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Several times in this column there will be references made about baseball. But, this is more than a column about baseball.
It is a column about a man, actually to be more specific "The Man."
Baseball and America lost Stan Musial when he died January 19 at the age of 92. In my opinion, we lost one of the real reasons to love baseball. Because, that is what Stan "The Man" Musial did.
He played his entire career for one team---the St. Louis Cardinals--and never looked elsewhere. That is where his heart was so that is where he played. He was a standout for the Cards for 22 seasons.
There are many reasons why baseball knows Stan Musial. He had 1,815 hits on the road and 1,815 at home which makes him perhaps the most consistent hitter of his era. He had 475 career home runs, was the National League's Most Valuable Player three times and helped the Cardinals win three World Series championships. He was a first ballot inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.
There are many more reasons why America should know Stan Musial.
He was so highly respected in Cardinals history that there is a statue of him that was originally placed at Busch Memorial Stadium then later moved to the new Busch Stadium. It is a popular meeting place for Cardinal fans. It is inscribed, "Here stands baseball's perfect warrior. Here stands baseball's perfect knight."
I was honored to stand by that statue when it was at Busch Memorial Stadium several years ago.
He was the true meaning of sportsmanship. In 3,026 major league appearances he was never ejected from a game. As sportscaster Bob Costas once said, "He didn't hit a home run in his last at bat, he hit a single. He didn't hit in 56 straight games. He married his high school sweetheart and stayed married to her....All Musial represents is more than two decades of sustained excellence and complete decency as a human being."
He was also one of the players who was for integration of baseball. He and teammate Red Schoendienst who was later a Milwaukee Brave, were lauded by black newcomers to the game such as Don Newcombe (Dodgers) for their tolerance. "They never had the need to sit in the dugout and call a black guy a bunch of names," Newcombe said, "because he was trying to change the game and make it what it should have been in the first place...a game for all people."
When it was determined I would be a first baseman in high school one of the first things I had to do was purchase a first baseman's mitt. I looked over several of them and settled on the one I wanted. It was a Stan Musial model. I am not sure what sold me the most...the feel of the mitt or the name.
I have kept that mitt ever since. Today, I am glad I did.