As a die hard St. Louis Cardinals fan, you guys KNOW I am bummed. :'(
A man amongst boys.
Mr. St. Louis Baseball for sure.
All who love the game are feeling just like you. Too bad Albert couldn't figure things out.... he could have been another St Louis legend as well.
:good: B-)
Earl Weaver, too...
"The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers."
-Earl Weaver
Stan Musial was born and raised in Donora, PA, which is a little mining town along the Monongahela River about 20 miles north of where I live. Also from the same town (population is about 3000) is Ken Griffey. The next town up the river is Monongahela, home of the one and only Joe Montana.
As a 5th grader in 1963, and a Little League baseball kid growing up in Columbia Missouri and a member of the Russell Boulevard Elementary School safety patrol (helping to protect classmates from safety hazards-- I got a nice certificate for that), I got a chance to watch one of Stan's last games of his career. It was at Sportsman's Park (also known as Busch Stadium at the time, but nobody called it that). The Cardinals always put on a "Safety Patrol Day" when kids could bus in to St Louis and go to the ballpark for free. Stan the Man was our idol. Every kid tried to emulate his trademark hunched-over batting stance, hoping it would some day take us to the major leagues. In that almost-last-game of his career, Stan stroked an RBI pinch-hit double to win the game in the bottom of the 9th inning against the (then) Milwaukee Braves. Safety Patrol kids from all over the state of Missouri went crazy in the stands like only kids can. The game was also notable because Hank Aaron had homered in the 8th to tie the game up. I'm very lucky to have seen these two hall-of-famers in the same game, both playing great baseball. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Stan Musial continued to promote baseball in St Louis long after his career was over, and did many good things for the youth of Missouri. He's pretty much my favorite baseball player of all time. He's up in baseball heaven now, hittin' screaming line drives for singles and doubles against the likes of Cy Young, Satchel Paige and Bob Feller.
God Bless you, Stan. You definitely were The Man.
> Safety Patrol kids from all over the state of Missouri went crazy in the stands like only kids can.
This is me when my Cardinals win. Since 1982 I have been a fan and when they win a playoff and/or a series I absolutely go crazy beyond crazy. ESPECIALLY when they win a World Series. I lose my mind!!! :woot:
Not sure why because I don't get like this with anything else...movie stars don't do it, Hawaii don't do it...OK I have to admit a winning lottery ticket would do it... B-)
I just love this team so. :love:
It will be neat to see what they do for Opening Day now that Stan is gone. I suspect a big memorial tribute of some sort. :star:
Here's a great video from ESPN on Stan The Man Musial... :-$
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8860690/st-louis-cardinals-hall-famer-stan-musial-dies-age-92
Seems like we are loosing all kinds of people this week.
It sure has been rough on me.
> This is me when my Cardinals win. Since 1982 I have been a fan and when they win a playoff and/or a series I absolutely go crazy beyond crazy. ESPECIALLY when they win a World Series. I lose my mind!!! :woot:
>
I grew up in Cards country - born and bred. Ironically the year after that 82 season I moved down here. Guess who they whooped? The Braves. Needless to say I wasn't a very popular feller here watching the ball games back then.
That's ok. Now I'm a Braves fan but still keep my eye on my red birds. Probably always will.
They gave an awesome fair well to Chipper last year.
Earl Weaver, too...
"This ain't football. We do this every day."
I read somewhere that Musial was a teammate of Ken Griffey Sr.'s daddy in youth ball, or something like that.
Someone suggested that his body needs to lay in state in Busch Stadium.
"How good was Stan Musial? He was good enough to take your breath away."
— Vin Scully
and he made my jaw drop as a kid in 1960 at the all star game at yankee statdium.
My dad took me to that game because it was loaded with yankee players in the AL line-up.
I remeber and always will the homer that Stan The Man hit in the late innings that sort of sealed the defeat with me.
It was a rising line drive that hooked deeply into right field and the sound of the bat was like a rifle shot. We were sitting in the mezz just left of homeplate so I saw the true parabolic screaming flight of the ball. My dad turned to me and my jaw was dropped and then I gave him a smile. Even though I was an AL star fan, I know that I just saw a real all star hit a supra major league HR>
He was on my top ten list of favroite players from that day on.
Matter of fact, he hit the hardest hit baseball that I ever saw in life.
WV , if he is playing in any all star games ,he is probaly hitting HRs since he owns the MLB All Star game record for HR here on Earth.
So
Missing these from the greatest generation. And I doubt
performance enhancing drugs were involved.
> Someone suggested that his body needs to lay in state in Busch Stadium.
Agreed. That would definitely be something special.... :star:
> Missing these from the greatest generation. And I doubt
> performance enhancing drugs were involved.
Well said Coady....ya know back then it was actual baseball, not "Performance Inhanced" baseball. 😐