A great baseball player, a thoroughly decent man and a devout Catholic Christian. There was a hero worth having. RIP.

Beautiful, Christopher. Ditto, Katherine.

He played out his 22 year career with the Cardinals. Al Kaline played all of his career (22 years) with the Tigers. Al is still around but both were reasons I followed baseball. Both humble men.

I wish that more professional athletes today were like him. “Role model” is not a warm enough phrase to describe him.

Chris,
I don’t remember Stan Musial’s career as he was before my time and I don’t live in St. Louis. I’m from Pittsburgh and Mr. Musial was born and raised in a small town just outside of Pittsburgh. My father was a huge baseball fan as I am still, although being a Pirate fan has proven a gruesome form of penance over the last 20 years. My dad’s favorite players while growing up and as a young man were Ralph Kiner, the Pirate home run hitter, and Stan Musial.
Skipping ahead many years, my mom and dad went to bingo every Saturday night. There they met a kind older woman who was a widow named Rose. They developed a friendship with her and picked her up for bingo and drove her home afterwards. One night at bingo my dad was talking about baseball and Rose had mentioned she used to attend many Pirate games especially when her brother came to town. At first my dad thought her brother was a Pirate fan who lived out of town. Then she told him that her brother was Stan Musial. In all the years my mom and dad knew her, she never once mentioned her famous brother. Kindness and humility was a family trait.
When Rose passed away my mom and dad went to the funeral home and there was Stan Musial. Although my father was in his seventies and at a somber occasion, he was like a little kid. And unlike you, my father asked him for his autograph! At the funeral home! My mother was humiliated but after talking with them Mr. Musial thanked them for being good friends with his sister.
My mom and dad have both died but the coverage of Stan Musial’s death and his pure decency in life brought back that great memory.
Here is an article from the Pittsburgh paper you might enjoy.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/obituaries/obituary-stan-musial-donora-pa-native-won-7-batting-titles-671247/

“No.6″ will long be remembered. If anyone deserved to be called “The Man,” it was Stanisław Franciszek Musiał.

My favorite story about Musial is off the field (his performances on the field speak for themselves.) He was once advised by his good friend, John Wayne, to carry around autographed baseball cards of himself and hand them out when fans asked for autographs.

The “Musial” thing about the story is that Stan himself autographed each card. Before he would go out, he would autograph the cards, put them in his pocket and hand them out to the fans.

Somewhere there are people who have those cards. I do wish I was one of them.

What a difference between the time of Stan the Man and the riff-raff in MLB today.

RIP, No.6,

God rest his soul.

I am glad to say that his spirit of sportsmanship and his graciousness to the fans are not quite dead even yet. There are a few athletes here and there who still try to be like him in those respects. Most of the ones I know of are hockey players; of these, Jarome Iginla stands above the rest and probably comes closest to being a modern-day Musial.

Iginla is also, and I don’t think this is any coincidence, one of the few NHL players who are frankly and publicly Christian. I have often heard him give thanks to God for his opportunities and his successes, and oftener still, to his teammates and fans. At the end of Trevor Linden’s distinguished career with the Vancouver Canucks, Iginla (as the captain of the visiting team) led his fellow players in a spontaneous on-ice tribute to Linden at the end of the game. He’s that kind of guy, and works hard to remain that way.

If you asked him, I bet he would name Stan Musial as one of his role models.

I grew up in St. Louis and my dad took me to a lot of Cardinals games. I was at The Man’s final game and I cried when they took him out early. I was too young to understand that they wanted his final at bat to be a hit and thought it grossly unfair that they put in a pinch runner for him.

His final at bat can be enjoyed here: http://youtu.be/T-MkfzSy4p8

I raised my sons right. More than 20 years after The Man retired, my 5 year old son named his cat “Stan.”

Ditto what you and Katherine (and so many others have said). An example of professionalism at its best! A man who understood why he was famous was because of his fan base.

One of the great thrills of my baseball-fan career was going to watch a game in St. Louis about 1998 or so and seeing Stan playing his harmonica — which he loved to play — impromptu before a knot of fans outside the stadium.

I

I never saw Stan play (his last game was before I was born) and I was raised in a family of diehard Cubs fans. But based on everything that’s been said about Stan in these last few days, it seems to me that if anyone in Major League Baseball achieved bona fide sainthood, Stan did. And he did it simply by doing his job, doing it well, treating everyone with respect, and bringing them joy whenever he could. St. Louis and the “Cardinal Nation” were extremely blessed to have had him.

There are very few men in sports truly worthy of emulation. Like Stan Musial, I was fortunate enough to have Harmon Killebrew as my childhood sports idol, another truly magnificent human being.

I was only five when Stan retired, and so never saw him play. But from an early age I was fascinated with the history of the game. So it was that growing up, and even now, one of my favorite players was from before my time. There are players in the Musial mold today, but one has to look for them (Tim Hudson of the Braves comes to mind), but even then, he was one of a kind. Thanks very much for posting this, Chris.

I only saw Stan Musial live once on a ball field. My Dad had taken me to see the Cardinals play an exhibition game against their minor league affiliate the Billings (Montana) Mustangs, at Cobb Field. He took a pitch or two in his first at bat and proceeded to hit the next pitch not only out of the park, but a block beyond the fence, the longest ball I have ever seen hit in my life. I know the players on that rookie league team were in awe of the big league players, but especially “Stan the Man”. I only wish I had taken advantage of a chance to get his autograph!

Elaine, did you know that Stan got his 3,000th hit at Wrigley Field? None of that hold-him-out-until-we-get-home business back then.

Ed, you don’t happen to remember what year that was, do you? Because I was born in Billings (1955) and seeing a Mustangs game in person is on my to-do list before I check out of this mortal coil.

Chris

as much as I do not like Costas,the talk he made about Musial was great.My late wife was at an opening of Central Hardware store when she was a teenager.Stan was there,if you bought a baseball for 89 cents,he would sign it.we still have the baseball.

we will all miss the MAN.

Harry

I lived in St. Louis from about 1948 to 1950…there were still two baseball teams then, I believe…and went to many Cardinals games. Stan Musial was a legend that has stayed with me all my life. Sad to think he’s gone.