Baseball lost two great ones on Saturday, that’s for sure.
I live in Central Illinois and that’s bordering on Cardinal Nation. In fact, I’d say that at half the baseball fans here wear red. So the loss of Stan Musial was felt pretty hard. It goes without saying that Musial was a great offensive threat. More than that, he was the team icon for St. Louis and to a point, still is.
Musial’s Baseball Reference page is littered with bold figures for every time he led the league. Baseball fans are all familiar with the stats he most known for… .331 career average, seven batting titles, 475 homeruns, and 3630 career hits.
But there were a few I just became aware of in the past 24 hours:
- He collected an equal amount of 1815 hits on the road and 1815 at home.
- He is still the all-time leader in All-Star appearances with 22.
- Not only did he win three MVP awards, he came in second four times.
- and probably a testament to his character, he was married to his wife Lillian, for 72 years.
I guess for me, the fact that after all these years even with the steroid-era, he still is 3rd all-time in extra base hits is pretty amazing.
I know the passing of “Stan the Man” will be tough for my commish who is still a big Musial fan. However, as my friend, John Heneghan says, “the Brooklyn pitching staff can finally relax”.
Baseball also lost one of the best managers of all time on Saturday as well. Baltimore Oriole manager Earl Weaver passed on. As Todd, my umpire friend said, “he got ejected by the big guy today”. APBA fan Craig Small noted that in some ways, Weaver was a polar opposite of Musial and he was right. He was hard-nosed, and a fighter. He was also very successful at his job, winning four pennants and a World Series title while collecting 1480 career wins.
His key to winning always sticks with me: “Pitching, defense and the three-run homer”. To me, it smacked of simplicity and the high expectations of his team to excel.
With all due respect to the “Earl of Baltimore”, here is a video of one of his more colorful ejections:
With the recent talk in the past weeks of who deserves to be in Hall of Fame (and who doesn’t), there is no doubt that these two men have their reputations firmly enshrined in Cooperstown.
RIP Stan Musial and Earl Weaver.
Bill Whitehouse from Frederick, Maryland wanted to know why Earl Weaver and the Orioles don’t go out and get some more team speed. Earl famously did not respect the question…Would a comparable manager to Earl Weaver (in many ways) have been Leo? Maybe I should write a detailed post comparing them…My brother texted: “Alice Sweet of Norfolk is saddened by the news.”
Musial’s records are yet another testament to the damage done by the steriod era. 475 homers now seems like a trifling amount. I am too young to have seen Musial and most of my APBA playing has been for seasons after he retired but, as a baseball history fanatic, his achievements are well know to me. I am happy that I have started a 1947 and beyond solo replay that will display his immense talents