Stan Musial

by George Vecsey

  Epilogue

  HERE HE COMES NOW

  I WAS told I would not get to meet Musial while I was working on this book. For one thing, he was smoldering over an earlier biography about him by another writer, and for another, he was not up to being interviewed.

  Old players shook their heads and lowered their voices as they told me Stan was, um, not doing well. After seeing the lovely photo of Musial’s trusting face as he leaned on Pujols on opening day, I was convinced I would never meet him.

  Oh, we had met in 1962 and 1963, when the Mets writers would go out with Casey on a Saturday night to Stan and Biggie’s. The Old Man would have a scotch or three and laugh it up with Stanley, but I had never really connected with the hero of my first year as a child fan, and now I realized I never would.

  The day after my brief conversation with Albert Pujols in the clubhouse in 2009, I was the guest of a dear friend of Musial’s, Colonel James Hackett, once the deputy police chief of St. Louis. They went way back, to when Hackett did odd jobs at the ballpark as a kid. A Gene Hackman look-alike (in one of Hackman’s more sympathetic roles), Hackett was clearly saddened by his friend’s diminishment.

  Hackett invited me and John McGuire, the legendary St. Louis reporter, to the grille at the Missouri Athletic Club. The general manager, Larry Thompson, has accumulated Musial memorabilia—photos and jackets and autographed balls—in the area called the Musial Room.

  “This is Stan’s table,” Hackett said, nodding toward the number 6 Cardinals jersey hanging on the wall over our table. “He eats here when he comes around.”

  Then Hackett looked past me.

  “Here he comes now,” he said.

  Stan the Man was in a wheelchair, being pushed by his grandson Brian Schwarze.

  “You set it up,” I told Hackett, jokingly.

  The man, after all, was a detective. He could do anything.

  “Not at all,” Hackett said. “Total coincidence.”

  Musial smiled warily at Hackett, as if from a great distance. McGuire, who had met him often, and I were introduced briefly, and of course, I did not mention my book project. Musial extended his hand and I shook it. It was soft and warm and supple, and I realized it was true, as Bob Gibson had said: for a .331 hitter, he had small hands.

  Musial was taken to a back table while we continued with our lunch at the Musial Table. Stan was not having one of his good days. Tough to see. Jim Hackett grew quiet.

  In the months ahead, I would talk to several hundred people, almost all of whom love Stan Musial, who think he is one of the most special people they ever met. I am grateful for the memory of the warmth of his hand.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Not every writer gets to look into the life of somebody he has admired since he was a child; even fewer writers retain the same admiration when they are finished. So I am doubly privileged.

  I am grateful to many people, starting with Steve Wulf at ESPN Books and Paul Taunton, Kelly Chian, Cindy Murray, and Mark Tavani at Ballantine Books, who sensed my long respect for Stan Musial. I appreciate their giving me time and leeway to do the book my way, and for their insights and suggestions.

  Also, I thank Esther Newberg of International Creative Management, for always being on my side.

  My editors at the New York Times, Tom Jolly, Sandy Keenan, and Jay Schreiber, were more than considerate with my vacations and days owed, and I thank them.

  So many kind people explained Stan Musial when he could not do it for himself. John McGuire, a journalism legend in St. Louis, opened doors and got me going with his enthusiasm. Then he went to sleep one night and did not wake up. Corporal McGuire, you were supposed to celebrate with me.

  William Bottonari wanted to make one Donora run with me. I regret that he did not have the time.

  And I also honor Robin Roberts, who loved Musial—despite the 10 home runs.

  My insights into the Musial family are graced by Gerry (“not Geraldine”) Ashley, who opened her abundant heart and memory.

  Tom Ashley shared his filmmaker’s memory and his love of the Musial family.

  All the other good people I will place in alphabetical order.

  Marty Adler. Ruben Amaro Sr. Craig Anderson. Marty Appel. Tom Ashley Jr. Brian Bartow. Fred Bear. Jack Bell. Bill Bergesch. Howard Berk. Jack Berke. Ira Berkow. Yogi Berra. Dick Bily. Dr. Mieczyslaw B. B. Biskupski. Curt Block. Doug Boyd, Ph.D., director, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries. Ralph Branca. Eddie Brash. David Brokaw. Howard Bryant.

