Do you see them white lines? Do you know what them lines are for? They are there to hit the ball on. An' those other ballplayers are all out there in the middle, they are called fielders. - To Jim Marshall, a Mets first baseman, before he stood in to hit. (Stengel often confused Marshall, a stocky lefthanded hitter, with lefthanded hitting reserve catcher/pinch hitter extraordinaire Johnny Blanchard, whom Stengel had managed in his final Yankee season.)

Do you know they are going to tear this joint down year after next? Well, you keep pitching low like that to that fella and you'll give them a head start on the right field seats. - To Met pitcher Roger Craig, after Craig surrendered a second homer of the game to San Francisco Giants strongman Willie McCovey.

Now, go out there and pretend you're pitching against Harvard. - To Met pitcher Ken MacKenzie, a Yale graduate.

And in left field, in left field we have a splendid man, and he knows how to do it. He's been around and he swings the bat there in left field and he knows what to do, and he's got a big family and he wants to provide for them, and he's a fine outstanding player, the fella in left field, and you can be sure he'll be ready when the bell rings and that's his name - Bell! - Presenting his opening day starting lineup to a reporter and struggling to remember the name of left fielder Gus Bell.

Viva la France! - To Danny Napoleon, a rookie outfielder, after Napoleon got a game-winning hit for the Mets in 1965. (This is the same Danny Napoleon, by the way, whom Curt Flood immortalised: He'd be ugly even if he was white.)

You tell the Youth of America, "Here is the opportunity." And the Youth of America says, "Where is the money?" - On his frustration over the early Mets' inability to convince more younger prospects to cast their lot with the Mets.

I got a lot of keys to a lot of cities. But this one I'm gonna use to open up a new team. - Upon receiving the key to the city in New York.

Here's a question for you: Which one of you clowns thinks he'll still be here tomorrow? - On catching some of his Yankee players playing "20 Questions" on the team train after a mistake-laden loss, 1950.

Just let me stay here five minutes. This is the only chance I'll get to spend some time with this guy without him busting up a ball game on me. - On visiting a traveling version of Madame Tussaud's famed wax museum, and coming upon a wax likeness of Stan Musial, in early 1963.

You can forget that other fella. You can forget Waddell. The Jewish kid is the best of any of them. - On Sandy Koufax. ("That other fella" is believed to have referred to Walter Johnson.)

Boy never saw concrete before. He thinks I was born sixty and started managin' right away. They never think we did anything before we done it. - After laughing hysterically when, trying to show a very young Mickey Mantle how to handle Ebbets Field's famous angled right field wall in a World Series against the Dodgers, he told Mantle, "Now, when I played here-" and Mantle cut him off laughing uncontrollably, before blurting out, "You played here?"

Get your runs now - Father Time is coming! - To his Yankee players, in the early innings of a game against the St. Louis Browns, after he spotted Satchel Paige warming up in the bullpen. (Paige's few seasons in the majors saw him working predominantly as an effective - and entertaining - relief pitcher. Stengel, who liked and admired Paige, was always amused at the speculation surrounding Paige's actual age.)

So there's too many of them? Goddammit, give me an All Star lineup of nine of 'em and let me manage. - On blacks in the majors, mid-1950s.

If I'm gonna get buggered, I don't want an amateur holding the Vaseline pot. - Warding off a second umpire while arguing with a first, mid-1950s.

Robi'son was a great player in his time. But now everybody knows he's Chock Full O'Nuts. - Responding to criticism by Jackie Robinson, who worked for the Chock Full O'Nuts coffee company his first few years out of baseball.