Stan the Man: The Greatest Cardinal of Them All

Forgive me for the tardiness of this post, but it wouldn't be right to not acknowledge the great Stan Musial's passing. The Man passed away at the age of 92 on January 19th and his death meant a part of the St. Louis Cardinals franchise died as well. Stan Musial is widely considered the greatest Cardinal ever and the baseball world lost one of the best hitters to ever pick up a bat.

Stan the Man played all 22 seasons in St. Louis and is one of the few players who is defined by a franchise, but also defines the franchise. Stan Musial and the St. Louis Cardinals are synonymous. There aren't many players who have that element to their career, but the Man enjoyed his entire career in the same number six Cardinal jersey.

What a career it was too. Musial has impressive numbers with 3,630 hits and a lifetime .331 batting average, but in some ways its the numbers that he came up just short of that stick out. He belted 475 career home runs and batted in 1,951 runs, falling just short of the 500 home runs and 2,000 RBI plateaus. Interestingly enough, there's almost no doubt that Musial would have surpassed both feats had he not lost a year of his prime in 1945 due to military service. Like many ball players, he enlisted in the armed forces during World War II and his absence from the diamond that season is the reason he is short of two other milestones. However, that's not to take away from his decision to enlist. In fact, it's even more respectable that he left the game to serve his country.

Despite not reaching those two milestones, Musial has plenty of other numbers to focus on. He batted over .300 in 18 of his 22 seasons and led the league seven times with his personal best (.376) coming in 1948. Six times Musial led the league in hits and he was tops in RBI twice. He led the league in runs scored five times, doubles eight times and perhaps most shocking: triples five times. Musial could flat out hit and he was named MVP three times and was a 24-time All-Star. He also led St. Louis to three World Series titles.

The Man played in an era with some of the most decorated hitters the game has ever seen such as Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams. Last year I had the privilege to spend time with former Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine. Erskine pitched 12 seasons for the Dodgers and as I sat and talked with him over breakfast last spring the question I wanted to ask the most was who was the best hitter he ever faced? I'm not sure you could really pick someone from that list, but I decided to pose the question to Erskine anyway.

He sat back and pondered the question for quite some time and even told me that I didn't know how hard it was to pick just one player. However, he eventually leaned forward and explained that Musial was the greatest hitter he ever faced. Although Erskine's numbers against Musial are exceptional he still feared The Man. His reasoning for giving Musial the award was that there was no good place to pitch the ball. Musial, as Erskine said, had no weak spots in the strike zone and he didn't rely on his power to get on base. He was a complete hitter. Considering the players that were also in the game at the same time as Musial, for a pitcher to say that he was the greatest is extremely high praise.

Regarded as one of baseball's true gentleman, Musial was respected by everyone from teammates to opponents, but perhaps no one loved Musial as much as the city of St. Louis. Not one, but two statues stand outside of Busch Stadium. In today's game it is unheard of for a player to play his entire career for one team and so the likelihood that a player will ever be so ingrained in a franchise as Musial is nearly impossible. He was loved in St. Louis, but he was also loved in opponents' parks as well.

Baseball lost a legend on Saturday and the Cardinals lost their greatest player ever, however, he is immortalized outside Busch Stadium and inside the hallowed halls of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He's a prime example of how the game should be played and how a man should behave on and off the field and there is no doubt that he is deserving of simply being called The Man.