He was born Stanislaw Francisezk Musial one hundred years ago today in Donora, PA, about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. By the time he began school his name had been changed to Stanley Frank Musial.
He was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher, but in 1938 he hurt his arm and he was converted to an outfielder. He joined the Cardinals at the end of the 1941 season, and for the next 22 years he was one of the most feared hitters in major league baseball. He won three MVP awards, seven batting titles (just missing a Triple Crown in 1948 by one home run), and he shares the record with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron for the most All-Star Game appearances with 24.
On June 23, 1946 he was given yet another name, this time by the long-suffering fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Musial routinely wrecked Brooklyn pitching and as he walked to the plate that day after more of the same, longtime St. Louis sportwriter Bob Broeg overheard a fan say “here comes that man”. Thus was born one of the coolest nicknames in sports history.
But he was more than just a great ballplayer. At the time that Jackie Robinson broke into baseball, St. Louis was still the southernmost city in baseball. Some Cardinals players talked of boycotting the games when Brooklyn and Robinson came to town. Stan simply told his teammates, “I’m here to play baseball”, and that was the end of any threatened boycott.
He also worked on the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, making appearances with supporters like Angie Dickensen, who thought Stan was a hoot, and he sometimes pulled out his harmonica and played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” or “Wabash Cannonball”. Back in 2014, when it still meant something, (before Trump gave it to Rush Limbaugh), Barack Obama bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Stan.
He became the National League’s first player to make $100,000, but in 1960, after a poor season, Stan requested and got a pay cut back to $80,000. Can you imagine that happening today?
He amassed numerous records during his playing career. By the time he retired, he held the NL record for hits, RBI’s, at bats, games played, runs scored and doubles (partly a function of playing in Sportsman’s Park/Busch Stadium I, where he regularly tattooed the pavilion screen in right field—itself a reminder of segregated seating back in those days), and he was second in home runs to Mel Ott. Perhaps the most unique statistic in Stan’s great career was the fact that he got 1815 hits playing at home and 1815 hits playing on the road. It didn’t matter to Stan where he played. He just hit.
He retired at the end of the 1963 season, and when they held a day for him late in the season, he was wearing his Boy Scout kerchief around his neck as he rode around old Sportsman’s Park, then Busch Stadium I. In 3026 major league baseball games, Stan Musial was never ejected from one. In 1968, a statue was erected at then-Busch Stadium II, showing Stan’s unique peek-a-boo batting stance, and if you were meeting someone at the ballpark, it was frequently “meet you at the Musial statue”. Then-Commissioner of Baseball, Ford Frick, provided the inscription on the statue’s base: “Here stands baseball’s perfect warrior. Here stands baseball’s perfect knight.”
Stan went on to become General Manager of the Cardinals when the won the World Series in 1967, and he was a restaurant owner and revered civic icon for many years until he died on January 19, 2013 at the age of 92. A new bridge across the Mississippi opened the following year, the Stan Musial Veteran’s Memorial bridge, affectionately known locally as “the Stan span”.
So, during these troubling and unprecedented times, let’s take a moment to remember one of the greatest of all time. Happy 100th, Stosh!