1 of 1- forsberg_us
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The Man Passes Away
Sorry, I just couldn't post this under the Silver Hammer Guy's thread.
It won't seem the same on Opening Day and other occasions without his presence.
Last edited by forsberg_us (1/19/2013 8:02 pm)
- artie_fufkin
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Re: The Man Passes Away
So sad. Rest in peace, Stan. Greatest Cardinal ever.
- alz
- Larry Walker
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Re: The Man Passes Away
I didn't see it here. I'll remove mine, and put it here. I just heard. Shed a tear, then came to the site here. I know he couldn't live forever, but the world is a much sadder place then yesterday.
Here stands baseball's perfect warrior. Here stands baseball's perfect knight.
RIP Stan.
- JV
- Ray Lankford
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Re: The Man Passes Away
R.B. Fallstrom's AP writeup, featured on Yahoo, was quite good. Stan is a legend.
- APIAD
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Re: The Man Passes Away
The Man, Rip
- forsberg_us
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Re: The Man Passes Away
JV wrote:
R.B. Fallstrom's AP writeup, featured on Yahoo, was quite good. Stan is a legend.
I thought Passan did a nice job also.
I was familiar with most of Musial's numbers, but one stat I kept reading about yesterday--how little he struck out--stunned me. From Passan's piece:
"He loathed strikeouts. Not just your run-of-the-mill loathing for a player from an era where hitters considered strikeouts an odious breach of duty. Musial couldn't stand the idea of an at-bat where he missed either a good pitch to hit or a swing of the bat three times. The antidote, of course, was simple: don't strike out. And he didn't.
Musial's single-season high in strikeouts was 46. White Sox DH Adam Dunn struck out 48 times last May. In his seasons with 600 or more plate appearances, Musial's strikeout totals were: 40, 39, 39, 39, 38, 36, 34, 32, 31, 29, 28, 24 and 18. Musial finished his career with more doubles (725) than strikeouts (699)."
In 1943, Musial struck out 18 times in 700 plate appearances. 18!!! Let that sink in a minute. Baseball is roughly a 6 month sport. Musial averaged 3 strikeouts a month. Once every 10 days. That's insane.
Last edited by forsberg_us (1/20/2013 11:29 am)
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Thread Starter- artie_fufkin
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Re: The Man Passes Away
"Musial's single-season high in strikeouts was 46."
And he still managed to hit all those home runs, proving you could be a power hitter and a contact hitter, not just either/or like it is today.
Obviously, none of us ever saw him play. But I don't know if there's a person in baseball who was still more highly-regarded than Stan, even 50 years after he retired. I never read one bad thing about him.
- alz
- Larry Walker
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Re: The Man Passes Away
Bob Costas' Eulogy
Worth watching if you hadn't seen it.
- artie_fufkin
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Re: The Man Passes Away
Bob Costas' Eulogy
Worth watching if you hadn't seen it.
I saw clips of it over the weekend, and even though I've come down with a mild case of Costas Fatigue since MLBN debuted, that story about him playing cards with the black players is touching.
One of the wags here compared Musial's relationship with St. Louis to Ted Williams' relationship to Boston. If you're talking about the best player in the history of their respective franchises, then it's a valid comparison, but Williams was a complicated guy who for almost his entire playing career had an adversarial relationship with the press and fans. Stan's hallmark was his simplicity. I don't mean that he was simple, but the way he put people at ease made him likeable. Musial was twice the human being Williams ever hoped to be.
- tkihshbt
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Re: The Man Passes Away
Did Williams even reside in Boston during the offseason?
- artie_fufkin
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Did Williams even reside in Boston during the offseason?
I don't think so, but that isn't as big a deal here as it is in St. Louis. Some guys barely live here while they're here. Manny Ramirez used to stay in a suite at the Ritz during the season.
I remember talking in the stands to a couple of fans from St. Louis when the Cardinals came to play a 3-game series at Fenway in 2003. When one of them said she didn't like La Russa, I asked why, expecting to hear about his over-managing tendenices or some baseball-related explanation, and she said "Because he doesn't live in St. Louis during the off-season."
- Max
- Colby Rasmus
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Re: The Man Passes Away
ernie banks and the cubs, if you bring everything down to the level of the cubs.
- tkihshbt
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Re: The Man Passes Away
Did Williams even reside in Boston during the offseason?
I don't think so, but that isn't as big a deal here as it is in St. Louis. Some guys barely live here while they're here. Manny Ramirez used to stay in a suite at the Ritz during the season.
I remember talking in the stands to a couple of fans from St. Louis when the Cardinals came to play a 3-game series at Fenway in 2003. When one of them said she didn't like La Russa, I asked why, expecting to hear about his over-managing tendenices or some baseball-related explanation, and she said "Because he doesn't live in St. Louis during the off-season."
That's a funny story and not at all surprising. I recall hearing several times that Musial could be seen around town during the offseason, which was part of the way he connected with so many people even though he stopped playing 50 years ago. I suppose people in St. Louis are so bummed that they have to live here that they want our athletes to share in the misery.
Speaking of which, someone on my Facebook yesterday posted a picture she took of Albert Pujols at Chuck E. Cheese. I wanted to tell her to ask him how the playoffs were.