STL All Sports

Casey Stengel was a full-fledged baseball clown in his own right, but the brand of lunacy he found in Brooklyn during his short tenure as manager of the Dodgers almost drove him crazy.

One afternoon, during an important and close game, Frenchy Bordagaray put a damper on a promising Brooklyn rally by being caught off second base despite the fact that he had hardly taken much of a lead. When the player returned to the bench, manager Casey Stengel blew his top as he angrily roared at him:

"What happened? What happened to you, you big dope? Did you fall asleep? I want to know what happened?"

Frenchy Bordagaray, without batting an eyelash, answered: "Gee, Casey, I don't know. There I was, standing on the bag tapping the base with my foot, and I guess they got me between taps."