That winter he was traded to Pittsburgh, where he promptly got into a salary squabble with Dreyfuss. In June, on the first visit by the Pirates to New York and Brooklyn, Stengel suddenly enlisted in the navy, and got a cushy job in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, running the baseball team and working in the commissary. By November the war was over, and he was soon a civilian again, going back to the Pirates.

In August of 1919, the Pirates traded him to the Phillies, but he refused to report unless he got more money. He didn't, so he went back to Kansas City and organized a barnstorming tour that went all the way to California. For 1920, however, he did sign, played the full season, and hit .292 for a last-place team. But he was unhappy in Philadelphia, and ecstatic when, at the end of June 1921, he was traded to McGraw's Giants.

He had already admired McGraw as an opponent; he worshipped him as an employee. That year and in 1922, the Giants won the World Series with Stengel playing only part time but hitting .368 in 1922 when McGraw platooned him (but in an unorthodox manner, as we shall see). In 1913 he played even less, but hit .339 and 2 home runs in the World Series, which the Giants lost this time to the Yankees.

In New York, he was one of the most popular players, out of proportion to his playing performance, because of his talent for clowning and publicity. McGraw also liked him for his pugnacious nature and quick, all-embracing baseball mind, and would invite him out to his home in Pelham to talk baseball by the hour.

That didn't prevent McGraw, however, from shipping him off to Boston right after the World Series, as part of a major trade that brought Billy Southworth to the Giants and also sent Dave Bancroft and Bill Cunningham (Stengel's right-handed platoon partner) to the Braves. Bancroft, the shortstop, would be Boston's manager, and he made Stengel a regular again, at the age of thirty-four. Casey hit .280 for another last-place club (while the Giants won again, a bitter pill). But it was a good year for him in other ways. Edna Lawson, whom he had met in 1913 and to whom he proposed within two weeks, agreed to marry him, and the wedding took place in August, during a trip to St. Louis. After the season, their honeymoon consisted of the gala European tour by two baseball teams organized by McGraw and Comiskey, at McGraw's invitation. They hit London, Paris, and Rome, met King George V of England, and enjoyed two luxurious ocean crossings.

In 1925, however, it was increasingly clear that Stengel was washed up as a player. But since his name still had marquee value, he suited the needs of Judge Fuchs, Boston's owner, when Fuchs bought the minor league team in nearby Worcester. He installed Casey as its president, field manager, and regular outfielder.

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