The news cycle being what it is, this will probably be a moot point by the time you many of you read this, but the opening page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website is full of stories, videos, and photos of Stan Musial, who passed away yesterday at the age of 92. Here’s the New York Times obituary by Richard Goldstein, who authored several fine baseball titles.
Musial was the last of the great players from the post-War years. Competing in the Midwest, Musial was constantly in the shadows of Mantle and Mays who played in New York during most of Stan the Man‘s greatest years. One thing I always found amazing was his consistency. Musial stroked 3,630 hits. Half came at home and half were on the road.
In declining health for the past few years, it’s nice to see him get some recognition when Barack Obama honored him with a Presidential Medal of Freedom (not “honor” as in the headline from this local story) in February 2011.
George Vecsey published perhaps the definitive bio in Stan Musial: An American Life
is available on Amazon.com,
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