Casey Stengel, the decorated New York Yankees manager, was also the first manager of the expansion New York Mets. He took the reins in 1962, leading a franchise with no real hope of winning through the growing pains of developing a team. Stengel managed the team until the middle of the 1965 season, when an accident at Toot Shor’s Restaurant on July 24th, 1965 resulted in a career-ending broken hip. Stengel had managed a game earlier that day, with the Philadelphia Phillies earning a 5-1 victory over the Mets.

     In all the commotion surrounding Stengel’s untimely injury, Jack Lang, the executive secretary for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, found this lineup card when visiting interim Mets manager Wes Westrum. Lang later presented this lineup card to Stengel in the hospital, who told Lang to keep the memento for himself. The lineup card features Stengel’s signature in black pen. It is matted in a 14 x 19 ½ inch display along with a signed letter of provenance from Lang. Additionally, this item comes with a LOA from Steve Grad of Beckett Authentication (A81843).

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