In a few weeks, Stanislaus Francis Musial will celebrate his ninetieth birthday, and will do so as baseball's Greatest Living Hitter. That he is an all-time great is beyond dispute; that he's the all-time great farthest below the radar is equally beyond dispute.
For 22 seasons, Stan Musial drove the St. Louis Cardinals. He did so quietly, without the jaw-dropping flash of Willie Mays, without the big-city spotlight of DiMaggio and Mantle, without the tempestuousness of Ted Williams. Year after year, he cranked out .330, .340, .350, and made it look entirely too easy. He absolutely snookered you into thinking, "Hell, I can do that!"
Curt Flood tells a great story about Musial in Ken Burns' "Baseball". Musial was in the last third of his career when Flood came up as a rookie in 1956, and was in the midst of a typical torrid hitting stretch when the astounded rook asked in exasperated bewilderment, "Stan, how do you DO it?"
Musial thought it over a moment, and said, "Well, Curt, you just get a strike, and knock the heck out of it." Forty years later, Flood's face still had a look of astonishment: "It really was that simple for Stan Musial."
He retired at the end of the 1963 season as the all-time National League leader in hits with 3,630. He hit .331 lifetime; seven times the NL batting champion, he was in his SIXTEENTH season, at 38 years of age, before he finished out of the top five in the NL in batting. His day-to-day, year-over-year consistency was simply remarkable. Again, from Ken Burns' "Baseball", comes this tidbit from noted baseball whackjob George Will: "Baseball's rich in wonderful statistics, but it's hard to find one more beautiful than Stan Musial's hitting record. Stan Musial got 3,630 hits; 1,815 at home, 1,815 on the road. He didn't care where he was; he just hit."
Oh, the hell with it. Read this by Joe Posnanski instead; he's written it much better than I can.
The point of all of this? Happy Birthday, Mr. Musial.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
