The previous night, Stengel was getting out of a friend’s car after a party; he fell & broke his hip. Two days later he needed surgery & had a metal ball inserted in the hip to reduce the fracture.
Due to his health issues & his age the long baseball career of Casey Stengel on the field, came to an end on July 30th 1965. In a press conference at Shea Stadium, Stengel announced his retirement, stepping down as Mets manager. He was to be named vice president of Mets West Coast operations. More a title than anything else, so he could be near his home in Glendale, California.
The Mets new manager was to be Wes Westrum. Westrum who had been a Mets coach, had taken over when Stengel broke his hip. He would now assume the role of full time manager, the second skipper in team history.
On September 2nd, 1965 the Mets retired Stengel’s uniform #37, the first Mets number to be retired.
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