Today is the birthday of one of the most fascinating characters in the history of the game, Casey Stengel, who was born 119 years ago. For half a century, the man delighted baseball fans and sportswriters with his subversive nature, an assortment of pranks, and his colorful though butchered take of the English language.

It was a mere 60 years ago that the eccentric and clownish Stengel took over as manager of the New York Yankees. His appointment was a surprise choice by Yankees architect and GM George Weiss, who epitomized the staid personality of an organization that was expected to win every season.

After a disappointing third-place finish by the Yankees in 1948, Stengel was seen by many as an interim option at a time the Yankees might not have the goods for a year or two. After all, he had never managed a big league team to a first-division finish in nine years at the helm of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves. In the short term, though, Stengel’s entertaining and captivating personality could deflect negative attention from a retooling baseball team.

To Weiss’ credit, however, he recognized that his new manager was a committed baseball man, a fine teacher who demonstrated a rapid-fire ability to execute smart baseball decisions on the field. Those qualities weren’t evident when Stengel spoke at the press conference to announce his hiring. “This is a big job, fellows, and I barely have had time to study it,” the Old Perfessor said in his trademark Stengelese. “In fact, I scarcely know where I am at.”

Of course, Stengel had more than an inclination of where he was at. In 12 seasons at the helm of the Yankees, Stengel failed to lead his club to the AL pennant only twice -- in 1954 and 1959, when Al Lopez skippered the Indians and White Sox, respectively, to World Series berths.

Stengel was at his best in 1949, when he maneuvered the Yankees through an astounding 71 injuries en route to 97 wins. The most noteworthy was a serious heel injury that sidelined New York’s best player, Joe DiMaggio, for the first 65 games of the season. Still, the Yankees claimed the AL championship by a single game over the Red Sox, who they beat on the final day to set up a Yankees-Giants World Series in New York City.

It was the first of five straight AL flags for the team in the Bronx, and each was punctuated by the Yankees celebrating the last out of the World Series. No manager in major league history had piloted his team to five straight world championships, until Stengel did it in his first five summers with New York.

His success as a manager astounded nearly everyone. As a player, Stengel was mostly known for his antics and irreverence, often directed at team management. In his years with the Brooklyn Robins during the dead-ball era, Stengel once returned an unsigned contract to owner Charles Ebbets, with a “Dear Charley” letter that concluded he must have been mistakenly sent a contract intended for the clubhouse go-fer who kept track of the team’s bats.

There seem to be far more recorded accounts of Stengel’s pranks than his success on the field. You seldom read about his two game-winning home runs for the New York Giants in the 1923 World Series. One was an inside-the-park job in the ninth inning at cavernous Yankee Stadium, good for a 5-4 Giants victory in Game 1. Stengel was 5-for-12 in the Series, but the Giants won only the two games in which he provided the winning margin.

More famous are stories of Stengel amusing fans by catching flyballs behind his back, taking batting practice with his uniform on backwards as a Phillie in 1920, and popping out of a manhole in the outfield to catch a flyball.

In a spring training game as a minor leaguer in 1912, Stengel discovered a manhole cover in center field. He climbed into the shallow hole beneath it between batters at one point of the game, and peered out from under the cover to see players and fans bewildered by his absence when a high fly came his way. Then he delightfully made his appearance in time to record the out with a one-handed catch.

Perhaps the most widely known and funniest antic by Stengel took place on his first trip to Brooklyn after his beloved Robins had dealt him to Pittsburgh during the 1919 season. Robert W. Creamer, the author of Stengel: His Life and Times, gives a vivid account of his return. He tells how Stengel, the Pirates’ right fielder, spent a few half-innings in the Brooklyn bullpen near the right-field wall, which was an Ebbets Field tradition for National League right fielders when they didn’t expect to bat in an inning. During one of his stays there, Stengel discovered that Brooklyn pitcher and former roommate Leon Cadore had caught a sparrow.

Here’s Creamer’s account of what went down:

“Let me have it,” Casey said impulsively, the germ of an idea forming in his mind. He covered the sparrow with his cap and carried it into the dugout. Just before he went out to bat he put the bird on his head under his cap. The crowd greeted him with mock applause and a round of good-natured boos. Casey turned toward the stands, bowed and lifted his cap, and there was the sparrow, which immediately fluttered away. The crowd howled, and even the plate umpire, Cy Rigler, joined in the laughter.

Nearly 40 years later in the fall of 1960, two days after Pirates second sacker Bill Mazeroski hit the Game 7 home run that gave Pittsburgh the upset win in the World Series, Stengel was forced out as the Yankees skipper to make room for highly regarded managerial candidate Ralph Houk. Yankees co-owner Dan Topping cited Stengel’s age as the reason for his release, to which Casey replied bitterly, “I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 again.”

Stengel departed the Bronx with seven World Series titles in 12 seasons. Weiss was cut loose a short time later, and both surfaced in Flushing with the new expansion team in New York in 1962. Once again Stengel had a classic response to being hired by a New York club.

“It’s great to be back in the Polar Grounds again with the New York Knickerbockers,” Stengel quipped as the first skipper of the lovable losers known as the Mets. This was the situation where a franchise needed a manager to deflect attention away from poor performance, and Stengel did it artfully as his team lost 120 games in its inaugural season. He became the face of the franchise in its earliest days, and won over hearts and minds.

It’s also during this time that Stengel asked the burning question that lingered in Flushing throughout most of the 1960s: “Can’t anybody here play this game?” Not very well, but Stengel skillfully distracted the press from the frustration on the field.

A broken hip in 1965 forced Stengel to retire from baseball, a week shy of his 75th birthday. He worked briefly for a California bank, with a sign on his desk that read, “Stengelese spoken here.”

It’s unfortunate he isn’t around to speak it today. Baseball, which has become so much about money that there’s little room for eccentrics and subversives, could use a few guys like Casey. He certainly lived a fascinating life.

“There comes a time in every man’s life,” Stengel once said, “and I’ve had plenty of them.”