Baseball’s knight of olde
August 31st, 2010 by John MorrisToday, I read an old Sports Illustrated with one of my childhood baseball idols on the cover: Stan the Man Musial.
Back in the 1950s, my idols list was topped by Richie Ashburn mostly because he was a small man who played against larger men and often came out on top.
Musial was my favorite non-Phillie. While my friends differed on their favorites, I learned most of them listed him as I did. When the Phillies played the Cardinals, we’d want the Phillies to win and Musial to do well.
There was something about “the man” that evoked the qualities of national pastime during its golden era. No pitcher wanted to face him with the game in dispute. He was always listed among the leaders in the hitting categories. Above it all, there was never a sharp word or an embarrassing story written about him. He seemed almost to live in a higher state than the other mere mortals who played a boy’s game for a living.
Stan the Man Musial was the guest speaker at a business convention I attended. At the end of his seminar, the MC said Musial had autographed a baseball and a bat for two lucky attendees. The ball was given to the oldest woman there. Round of applause as the ball changed hands with a thank you kiss causing Musial to mug playfully to the audience.
Then it was announced the bat would go to the person in the room whose birthday came closest to Stan’s. Those of us who celebrated November birthdays were asked to stand. The MC announced Musial’s birthday in a slow, deliberate manner, “Stan was born on . . . . November . . . . . .twenty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . one”.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Musial
My hopes soared with the possibility I could win this trophy and meet a genuine larger than life idol. I even knew where I’d put the bat in my home.
As I looked around at the others standing, the MC played out the suspense by asking one of us for his birthday. His shout of “14th” started yelps of other dates from the others. It turned out my 29th lost to someone born on the 26th. So close. It wasn’t my day for a meeting my younger self could only dream about.
Read the following article, and I believe you’ll agree we would all welcome someone writing such an article about us.
It would be a much better world if we all deserved such tributes.