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Who really said it

I'll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again

Spoken by Casey Stengel 1890–1975 · Hall of Fame manager of the New York Yankees and New York Mets
Verified In copyright

Stengel said it to reporters on 18 October 1960, the day the Yankees put him and co-owner Dan Topping in front of the microphones and ended his twelve years in pinstripes. Wikiquote’s sourced section ↗ carries this exact wording — “I guess this means they fired me. I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again” — citing Joseph Durso’s 1967 biography Casey. Beware the variants: the record preserves the joke in at least four slightly different shapes.

Last verified 8 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“I'll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again” Casey Stengel, to reporters at the New York Yankees press conference announcing his departure, 18 October 1960; quoted in Joseph Durso, "Casey: The Life and Legend of Charles Dillon Stengel" (Prentice-Hall, 1967). Verified via Quotle.info · Verbatim: “I guess this means they fired me. I'll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again.”

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Joseph Durso / Prentice-Hall for the 1967 biography; the estate of Casey Stengel for his own remarks). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Casey Stengel — Hall of Fame baseball manager · New York Yankees, New York Mets. Theme: "I'll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "I'll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The press conference, 18 October 1960

Occasion
New York Yankees press conference announcing Stengel’s departure, 18 October 1960
Cited in
Casey: The Life and Legend of Charles Dillon Stengel
Author & imprint
Joseph Durso · Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1967 · 211 pp.
Reproduced in
Ed Rumill, “‘Casey’: A Career in Stengelese,” The Christian Science Monitor, 19 April 1967, p. 13

I guess this means they fired me. I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again. As quoted in Durso, Casey (1967)

This is the form Wikiquote carries with a reference ↗. The longer version circulating on quote sites — the one that opens “They told me my services were no longer desired because they wanted to put in a youth program” — is held on the article’s talk page ↗ as unsourced, so treat the preamble as unconfirmed.

Wikiquote: Casey Stengel, sourced quotes

How we verified this

  • 13 October 1960 — the setup. Bill Mazeroski ends Game Seven of the World Series with a ninth-inning home run and Pittsburgh beats the Yankees 10–9, per the Wikipedia account of the series ↗. It is Stengel’s last World Series as a manager.
  • 18 October 1960 — the press conference. “Five days later, the Yankees called a press conference,” records the SABR biography ↗: co-owner Dan Topping praised Casey’s great work and announced a $160,000 profit-sharing payment; asked whether he had been fired, Stengel said “Write anything you want. Quit, fired, whatever you please. I don’t care”; and then, SABR writes, “he later uttered his famous line.”
  • 19 October 1960 — the front pages. The Detroit Free Press of that date leads with “Yanks Fire ‘Too Old’ Stengel” and carries further coverage inside under “Mighty Casey Strikes Out,” according to the dealer listing for the issue ↗. The press read it as an age story from the first morning.
  • 1967 — the wording is fixed. Joseph Durso’s biography Casey (Prentice-Hall, 211 pp., catalogue record ↗) prints the line, and Wikiquote’s reference chain runs through it. That 1967 text, not a 1960 transcript, is the earliest documentation of this exact phrasing that could be reached for this page.
In copyright

Stengel spoke the line in October 1960 and the earliest text fixing this exact wording is Joseph Durso’s Casey (Prentice-Hall, 1967) — both far too recent for the US public domain, which currently reaches only works first published before 1931. Quote it with attribution as fair use; it is not free-to-reuse public-domain text.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Not the wrong man — the wrong words

Nobody else is credited with this line; the problem is that no two sources say it the same way. Stengel spoke it once, off the cuff, to a room full of reporters filing on deadline, and the sentence has been drifting ever since. Here is what actually varies.

“…the mistake of turning 70 again” Variant

Turning, not being. This is the form used in the Wikipedia article on the 1960 World Series ↗. It changes the joke slightly — from an ongoing state to a one-off act.

“…the mistake of being seventy again” / “…of being 70 again” Variant

The SABR biography ↗ gives “being seventy again”; SABR’s own journal piece “The Remaking of Casey Stengel” ↗ gives “being 70 again.” Both drop the “years old” that Wikiquote’s sourced text keeps.

“They told me my services were no longer desired because they wanted to put in a youth program…” Unsourced

Quote aggregators routinely bolt this preamble onto the punchline and present the whole thing as one utterance. Wikiquote does not treat it as sourced: the combined version sits on the article’s talk page ↗ among quotes flagged as needing citation, while only the short form appears in the article with a reference.

