Evening star., 1960-10-21
WIN, LOSE OR
DRAW J, FRANCE. .r.up
A Ranger for Casey

10 TIE SURPRISE Of nobody Ralph George Houk is
the new manager Of the New York Yankees Actually.
Houk knew was to be Casey Senges successor for
few weeks The Yankees were dumping the fabulous old
man sand long $50 Hcuk was recognized as the heir
rms Is part Of the yankees youth movement" stem
gel e 20 Houk only a. Houk apparently has been Want
ing thg lob he's been Al the wings fo QUITE
few seasons And obviauI he must Reallss what pair
Of shoes he's trying to fli
It Int only that stengeB with 10 pennans and seven
most successful Of all managers The man who takes
stengely place Is tOllowinga rare personality 4
There's never been ganypns quite IKE casey. who
hun1a4ized the Yankees e made them real stripped
them from the facade of cold corporation.
49,
CASEY DANCED AND told Jokes and was wonderfully
entertaining About 90 cent Of the loved the old
guy and In turn this affeconswas transferred to the
public More than Stengel has told this reporter
when move out I'd like to see Al Lopez take my place
The White Sox manager was told Of Caseys sentents
You try to take Stengels place you've got two strikes
and knuckleban coming up" al said +Thank yop no"
Whereupon he signed new contract to pilot the White
Sox for 1861
Houk Is younger and presumably hungrier than Lopez
who seems to own halt Of Tampa, Fa and has option
on the other half Houk is guy who made it big i world
war as Ranger moving up from private to major on
the held Of battle
You pick up medals and decorations for what Houk
did but not $4,000 year. plus $4,000 bonus after IL
years Of service plus World Series cns plus etcetera You
can't blame Houk for wanting little Of what Casey may
have left
4sA@
WHERE HoUK IS going to suffer is by comparison
It's going to be like dun straight following W. c.
F1edssa Presley coming stage sl warm from Caruso
He's nice guy tough and not highly educated but he's
not brilliant funnyman. a.z. IA,
In his own playing days. which weren't so long ago.
he was journeyman, hack. Ralph made the routine
stops Neosho Joplin :. Bnghamton Kansas
City :. Beaumont and finally, New York He wasn't .
bad catcher in fact in other days and another ball
club ne might have seen quite bit of action But there
was always Yogi Berra. ~ y
Actually Houk never rose above third string catcher
There always to be somebody between Berra and
the NO. guy who Houk But the front office tabled
Houk asa potential manager and they sent him to Denver
for 1S55-1S57 for seasoning.
Ralph never finished lower than tie for third place
and he sent up some valuable players
HOUK Is NOT AN effervescent type, at least not in
the SteDgel mold He is darky quiet and non-commtta
and the press guys who used Casey dugout prob
ably will dperse and go to the opposite side for their
deathless quotes.
The pure irony perhaps hypocrisy -. is that
Houk and the Yankees and Stenge knew all during the
dramatic stretch for the pennant and the World Series
that Houk would be the next leader the lubhouses at
New York and Pittsburgh the tough ex-maor would dress
quietly and attempt to leave with no fanfare
But the veteran news guys knew he'd been tapped
The Yankees knew 1t, too. The young Yankees those
who had been at Denver under Houk and those who
hoping to remain on, throwing themselves at Hous
feet.
Stehgel knew what was going ON. You don't kid the
old man. who may have been the best manager baseball
has ever known.