Born: November 21, 1920, Donora, Pennsylvania, USA
Comments. At the 1962 All-Star Game, U.S. President John F. Kennedy said to Musial, "A couple of years ago they told me I was too young to be president and you were too old to be playing baseball. But we fooled them." . A statue of Musial was erected outside of Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri in 1968. It is inscribed with a quote from former baseball commissioner Ford Frick: "Here stands baseball's perfect warrior. Here stands baseball's perfect knight."
Early days. His father, Lukasz, was a Polish immigrant; his mother, Mary, was the daughter of Czech immigrants. Musial started his career as a pitcher but after a shoulder injury moved to the outfield in 1940. On his 19th birthday, he married Lillian Labash, and they have four children.
Career. 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 the only player to hit five home runs in one day - he did it in a doubleheader against the New York Giants in 1954. His 3,630 career hits made him the NL's all-time leader at the time he retired, and still ranks fourth all-time, behind Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, and Hank Aaron. 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. Musial has the most career home runs for a player who never won a single-season home run title. 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."[1] 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." 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 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. After several fine hitting performances at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn fans would see him come to bat, and say, "Uh-oh, here comes that man again. That man is back!" St. Louis sportswriter Bob Broeg picked up on this, and Musial was "Stan the Man" from that point on. Brooklyn fans never booed him at Ebbets Field - out of respect. 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 and 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 Retirement. At the time of his retirement in 1963, Musial held 17 major league, 29 National League, and 9 All-Star game records. 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 the 1990s Musial was instrumental in popularizing Little League Baseball in Poland, the land of his forefathers. In 1999, he ranked Number 10 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. Later in the year he was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, one of only 30 players to be honored for his great success. Musial was ranked #1 among most underrated athletes by ESPN. Musial was named the NL honarary captain in the 1975 MLB All Star Game. In an article in 1976 in Esquire magazine, sportswriter Harry Stein published an "All Time All-Star Argument Starter," consisting of five ethnic baseball teams. Musial was the center fielder on Stein's Polish team.
Source:
This article uses, among others, material from the Wikipedia article "Stan Musial" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
Wikipedia
Other sources:
Musial Official Baseball site
Encyclopedia Britannica
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