The Yankees were back on top in 1960, aided by the addition of a new right fielder, Roger Maris, who won his first of two MVP Awards. Maris had arrived in a trade with the Kansas City Athletics; it was one of a series of curious deals from 1957-1960 in which the Athletics acted as a feeder system for the Yankees.
        I think that the Kansas City Athletics of the 1950's reached a nadir that has never been matched by another team in professional baseball. Losing is one thing, but owner Arnold Johnson also allowed all of the Athletics' best young players to be dealt to New York. Worse, the Yankees would send young players to Kansas City to gain experience, then re-acquire them after they had developed into good players.
        Anyways, the Athletics always finished last, Roger Maris became a Yankee... and the rest is history.

        Ted Williams hit a home run in his last at bat, then retired after the season ended. At age 42, the son-of-a-gun was still an awesome hitter. Williams finished with a career .344 batting average, 521 home runs, 2654 hits, 2019 walks, and five years of military service.
        Minnie Minoso was 37, and had his last big season. He hung on a few more years, and finished with almost 2000 hits, remarkable considering that he didn't reach the majors until he was 28. Minoso holds a weird record, and not a particularly important one: he played in major league games in five different decades. Eight years after retiring, Minnie came back in 1976 to bat eight times, and got one hit. Four years after that, in 1980, he batted two more times, with no hits. Minoso tried to get into a game in 1991, but Commissioner Fay Vincent would not allow him to sign a contract. In 1993, at age 70, Minoso had one at bat in a game in the independent Northern League.
        Maris and Mickey Mantle were teammates for the Yankees; Maris won the MVP, finishing just three votes ahead of Mantle. It's a very close call between the two of them; Maris had higher batting and slugging averages, plus more RBI, and won a Gold Glove. Mantle had a higher OPS, more homers, scored more runs, and produced more runs in total.
        It's close, but I think Mantle deserves to be placed ahead of Maris. For me, the clincher is in games played; Mantle missed only two games, while Maris missed 19. That's a big difference. Maris, incidentally, had a huge first half to the season; he hit 35 home runs in 99 games, on pace for 54. Maris clearly had put himself in a position to challenge Ruth's homer mark, but a rib injury knocked him out of the lineup, and he hit only four home runs over the final third of the season. Roger would have to wait another year to break the record.
         I'm not sure who the best player of this infielders was... probably one of Luis Aparicio, Brooks Robinson, or Earl Battey. Pete Runnels was good, too, though he wasn't really a full-time second baseman; he also played a lot at first base.
     Robinson finished third in the voting (not far behind Maris and Mantle); that sounds reasonable to me. Minoso finished fourth in the voting, which is also a good choice. My top four is almost the same as the actual one, with only the top two candidates reversed.
        Casey Stengel debuted as a player in 1914 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He frequently lamented that he wasn't much of a player — "for it is a game of skill" — but the truth is that Casey was pretty good, and lasted for 14 years. His managerial career began ingloriously; first, three years with the Dodgers, and three losing seasons. Then came six years with the Braves, and six more losing seasons. The Braves fired him midway through the 1943 season.
        It was a surprise, then, that Casey was hired by the Yankees in 1949. The Old Professor was 59 years old when he took over the Bombers; though he had had little success as a manager, he had many golden nuggets of managerial philosophy, such as "Good hitting will always stop good pitching, and vice-versa" and "The secret to managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." Casey's first five years with the Yankees, 1949-53, all resulted in World Series championships.
        Casey was unlike any other manager in baseball. He loved to platoon, and always had a bench full of quality players. He used a five-man rotation, and never overworked his starting pitchers; he used his bullpen more often than any other manager. Casey also supervised the growth of Mickey Mantle into a superstar; if Mantle stayed out late or broke the rules, teammates would stand and watch while the Old Man physically assaulted the young stud. Casey was also quick to rid the team of any player (such as Billy Martin) who might lead Mantle astray. According to Casey: "Being with a woman never hurt no ballplayer; it's staying up all night looking for one that does him in.
        The Yankees won two more World Series in 1956 and 1958. After winning the pennant this season, the Yankees faced the Pirates, and lost; the fatal blow was a game-winning home run hit by Bill Mazeroski. New York management, itching to fire manager Casey (now 70 years old), pulled the trigger after season on the grounds that Casey was too old to be effective. In total, Stengel managed the Yankees for 12 years; in that period, he won the pennant ten times, as well as seven World Series championships.
        Casey returned to New York in 1962 as manager of the expansion Mets. The Mets lost 120 games that year, and were arguably that worst team in baseball history. Stengel managed them for three full seasons, trying to mold the young players into a team. It wasn't easy; said Casey: "Can't anyone here play this game?" Some prospects were better than others; Casey thought that young Ed Kranepool had a chance to be a star, and added that "And Greg Goossen, he's only twenty, with a chance in ten years of being thirty."
         Stengel was fired for the final time during the 1965 season; he left behind a legacy as one of the game's greatest managers and most beloved clowns. He also left behind many memorable quotes, including the ultimate managers' credo: "I couldna' done it without my players."