Posted on 01/19/2013 6:01:28 PM PST by bd476
Stan Musial, the St. Louis Cardinals star with the corkscrew stance and too many batting records to fit on his Hall of Fame plaque, died Saturday. He was 92.
Stan the Man was so revered in St. Louis that he has two statues outside Busch Stadium — one just wouldn't do him justice. He was one of baseball's greatest hitters, shining in the mold of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio even without the bright lights of the big city.
Musial won seven National League batting titles, was a three-time MVP and helped the Cardinals capture three World Series championships in the 1940s.
The Cardinals announced Musial's death in a news release. They said he died Saturday evening at his home in Ladue surrounded by family. The team said Musial's son-in-law, Dave Edmonds, informed the club of Musial's death.
"We have lost the most beloved member of the Cardinals family," team chairman William DeWitt Jr. said. "Stan Musial was the greatest player in Cardinals history and one of the best players in the history of baseball."
Musial was the second baseball Hall of Famer who died Saturday. Longtime Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver also passed away, at age 82.
Musial spent his entire 22-year career with the Cardinals and made the All-Star team 24 times — baseball held two All-Star games each summer for a few seasons.
A pitcher in the low minors until he injured his arm, Musial turned to playing the outfield and first base. It was a stroke of luck for him, as he went on to hit .331 with 475 home runs before retiring in 1963.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
During the recent days of sports scandals, Stan Musial was a real hero, an untarnished one.
God Bless him and his dear family and friends.
He is maybe the last of the stars from an era when baseball was truly the American pass time.
I grew up in the 50s and can remember when just about any town of any size at all had a professional baseball team. It was good baseball too.
Thank you Stan for giving us many years of great baseball.
RIP
Go Cards!!
RIP
Indeed !
IBHWBM (In Before He Will Be Missed!)
Me too. He was my favorite ballplayer when I was a kid
Those days seem so wholesome looking back in time. He set some great records while retaining his squeaky clean image.
Not many heroes of my Summers Past are left.
Although a die hard Brooklyn Dodger fan in the midst of NY Yankee and a smattering of NY Giants fans, I still held a lot of respect for many of the opposition, particularly “The Man”.
He was married 71 years.....and USN Vet, missing the 1945 season.
RIP as you join the other ‘Boys Of Summer’.
Amen!
The Man
90 things to love about The Man
Sad Regards
alfa6 ;>}
sad ping
Lucky you! That must have been a real treat to see him at bat.
Thanks for posting his photo.
When I was 5-6-7 years old, one of our few recreational activities was watching the Panama City Fliers play at Lion’s Park.
It was the class D Alabama/Florida League. I still have an official Alabama/Florida League Spalding baseball autographed by the entire team. Probably 1953. My older sister got the groundskeeper to give her the gall and she got all the players to sign it.
One of the players for Pensacola was Cal Ripkin Sr. One of the Panama City players was Chase Riddle who I think set some minor league records before being a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals. After he retired he led Troy University to a couple of national championships.
Joe, thanks for posting those photos of Stan Musial.
Hat tip to one of the greats.
A piece of my youth is now gone. May he join the others in the field of dreams, to play his game forever.
One couldn't help but admire him. His dear wife passed away last year. I didn't know he served in the US Navy, that's his character though. He was a real legend but those who met him said he was very humble and down to earth.
Musial was 92. Earl Weaver also died today; he was 82.
I *was* a baseball fan — Kansas City A’s, Washington Senators, San Diego Padres. Got it from my Mom, who loved the game.
In elementary school, the teacher would bring a radio so we could listen to Opening Day.
Drugs, bad behavior, and exorbitant prices ruined if for me.
Alfa6, thank you for sharing the link to that very interesting article about Stan the Man.
He set good standards for baseball and for life.
OK ... thanks.
This is what Bill James wrote about Musial in his first edition of THe Historical Baseball Abstract:
“The image of Musial seems to be fading quickly…. It doesn’t seem that the image is very sharp, that anybody really knows what made him different…
“What he was was a ballplayer. He didn’t spit at fans, he didn’t get into fights in nightclubs, he didn’t marry anybody famous. He hustled. You look at his career totals of doubles and triples, and they’ll remind you of something that was accepted while he was active, and has been largely forgotten since: Stan Musial was one player who always left the batter’s box on a dead run.”
