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Stan Musial

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Stan Musial's Message to the Fans

Biography

Stanley Frank Musial (born November 21, 1920), originally Stanisław Franciszek Musiał, (pronounced /ˈmjuːziəl/), nicknamed "Stan the Man" and "The Donora Greyhound," is an American former player in Major League Baseball who played 22 seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963. He is considered the greatest player in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals [2] and one of the greatest baseball players of all time. [3]

****

Outfielder, First Baseman

Born: November 21, 1920 (1920-11-21) (age 87)
Batted: Left Threw: Left
MLB debut
September 17, 1941
for the St. Louis Cardinals
Final game
September 29, 1963
for the St. Louis Cardinals
Career statistics
AVG .331
HR 475
Hits 3,630
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (1941-1963)

Career highlights and awards
Tied-First in career All Star Games (24)[1]
Leads all players in the All Star Game with 6 home runs, including the game-winner in the 12th inning in 1955.
Second in career MVPs (3)
Sixth in career Games (3,026)
Ninth in career At-bat (10,972)
Ninth in career Runs (1,949)
Fourth in career Hits (3,630)
Second in career Total bases (6,134)
Third in career Doubles (725)
475 Career Home Runs (6th All-Time at the time he retired)
Sixth in career RBIs (1,951)
Led National League in Batting average 7 times
Led National League in On Base Percentage 6 times
Led National League in slugging percentage 6 times
Led National League in runs scored 5 times
First co-winner of Player of the Month award (May 1958)
Won 3 World Series

Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Elected 1969
Vote 93.2% (first ballot)

****

Early life
Musial was the first son born to Mary and Lukaz Musial, entering the world at the family's home on Sixth Street in Donora, Pennsylvania, on November 21, 1920.[4] His father was a Polish immigrant who was born on a farm near Warsaw.[5] In 1910 Lukasz was employed by the American Steel and Wire Company, moving hundred-pound bales of wire around the company's shipping department. His mother Mary, herself the daughter of Czech immigrants, sorted nails at the factory, which was how she met Lukasz.[6] Musial grew up in the Pittsburgh-area industrial town, where he played ball on his high school team along with Ken Griffey, Jr.'s grandfather.[7] On his 19th birthday, he married Lillian Labash, and they have four children.[citation needed]


Career
Musial started his career as a pitcher but after a shoulder injury moved to the outfield in 1940. Musial played 1,890 games in the outfield and 1,016 games at first base, but was primarily known for his consistent hitting. The left-hander led the National League in batting average seven times and in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and hits six times each. He won the National League Most Valuable Player award in 1943, 1946, and 1948, and in 1957, received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award. He is one of only two players to hit five home runs in one day - Musial did it in a doubleheader against the New York Giants in 1954 (Nate Colbert of the San Diego Padres accomplished the same feat in 1972). Musial went on to win three MVP awards (currently only nine players have won 3 or more) as well as finish 2nd in MVP voting 4 times, including 3 years in a row, from 1949-51, and finished in the Top-10 of NL MVP voting 14 times between 1943 and 1962. Also noteworthy is that in his whole career, he only struck out more than 40 times in a season three times - two of them his final two years active.

His 3,630 career hits made him the NL's all-time leader on that list at the time he retired, and second in the major leagues to Ty Cobb. He still ranks fourth all-time, behind Pete Rose, Cobb and Hank Aaron. Musial's 3,630th and final hit was a single beyond the reach of Rose, then a rookie second baseman.

Musial's career was perhaps most notable for its consistency. His .331 career batting average ranks 30th; he batted .336 at home and .326 on the road. He batted .340 in day games and .320 at night. Remarkably, Musial had exactly 1,815 career hits at home, and 1,815 hits on the road. In his September 1941 debut, Musial had two hits; after he got two hits in his final game, 22 years later, a sportswriter jokingly wrote, "He hasn't improved at all."

Musial once said, "I consciously memorized the speed at which every pitcher in the league threw his fastball, curve, and slider; then, I'd pick up the speed of the ball in the first thirty feet of its flight and knew how it would move once it had crossed the plate."

Former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine once described his strategy of pitching to Musial: "I've had pretty good success with Stan by throwing him my best pitch and backing up third."[8] Erskine's teammate, Preacher Roe, shared a similar sentiment. He summarized his strategy of pitching to Musial as "I throw him four wide ones and try to pick him off at first."[8] "Once Musial timed your fastball," observed Warren Spahn, "your infielders were in jeopardy." In another story, Willie Mays, then playing for the New York Giants, was receiving instruction from his manager Leo Durocher about how he should prepare defensively in center field for each of the hitters in the Cardinals' lineup. He described the weaknesses and tendencies of the first two hitters, then moved on to the cleanup (fourth) hitter. Mays interrupted to ask about the man in the third slot. Durocher replied, "The third hitter is Stan Musial. There is no advice I can give you about him."

It was fans of the Dodgers who gave him his nickname. Musial loved to hit in Ebbets Field and after several amazing hitting performances there, Brooklyn fans would see him come to bat, and say, "Uh-oh, here comes the man again. The man is back!" St. Louis sportswriter Bob Broeg picked up on this and said to the fans, "You mean THAT man?" and they said, "No, THE Man." Musial was "Stan the Man" from that point on. Typically, respectful Brooklyn fans did not boo him at Ebbets Field.

