When Casey Stengel passed away in 1975, his body lay in state at a funeral home near his long-time Glendale, California residence. Casey’s long, storied career saw him a member of some of the greatest baseball organizations of all-time - the Giants of John McGraw, Wilbert Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers, the Boston Braves, and of course, the mighty New York Yankees. Yet, when his body was finally put to rest, the great man chose to take only two baseball jerseys with him - one from the 1960 Yankees (the pants of which are also in this auction), and the other from the Mets. Yes, the New York Mets - the team he led to a history-making 40-120 record in 1962.

      Seems that just like millions of other baseball fans, ol’ Casey, too, had a soft spot for the Amazin’ Mets. The jersey was buried with the old manager and the pants were gifted to the caretaker. The gray flannel pants have a single line of Mets blue piping down each leg with two rear pockets with intact plastic buttons. The pants display light to moderate wear with no obvious staining or tears and the 4-button fly retains the original buttons. A Wilson size 40 label is sewn in the waistband along with a grey strip tag with “37-1962” chain stitched in blue. The pants are accompanied by a signed letter of provenance from Sandy Westrup whose mother was Casey’s caretaker at the end of his life. Mrs. Westrup’s mother was willed many of Stengel’s possessions after his passing in 1975. The pants come with an LOA from noted game used jersey expert Dave Miedema for the game use and Sandy Westrup for the provenance.

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