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From the Lighter Side!

Casey Stengel Commits a Baseball ‘No-No’ And Is Hit With a $500 Fine!

“I came in here and a fella asked me to have a drink. I said I don’t drink. Then another fella said I hear you and Joe DiMaggio aren’t speaking…and I said I’ll take that drink!” -Casey Stengel

I thought I’d start off this light-hearted essay with the above quote from the Ol’ Perfessor. It’s one of my favorites. See if you agree with me – it’s a great one!

Casey Stengel and Rheingold Beer Ads

Yes….that’s Mets’ manager Casey Stengel posing with the 1962 Rheingold Girl, Kathy Kersh in an ad for the Mets’ sponsor, Rheingold beer.  Unfortunately for Casey, he was fined $500 for the seemingly innocent photo.

Can you guess why?

Before I tell you the reason, here’s a little background:

In 1962, the Mets’ debut year, Rheingold beer reportedly paid $1.2 million for the right to be the team’s principal sponsorship. Plus, they threw in another $200,000 for promotional tickets. Seems like “chicken feed” in today’s world of megabucks baseball world, doesn’t it? As the season wore on, more ads featuring Casey and Miss Kersh appeared, along with color posters and counter displays.

To be selected as the yearly Rheingold girl in the 1960s was definitely a big deal. According to longtime New York sportswriter Dan Daniel, nearly 400 young lasses annually auditioned for the job. The lucky Miss was selected by thousands of votes cast at taverns and gin mills throughout the metropolitan New York area. It was definitely career-enhancing, as the winner could usually look forward to at least short-lived fame as a model or actress.

Kathy Kersh was among the most successful of the Miss Rheingold girls. The gig opened the doors for her to frequent appearances on television. She was Jethro Bodine’s recurring girlfriend on The Beverly Hillbillies, and the Joker’s girlfriend on two episodes of Batman. She also appeared on Ben Casey, My Favorite Martian, and Burke’s Law.

So why was Casey fined $500? The problem was that Casey was shown in the ad wearing his Mets’ uniform. According to rules put forth by the Commissioner’s office, baseball personnel were prohibited from appearing in team uniforms in beer and cigarette advertising. Seems awfully quaint by today’s permissive standards!

The whole thing might have gone unnoticed except that somebody complained about it to Commissioner Ford Frick, forcing him to take action. Speculation on the identity of the “rat-fink” centered on the Yankees, and possibly even their own beer sponsor, Ballantine’s. Could it have been an intercity rivalry that landed Casey in hot water?

With his hand forced, Frick slapped Stengel with the $500 fine. Dan Daniel suggested that neither Stengel nor the Mets were actually the ones who forked over the money. He hinted it was gladly paid by Rheingold, who considered the $500 fine “chump change” for scoring a huge publicity coup.

And what was Casey’s take on it? Innocently enough, he later commented, “The Rheingold people been so nice to us that I didn’t have the heart to turn them down when they asked me.” Actually, if you were looking for a reason to criticize the ad, how about Casey’s poor bunting form? Or the fact Miss Kersh is “catching” in heels?

The Sporting News sniffed out the double-standard in a May 9, 1962 editorial:

“This represents a hypocritical attitude by baseball. The game is most willing to take millions of dollars from breweries, but refuses to let anybody in the game exploit the product.”

Talk about hypocrisy! Couldn’t the same be said today about gambling? But Casey had learned his lesson. He continued to appear with the contemporary Miss Rheingolds in subsequent years, but from then on was always on his best behavior… and always shown in civvies!

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from Bob Lemke’s blog March 23, 2016

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