  Lou (Bimbo) Cecconi, for the memorable tour of Donora. Brian Charlton. Julia Cheiffetz. Larry Christenson, for his love of Stan Musial and Ed Piszek, and his generosity. Adam Clymer. Dick Collins. Ray Corio. Bob Costas. George Crowe. The Hon. Bill Cunningham, Supreme Court of Kentucky. Angie Dickinson. William O. DeWitt Jr. Scott Dine. All the staff at the Donora Public Library: director Beth Vaccaro, archivist Donnis Headley, and Mary Olivieri, Dennis Lomax, and Judy Thomas. Joseph Dorinson, Long Island University.

  Mark Durand, senior director, ESPN Films, who found transcripts, videos, and contacts for me. Gerald Early. Mark and Marisa Fasciano. Karen Wessel Fox. Jim Frey. Roman Gackowski. Joe Garagiola. Ned Garver. James N. Giglio, whose research and writing blazed the trail. Jeff Gold (Tapeman), Creative Seminars, West Hurley, New York. Victor Gold.

  Col. James J. Hackett. John Hall. Fran Healy. Solly Hemus. Pat Henry. Brian Herman, Valley Independent, Monessen, Pennsylvania. Robert R. Hermann. Keith Hernandez. Mark R. Hornak. Sam Hornak. Jay Horwitz. Arlene Howard. Col. Frank Hungerford. Chris Ilardi. Monte Irvin. Stan Isaacs. Alvin Jackson. Roger Kahn. David Kaplan, director, Yogi Berra Museum, Montclair, New Jersey. Steve Kaufman. Michael Kimmelman, European cultural correspondent for the New York Times. Ralph Kiner. John Kopchak. Ed Kranepool. Jim Kreuz. Laurel Laidlaw, Stan Musial Society, Washington, D.C.

  Jane Leavy, my pal, who did such a great job with Mickey Mantle while I worked on Stanley. Richard Levin. Danny and Pat Litwhiler. Evan Makovsky. Frank Mankiewicz. Boris “Babe” Martin. Dal Maxvill. Tim McCarver. John McDermott. Joe McDonald. Tom McEwen. Mickey McTague, who volunteered for duty when Corporal McGuire went down and gave me great insight into his beloved St. Louis. Ed Mickelson. McGraw Milhaven. George Mitrovich. The Monessen Public Library, for the microfilm of Musial’s high school basketball games in 1938. Irvin Muchnick. Edward S. Musial.

  All my friends at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum: Jeff Idelson, president; Tim Wiles, director, research; James Lloyd Gates Jr., librarian; Bill Francis, who always gets back to me; Freddie Berowski, library associate; John Horne, photo department. Helen Piszek Nelson. Jack Nelson, the legendary Scoop. Don Newcombe. Nick Nicolosi. Paul Nuzzolese. Carroll O’Connor. Jim O’Leary of the Sports Gallery, Toronto, for the introduction to the Sport magazine collection and photographs. Gene Orza. Robbie Oswald. Mark Pawelec. Ulice Payne Jr. Neal Pease, associate professor and chair, Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Rosalie Peck. Nicholas J. C. Pistor. Dean Plocher. Joe Pollack. James H. Prime. Joe Ravasio, Ringgold High, Pennsylvania. Josh Rawitch. Kit Reath. Joshua Robinson.

  Ray Robinson, for the great lunches and the advice on writing biographies. Abe Schear. Betty Jane Schmidt. Freddy Schmidt. Alan Schwarz, for the technology tips. Bob Schwarz. Tom Schwarz. Charles Selden. Bud Selig. Stephen Shepard, General Research Division, New York Public Library, and also David Smith, his predecessor and a beacon to researchers for a generation. George Shuba. Mike Shuba. My colleague Michael B. Sisak III. Brad Smith. Claire Smith. Curt Smith.

