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| − | '''Stan "the Man" Musial''' was a professional baseball player who spent all of his career with the [[St. Louis Cardinals]], playing in 24 All-Star games during his 22-year career. He was one of the greatest hitters ever, rivaling and even surpassing Ted Williams and Babe Ruth according to some analysts. Musial had an unusual batting style that resembled a corkscrew as he unwound to hit the ball. He could hit to any field, and had better speed running the bases than Williams or Ruth had. Musial struck out substantially less often than Williams, Ruth, and Barry Bonds. Musial had many extraordinary seasons.<ref>http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/stan-musial-s-career-through-the-years/article_0965847f-f3f8-593c-95bb-c698fad6c25e.html</ref> Interestingly, of his 3,630 career hits, he had exactly as many on the road as at home (1,815). | + | '''Stan "the Man" Musial''' was a professional baseball player who spent all of his career with the [[St. Louis Cardinals]], playing in 24 All-Star games during his 22-year career. He was one of the greatest hitters ever, rivaling and even surpassing [[Ted Williams]] and [[Babe Ruth]] according to some analysts. Musial had an unusual batting style that resembled a corkscrew as he unwound to hit the ball. He could hit to any field, and had better speed running the bases than Williams or Ruth had. Musial struck out substantially less often than Williams, Ruth, and Barry Bonds, and Musial had many extraordinary seasons.<ref>http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/stan-musial-s-career-through-the-years/article_0965847f-f3f8-593c-95bb-c698fad6c25e.html</ref> Interestingly, of his 3,630 career hits, he had exactly as many on the road as at home (1,815), demonstrating that he did not rely on a home-field advantage. Though not known as a home-run slugger, Musial had a higher career slugging percentage than even [[Mickey Mantle]] and [[Babe Ruth]]. |
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| − | Ty Cobb, the top vote-getter among the initial inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame, said about Stan Musial:<ref>Life Magazine, 1952, quoted in https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1493164-making-a-case-for-stan-musial-as-the-greatest-hitter-in-baseball-history</ref> | + | [[Ty Cobb]], the top vote-getter among the initial inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame, said about Stan Musial:<ref>Life Magazine, 1952, quoted in https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1493164-making-a-case-for-stan-musial-as-the-greatest-hitter-in-baseball-history</ref> |
| | {{cquote|No man has ever been a perfect ballplayer. Stan Musial, however, is the closest to being perfect in the game today.... He plays as hard when his club is away out in front of a game as he does when they're just a run or two behind.}} | | {{cquote|No man has ever been a perfect ballplayer. Stan Musial, however, is the closest to being perfect in the game today.... He plays as hard when his club is away out in front of a game as he does when they're just a run or two behind.}} |
| − | He would supposedly gauge the speed of the ball thrown by the pitcher in its first 30 feet, and based on his memorization of the different speeds used by that pitcher Musial could predict whether the ball was a fastball, curve or slider. Then he could estimate how the ball would move as it approached the plate. That might explain his phenomenal performance against star pitchers he faced repeatedly, such as [[Sandy Koufax]], while not performing as well in [[World Series]] games against unfamiliar pitchers.
| + | Musial would supposedly gauge the speed of the ball thrown by the pitcher in its first 30 feet, and based on his memorization of the different speeds used by that pitcher Musial could predict whether the ball was a fastball, curve or slider. Then he could estimate how the ball would move as it approached the plate. That might explain his phenomenal performance against star pitchers he faced repeatedly, such as [[Sandy Koufax]], while not performing as well in [[World Series]] games against unfamiliar pitchers. |
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| | A devout [[Catholic]], Musial was married for 72 years.<ref>http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130119/SPORTS/130119692?Title=Stan-Musial-who-had-major-Daytona-Beach-connections-dead-at-92</ref> | | A devout [[Catholic]], Musial was married for 72 years.<ref>http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130119/SPORTS/130119692?Title=Stan-Musial-who-had-major-Daytona-Beach-connections-dead-at-92</ref> |