Born on this day in Kansas City, Missouri, Charles Dillon Stengel (1890–1975), the ‘Ol’ Perfesser, was best known for managing baseball's New York Yankees in the 1950s. He won 10 pennants and seven World Series titles with New York from 1949–1960—a legendary run.

Stengel once said, “The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.”

After leading the Yankees to glory, he became the first manager of the New York Mets in 1962. That year his team finished with a record of 40–120—the worst in modern history. Stengel kept his humor: “They've shown me ways to lose I never knew existed.”

With a first-class baseball mind, he made things up as he went, rarely playing by the book. He helped invent the hit-and-run and perfected the double-play defense. “Managing,” he said, “is getting paid for home runs someone else hits.”

Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966, he graciously said, “I want to thank all my players for giving me the honor of being what I was.” When he died, both the Mets and Yankees retired his uniform number 37.

“There are three things you can do in a baseball game,” he once joked, “you can win or you can lose or it can rain.”