Like many American baseball players of his era, Musial spent part of his career serving in World War II, missing the 1945 season to serve as a seaman first class in the United States Navy from January 1945 to March 1946. Musial played in 24 All-Star games[1] tying him with Henry Aaron for most all-time. The Cardinals retired his uniform number '6' at the end of the 1963 season. He was a fan favorite for his reputation, both on the field and off, as a gentleman. In Musial's 10,972 ML games, he was never once ejected from a game. Umpire Tom Gorman said, "The bigger the guy, the less he argues. You never heard a word out of Stan Musial..."

At the time of his retirement, Musial was among the all-time leaders in many offensive categories - 1st in Total Bases and Extra-Base Hits, 2nd in Hits, Doubles, Runs Created, Games Played and At Bats, 4th in Runs and Runs Batted In, 5th in Walks, 6th in Home Runs, and 8th in Slugging Percentage and On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS).

The rise of Bill James and the extensive use of sabermetrics has enhanced Musial's credentials as not only one of the greatest of his generation, but of all baseball history. At Baseball-Reference.com, Musial is consistent among the various test leaders: He ranks 5th all time among hitters according to the Black Ink Test (behind Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Ted Williams), 3rd all-time on the Gray Ink Test (behind Cobb and Hank Aaron), tied with Barry Bonds for 2nd in the Hall of Fame Career Standards Test, behind only Ruth, and ranks first among all hitters and pitchers on the Hall of Fame Monitor Test.


Retirement
At the time of his retirement in 1963, Musial held 17 major league, 29 National League, and 9 All-Star game records. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1969.

A statue of Musial was erected outside of Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri in 1968, and was dedicated after a Sunday afternoon loss to the Cubs on August 4, 1968. The statue was moved from its original location outside the old Busch Stadium (1966 - 2005) to the front of the new Busch Stadium for the first season in 2006. The statue has always been a popular place to meet friends at the stadium. It is inscribed with a quote from former baseball commissioner Ford Frick: "Here stands baseball's perfect warrior. Here stands baseball's perfect knight."

Musial also served one year as general manager of the Cardinals. After the 1966 season, Musial succeeded Bob Howsam as GM and the 1967 Cardinals promptly won 101 games, the NL pennant, and the 1967 World Series title. Musial then stepped down at the end of the season and was succeeded by Bing Devine.

Following his retirement Musial has been a successful businessman and restaurateur, and remains a popular figure in the St. Louis area. When asked why he always seemed so happy, he remarked, "If you had a .331 lifetime batting average, you'd be happy all the time, too!"

In 1985, he opened and operated Inn at Grand Glaize at the Lake of the Ozarks, Mo.

In 1989, he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

In 1999, he ranked tenth on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. Some fans suggested that being placed so high on the list was a "hometown pick," as TSN is published in St. Louis. Musial did less well in fan voting for that year's Major League Baseball All-Century Team, but was added by a special committee along with Honus Wagner, one of only 30 players to be honored for his great success. The surprise at his high esteem among baseball critics and omission from fan-voted all-time teams are a reflection of his rather understated demeanor. Indeed, it was Musial's characteristic modesty, in addition to the fact that he played his entire career for a midwestern ballclub, that allowed his legacy to fall behind those of his contemporaries such as Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. Despite media acknowledgements of his playing career [2], many younger baseball fans are unaware of his accomplishments: ESPN once rated him the #1 most underrated athlete.

More recently, Musial threw out the first pitch in the 5th (and final) game of the 2006 World Series at Busch Stadium to the loud cheers of Cardinal fans.


Trivia
When he retired, Musial had the most career home runs for a player who had never won a single-season home run title (he was eventually surpassed in this odd category by Rafael Palmeiro).
Musial is an accomplished harmonica player who often appears at Opening Day at Busch Stadium and the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, playing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".
Musial was named the NL honorary captain in the 1975 MLB All Star Game.
Musial shares the same birthday and birthplace as current Cincinnati Reds outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. In fact, statistician Bill James once called Griffey "the second-best left-handed hitting, left-handed throwing outfielder ever born in Donora, Pennsylvania, on November 21."[9]
Musial became the first grandfather in Major League Baseball history to hit a home run, connecting in his first at bat on September 10, 1963.

Regular season stats
Career Statistics:
Hitting

T = tied
Rankings as of September 27, 2007.

****

Notes and references
1^ a b Baseball Almanac - All Star Game Note: Hank Aaron and Willie Mays also appeared in 24 games. There were also 2 All-Star games played from 1959-1962.
2^ St. Louis Cardinals All-Time Top 40. Retrieved on 2008-03-02.
3^ Top 100 Baseball Players, The Sporting News (1998)[1]
4^ Lansche, Jerry (1994). Stan the Man Musial: Born to Be a Ballplayer. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 6. ISBN 0-87833-846-2.
5^ Lansche (1994) p. 6
6^ Lansche (1994) p. 5-6
7^ ESPN - Reds star hits 500th career home run - MLB
8^ a b Stan Musial Quotes. Baseball Almanac. Retrieved on 2007-02-13.
9^ Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York, NY: Free Press, 2001), p. 757.

****
Source: Wikipedia.org at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Musial

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