  Dr. Charles E. Stacey, Donora Historical Society, a wise and friendly presence. Jim Swire. Alan Taxerman. Wayne Terwilliger. Larry L. Thompson, general manager, Missouri Athletic Club. John Thorn. Richard L. Thornburgh, who gave me a primer on jury selection in 1971 and insight into Musial in 2009. Joe Torre. Ed Van, St. Petersburg, Florida, NAACP. Dr. Ben Vanek. Fay Vincent. Bill Wakefield. The Hon. Reggie B. Walton. Ron Watermon, Director of Public Relations & Civic Affairs, St
. Louis Cardinals. Willie Weinbaum, producer, ESPN, for some amazing introductions. Ron Weiss. Bill White, Allentown Call-Chronicle. Bill White, former Cardinal. Mildred White. Mike Whiteford. Rick Wilber. Ethan Wilson. Ralph Wimbish. Jim Woodcock, Fleishman-Hilliard Sports Business. Zev Yaroslavsky. John H. Zentay. Jason Zillo. Dick Zitzmann, vice president, Stan the Man, Inc.

  Our children, Laura Vecsey, Corinna V. Wilson, and David Vecsey, encouraged me and at the same time explained to their children where Pop was during the past two years.

  My wife, Marianne Graham Vecsey, could have been painting, but instead she kept me going with sound advice and comfort when I was miserable or absent, somewhere back in 1946. I keep saying I will make up for all the distractions.

  To everybody who got me through, thank you.

  Notes

  1 | THE DO-OVER

  1 “Ughhhh,” Selig groaned: Bud Selig, interview, Nov. 20, 2008.

  2 Fortunately, Bud Selig’s oversight committee: Email messages from Richard Levin, John Thorn, and Gene Orza.

  3 “The first thing we said was”: Bob Costas, interview, Nov. 18, 2008.

  4 “St. Louis thinks of itself”: Rick Wilber, interview, Mar. 25, 2010.

  5 The statue is just about: Roger Kahn, “Of Galahad and Quests That Failed,” Sports Illustrated, Aug. 23, 1976.

  6 “May I tell you”: Marty Marion, interview on ESPN SportsCentury, Nov. 29, 2000.

  7 “Oh, it wasn’t unanimous”: Jim Murray, “Let’s Hear It for the Guy in the White Hat, Stan the Man,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 23, 1969.

  8 “If they’d traded uniforms”: Dave Kindred, quoted in Kevin Cowherd, “Baseball: The ‘All-Century Team’ from Some Serious Fans,” Baltimore Sun, Oct. 25, 1999.

  2 | LUCKY STANLEY

  1 Tim McCarver was called up: Chapter is derived from an interview with Tim McCarver on Nov. 13, 2008. Also from the video by ESPN, SportsCentury, 2000.

  3 | THE OLD MASTER

  1 “The image of Musial”: Bill James, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Villard, 1986), 633.

  2 One was the Black Ink test: http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/leader_glossary.shtml.

  3 so-called Gray Ink test: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/gray_ink.shtml.

  4 In 2001, James ranked: Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Free Press, 2001).

  5 “Serene dependability”: Ira Berkow, “In the Editing Room With: Woody Allen; From Defense to Offense,” New York Times, Nov. 2, 1995.

  6 Many other odes to Musial: Articles from Sport magazine, courtesy of Jim O’Leary, the Sports Gallery, Toronto.

  7 Almost by accident, I postulated: George Vecsey, Baseball: A History of America’s Favorite Game (New York: Modern Library Chronicles, 2006).

  8 Frank Mankiewicz, interview, Nov. 25, 2008; Victor Gold, interview, Nov. 25, 2008.

  9 “It has taken a while”: Michael Kimmelman, “Pierre Bonnard Retrospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris,” New York Times, Mar. 30, 2006.

  10 Asked to name: Emails from Michael Kimmelman, 2009.

  11 “I’m happy to be”: Mike Sullivan, “Musial Didn’t Find Oversight Unusual; Stan the Man Has Fond Memories,” Columbus Dispatch. Oct. 25, 1969.

  12 “It’s what the fans wanted”: Rick Hummel, “In Return to Park, Rose Makes an Impact,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 25, 1999.