The joke is genuinely Stengel’s and genuinely from 18 October 1960. If you want a form you can defend, use the one Wikiquote actually sources ↗ to Durso’s 1967 biography: “I guess this means they fired me. I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again.”

Context

Why the line landed

The Yankees had just lost the 1960 World Series in the most spectacular way available: on 13 October, Bill Mazeroski hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game Seven, and Pittsburgh won 10–9. Five days later the club called a press conference. Co-owner Dan Topping talked about Casey’s great work and about a $160,000 profit-sharing payment, and never quite said the word. When reporters pressed, Stengel refused to help them: “Write anything you want. Quit, fired, whatever you please. I don’t care.” Then he handed them the headline anyway.

The joke works because it isn’t self-pity — it’s a man taking the organisation’s stated reason and repeating it back as an absurdity. The Yankees had said they wanted a youth programme. Stengel, seventy years old and holding ten pennants from twelve seasons, agreed that his age was the offence and promised not to repeat it. That is the whole grammar of Stengelese in one sentence: a straight face over a knife.

“Write anything you want. Quit, fired, whatever you please. I don’t care.”

What happened next

He was not done. In 1962 Stengel came back across town to manage the brand-new New York Mets, and stayed through 1965 — four seasons in which, as Wikipedia notes, the team “finished last all four years he managed it.” The Yankees, meanwhile, won the pennant in 1961 and 1962 under Ralph Houk.

The Hall of Fame elected him in 1966. He died on 29 September 1975.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Casey Stengel — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

The sourced section carries the exact wording, "I guess this means they fired me. I'll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again," with the Durso 1967 / Christian Science Monitor citation. This is the anchor for the page.
Casey Stengel — SABR BioProjectsabr.org

Society for American Baseball Research life of Stengel. Narrates the press conference five days after the World Series loss, Topping's $160,000 announcement, Stengel's "Write anything you want" reply, and "his famous line, 'I'll never make the mistake of being seventy again.'"
The Remaking of Casey Stengel — SABR journalsabr.org

Independent SABR article on Stengel's career arc; renders the line as "I'll never make the mistake of being 70 again" in the context of the 1960 firing. Useful for seeing the wording drift inside one organisation.
Casey Stengel — Baseball Hall of Famebaseballhall.org

Official Hall of Fame profile: 1,905 managerial wins against 1,842 losses, and the statement that the Yankees dismissed him after the 1960 World Series citing his advancing age.
Casey (1967) by Joseph Durso — Open Libraryopenlibrary.org

Catalogue record for the biography Wikiquote cites: Casey: the life and legend of Charles Dillon Stengel, Joseph Durso, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ, 1967, 211 pages.
1960 World Series — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

The event that set it up: Game Seven on 13 October 1960, Mazeroski's ninth-inning home run, Pirates 10–9. Also preserves a fourth wording variant, "I'll never make the mistake of turning 70 again."
Detroit Free Press, 19 October 1960 — dealer listingwww.rarenewspapers.com

Listing for the issue whose front page ran "Yanks Fire 'Too Old' Stengel," with further coverage inside headed "Mighty Casey Strikes Out" — period confirmation of the firing and of how squarely the press framed it as an age story.

The man who said it

Casey Stengel

Casey Stengel

1890–1975 · Hall of Fame baseball manager · New York Yankees, New York Mets

Charles Dillon ‘Casey’ Stengel managed the New York Yankees from 1949 to 1960 and, as Wikipedia ↗ puts it, “won ten pennants in his twelve seasons and won seven World Series” — then took charge of the expansion Mets from 1962 to 1965, a team that finished last all four years. The National Baseball Hall of Fame ↗ credits him with 1,905 wins and 1,842 losses and records that the Yankees dismissed him after the 1960 World Series “citing Stengel’s advancing age.” He was a professional wisecracker as much as a tactician; sportswriters gave his looping, subordinate-clause-strewn manner of speech its own name, Stengelese.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary documentation

Casey Stengel, remarks to reporters at the New York Yankees press conference announcing his departure, New York, 18 October 1960; quoted in Joseph Durso, Casey: The Life and Legend of Charles Dillon Stengel (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967), and reproduced in Ed Rumill, “‘Casey’: A Career in Stengelese,” The Christian Science Monitor, 19 April 1967, 13 — citation as given by Wikiquote ↗.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I'll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again’?” Last verified 8 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/ill-never-make-the-mistake-of-being-70-years-old-again/

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