“The Man” of St Louis (98)

Every year in October I get a very heavy sadness in my heart as I hear the last ‘thwack’ of a bat hitting a baseball and the ‘thwunk’ of a ball hitting an outfielder’s mitt for the last time of the season or the mitt of the catcher.  I am not a huge baseball fan but I see it as a sign of the changing of the seasons.  Yes, that October sound is the sound of summer finally closing the door and signaling the opening season of winter.

When I lived further north, I was a Cubs fan.  It was a part of living in the town I lived in and being a part of the family I belonged to.  After I moved to St  Louis, MO, I thought about it quite a while before jumping ship.  After all, the Cardinals were huge rivals to the Cubs and were pretty much hated in my former town and in my family.  Not to say that they weren’t a great ball team and their stats were consistently so much better than the Cubs.  I mean, where did the saying come from, “There’s always next year?”  It certainly wasn’t from the Cardinals!

Anyway, after I fully embraced the Cardinals in my new ‘home town,’ and had the blessing of my Father on that, I was swept away.  Not just with the current team, but with the history of the team and the legacy of some of its players.

Which brings me to the purpose of this post.  Stan Musial.  Stan ‘The Man.’  Stan, the guy you would like your kids to look up to.  Stan, the harmonica player, the hall of famer, record 24 time All Star player, recipient of the Navy Memorial’s Lone Sailor Award, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award.

He played from 1941-1963 with the St Louis Cardinals and the statistics he accrued are stunning. He compiled 3,630 hits (ranking fourth all-time and most in a career spent with only one team). With 1,815 hits at home and 1,815 on the road, he also is considered to be the most consistent hitter of his era. Stan compiled 475 home runs during his career, was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player three times, and won three World Series championship titles. Musial was a first-ballot inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.

The fans of St Louis revered him so much that they started a campaign to have him receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award. And receive it he did. And in very grand style. President Barack Obama said, in presenting the award to Stan, that he was, “an icon untarnished, a beloved pillar of the community, a gentleman you’d want your kids to emulate.”

On October 17, 2012, Musial made what would be his final appearance at Busch Stadium, riding in a golf cart around the warning track before Game 4 of the National League Championship Series. Musial stopped at both dugouts and greeted San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy and Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. I don’t know if there was a dry eye in the stands but I can tell you, I shed more than a few tears.

Stan passed away this year. He died at age 92 of natural causes on January 19, 2013, at his home in Ladue, Missouri.

Cardinals current owner Bill DeWitt, Jr. released the following statement:

“We have lost the most beloved member of the Cardinals family. Stan Musial was the greatest player in Cardinals history and one of the best players in the history of baseball. The entire Cardinals organization extends its sincere condolences to Stan’s family, including his children Richard, Gerry, Janet and Jean, as well as his eleven grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren. We join fans everywhere in mourning the loss of our dear friend and reflect on how fortunate we all are to have known ‘Stan the Man'”

It was strange today, having an opening day without Stan. I believe he had been at every single Cardinal’s home opening day since 1946. Yes, we had the Clydesdales, and yes, we had thousands of fans and hundreds of media. But, it just wasn’t the same without Stan.