In that book he rated Musial ahead of Williams as the best left-fielder of all time, although he did reverse that decision in the second edition without much explanation. I would rather have had Musial on my team than Williams.
I was too, couldn't help but be a fan of the greats, that is if you lived in my neighborhood with a nearby baseball diamond and a radio.
Thanks Brown Deer. More sad news. May Earl rest in peace.
I refinanced my house back in the late 90's. The loan officer and I ended up talking baseball. He had seen Stan as a player. We got into a fascinating discussion about batting and batting stances. Being a young guy, I of course talked about Joe Morgan and the chicken arm flap, and the Pete Rose crouch. He showed me the Stan Musial "peekaboo" stance. I had never seen it.
It was cool. The loan guy was in his 70's at the time and knew every big time 1940s and 50s player's batting technique.
I had the honor of meeting him many times. A true gentleman, loved his fans.
RIP Sir.
We will all see you soon. Maybe you can show us a few things. I so look forward to playing some ball!
I wonder......are there any umpires in heaven?
If there are, how will Earl respond?
I saw him
First thing I asked my dad was why was his stance so funny. I got one of his bats cracked in a foul.
I used it for a rock bat.
Yeah
I know
'The image of Musial seems to be fading quickly…. It doesn't seem that the image is very sharp, that anybody really knows what made him different…
What he was was a ballplayer. He didn't spit at fans, he didn't get into fights in nightclubs, he didn't marry anybody famous. He hustled. You look at his career totals of doubles and triples, and they'll remind you of something that was accepted while he was active, and has been largely forgotten since: Stan Musial was one player who always left the batter's box on a dead run.'
Thank you, Gil4. Stan Musial was one of a kind. I sure hope God sends us another Musial with similar decent, mature, down to earth qualities soon.
Coincidentally "The Natural" just began on a local station.
My husband saw him many times in person. And when my husband was still a uni student in the late 1960’s, Musial had a restaurant in St. Louis and would be there most of the time. Once my husband met Musial at the restaurant, and, as usual for anyone who asked, Musial signed a photo of himself for my husband.
Last year I read a book about Stan Musial called Stan The Man. I do remember as a 10 year old kid seeing the Braves and Cardinals play an old timers game in 1971 and I saw on the cardinals side Stan Musial, Dizzy Dean and I think Ducky Medwick and Frankie Frisch were there as well in addition to old time Braves like Eddie Matthews and Spahn and Sain. From what we know no one had a bad word to say about Stan Musial although I geuss he and Joe Garogiola kind parted ways after a testy business relationship. May he RIP.
I saw him play at Wrigley Field. God bless him. No finer man ever stepped into the batter’s box!
There was a time where Musial got distracted and didn't immediately notice play had resumed. A fly ball was hit to left field and Musial didn't have his glove on. Musial ran the ball down and caught it BARE-HANDED!
Yes, I saw him a number of times at old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, in the late 50s/early 60s towards the end of his career. I understood I was watching a legend.
His batting stance was different, but a lot of guys then had different kind of stances. One thing my dad always pointed out to me was that he would go to the plate and while he was digging in, he would wipe out the back line of the batters box. When he finally took his stance, his back foot (for him left foot) was mostly outside where the line would have been. That gave him just that extra split second to watch the pitch.
I saw my first major league game in 1950 the Cardinals vs the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Bottom of the 2nd inning Stan led off and hit the first pitch over the screen in right field. I would have been satisfied to leave right then for the 200 mile trip home.
I was there for Stan's last at bat, a single off Jim Maloney.
Wish I'd seen "The Man" in action, or in person.
Envious of the FReepers who did.
Yep, saw him in his last game played at Connie Mack (Phillies), saw a lot of the great NL players like Mays, Koufax, Clemente and Aaron there, wasn't much to see on the Phillies side, I missed Ashburn when he played for the Phillies, I would have been 4 when he left Philadelphia.
Tears running down my cheeks ...
Remember Wes Covington, he would drop his back so far behind his back he looked like he was chopping wood, hehe, maybe he was.
When I visited ST. Loo for the first time in the 1980s, the first thing I did was get to his statue outside the stadium.
RIP.
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