Stan The Man

Earlier this month, on January 19th, baseball lost one of  its greatest ambassadors, Stan Musial.   A St. Louis Cardinal for 22 years, Stan made his debut in the major leagues in September of 1941.

As a young boy, I developed a passion for baseball and became a fan of Stan Musial in his twilight years, a lot of it having to do with him appearing on boxes of Wheaties, a cereal that I ate faithfully growing up.

He retired in 1963.   Too bad because the Cardinals won the World Series in 1964.

The most beloved member of the Cardinal family, Musial was the first player in Cardinals history to have his uniform number retired, and he was a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection in 1969, being named on 93 percent of the ballots. At his retirement ceremony at the end of the 1963 season, Musial was referred to as “baseball’s perfect warrior, baseball’s perfect knight ” by Commissioner Ford C. Frick.  

No wonder people called him, “Stan the Man”.