“Can’t anybody play this here game?” was the cry of New York Mets’ manager Casey Stengel during the time when this 1963 Topps baseball card was issued. In 1962 when the National League placed an expansion team, the Mets, in New York, Stengel was talked out of retirement to manage the team and give it instant credibility. The Mets were one of the worst major league teams of all time in their early years, however, and Stengel kept the mood of the press on the lighter side with some of his quotes during those years. Once describing his 2 first basemen, Ed Kranepool and Greg Goosen, Stengel said “See that guy over there? He’s 20 years old and in 10 years he has a chance to be a star. See that other guy? He’s 20 also and in 10 years he has a chance to be 30”. Stengel, despite the clowning around with the Mets, was a baseball icon. His baseball career as a player and manager lasted from 1912 until 1965, and his number has been retired by both the Yankees and Mets franchises. He played on a World Series champion team with the New York Giants in 1922 and managed 7 Series winning teams with the Yankees, including a record 5 in a row from 1949 to 1953. Stengel was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.