Verdugo Views: Upcoming program to highlight Casey Stengel

Baseball great Casey Stengel was one of a kind: the only person to play or manage for all the New York teams — the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, and Mets — and the first to manage both of the latter.

New York Times writer Marty Appel, author of “Casey Stengel, Baseball’s Greatest Character,” will discuss this larger-than-life man at 7 p.m. next Wednesday at the Glendale Central Library, 222 E. Harvard St.

Stengel and his wife, Edna Lawson Stengel, made their offseason home in Glendale and there are many who remember them, including their great nephew — and his namesake — Casey Mollett.

“My maternal grandmother, Mae Lawson Hunter, was his wife’s sister,’’ Mollett wrote in an email. Mollett was born in 1950 to Margaret and Byron Mollett, grew up in Glendale and graduated from Hoover High in 1968.

The young Mollett spent a lot of time at the Stengel home on Grandview Avenue in northwest Glendale.

He said that the Glendale News-Press did an article about his great uncle after he returned from a World Series.

“The local high school was playing for him in his backyard. In that article, there is a picture of me as a toddler,” he wrote.

Mollett added that he was too young to remember anything about it, but that it was in either 1950 or 1951. I turned to Wikipedia for help, only to discover that the Yankees won the pennant both of those years.

In a series of emails, Mollett shared memories of playing in the Stengel’s backyard.

“I spent a lot of time swimming in the pool and playing catch. There was a Sports Illustrated article in the early 1960s that has pictures of me playing catch with him. Also, there was a pitching machine in the tennis court, which I tried to use when I played Little League,” Mollett wrote.

As a young boy, Mollett went to a few Yankee games here in Los Angeles.

One night stands out in his mind — a tribute to Roy Campanella at the Coliseum.

“I was there with my family and Aunt Edna. We were in the seats that are provided to the players’ families. The lights were dimmed, and everyone lit candles when he was wheeled out in his wheelchair,” Mollett wrote.

This was in May 1959, when the Yankees came to L.A. for an exhibition game with the Dodgers. The attendance was a record-setting 93,103, and proceeds helped defray Campanella’s medical bills, according to Wikipedia.

Mollett recalled that after the game, they went to the airport to bid the Yankees farewell.

“That is where I meet Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris,” he wrote.

He also went to several Met games at Dodger Stadium with his Aunt Edna. But, he said, he never made it to New York to watch his great uncle in action on his home turf.

“Casey Stengel was, for an astonishing five decades, the undisputed, hilarious and beloved face of baseball,’’ according to the Friends of the Glendale Library website.

He played with — and against — a Who’s Who of Cooperstown: Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson and Ty Cobb; forming indelible, and sometimes complicated, relationships with Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin.

Archival and historic photos spanning Casey Stengel’s baseball career will be on display at the library, and many of Stengel’s extended family will be in attendance at the event.

A “Stengel Wall,” with three display panels telling the story of Stengel’s baseball career and his life in Glendale, will be on display at the Central Library Tuesday through next Wednesday.

This event is the only one of its kind in the area, said Robert Gordon, president of the Friends of the Glendale Public Library.

“Appel is coming specifically because of the Stengel family’s ties to Glendale. He will be in the area for several days and will tour Stengel landmarks, including the former family home on Grandview, Stengel Field and Casey Stengel’s grave site at Forest Lawn,” he added.

The event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Glendale Library, the Glendale Library Foundation and the Casey Stengel Foundation.

For more information, visit friendsofglendalepubliclibrary.org.

KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o Glendale News-Press, 202 W. First St., Second Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.