  4 | STANLEY HITS

  1 Frey thought he might: Jim Frey, interview, Feb. 22, 2009.

  2 Frey would never play: George Vecsey, “The Race by Numbers,” New York Times, Sep. 10, 1984.

  5 | THE STANCE

  1 Perhaps he used the whaddayasay: Stan Musial: “The Man’s” Own Story, as Told to Bob Broeg (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964), 12.

  2 “I said, ‘My question is this’ ”: Fay Vincent, interview, Dec. 30, 2008.

  3 the Strangest Batting Stance: Bill James, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Villard, 1986), 202.

  4 Ted Lyons, an older pitcher: James N. Giglio, Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 2001), xi.

  5 “Musial reminds me of a housewife”: Stan Musial: “The Man’s” Own Story, 252.

  6 “The only real good hitter”: Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson, with Lonnie Wheeler, Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher and a Hall of Fame Hitter Talk About How the Game Is Played (New York: Doubleday, 2009), 38.

  7 “Stan Musial will twist around”: Gibson and Jackson, Sixty Feet, Six Inches, 48.

  8 “I never thought”: Ralph Kiner, interview, Aug. 24, 2009.

  9 “Every time I see Stan”: Don Newcombe, interview, Jan. 7, 2009.

  10 “The preliminary movement”: Branch Rickey, interviewed in The Legend of Stan the Man Musial, 1990, produced by Mark Durand and Thomas J. Ashley.

  11 “Stance is not so important”: Halls of Fame: Stan Musial, MSG Network.

  12 “I said, ‘Stan’ ”: Ed Kranepool, interview, Apr. 21, 2010.

  13 “I have a theory”: Ed Mickelson, letter 2009.

  14 “Curt, all you can do”: Joe Garagiola, Just Play Ball (Flagstaff, Ariz.: Northland Publishing, 2007), 142–43.

  15 “Do you guess?”: Roger Kahn, “Of Galahad and Quests That Failed,” Sports Illustrated, Aug. 23, 1976.

  16 Roberts said he had exactly one: Robin Roberts, interview, Jan. 27, 2009.

  6 | A HAND ON THE SHOULDER

  1 John Hall’s father died: John Hall, interview, Feb. 2, 2009.

  7 | LUKASZ AND MARY

  1 In the afternoon: Stan Musial: “The Man’s” Own Story, 6.

  2 Lukasz Musial was not much more: Wayne Stewart, Stan the Man: The Life and Times of Stan Musial (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2010), 7.

  3 “They didn’t even have enough money”: Gerry Ashley, interviews, Mar. 1, 2009, and Jul. 2010.

  4 When the boy was seven: Stewart, Stan the Man, 7.

  5 “As far as drinking”: Mark Pawelec, interview, Apr. 2, 2009.

  6 “I think he struggled with alcohol”: Gerry Ashley, interview, Nov. 2009.

  7 Family members told Broeg: Stan Musial: “The Man’s” Own Story, 7.

  8 according to immigration records: Giglio, Musial, 4.

  9 The family’s name was pronounced: Stan Musial, “The Man’s” Own Story, 46.

  10 although the marriage certificate: Giglio, Musial, 5.

  11 There was a pecking order: Bimbo Cecconi, interview, Mar. 24, 2009.

  12 “Mommy did a lot of housework”: Ed Musial, interview on ESPN SportsCentury, Dec. 18, 2000.

  13 carrying homemade bread: Bill Bottonari, interview, Nov. 12, 2008.

  14 “My grandmother would tell me”: Gerry Ashley, interview, Nov. 2009.

  15 “I’ll never forget the ‘hunky’ dishes”: Stan Musial, “The Man’s” Own Story, 8.

  16 He liked being called Stash: Ruben Amaro Sr., interview, Mar. 2010.

  17 “She did not care”: Ray Robinson, interview, 2009.

  18 “Mr. Musial never had”: Ray Robinson, Stan Musial: Baseball’s Durable “Man” (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1963), 12.

  19 “We had a shaft”: Ed Musial, interview on ESPN SportsCentury.

  20 “He was always the nice boy”: Roger Kahn, “The Man: Stan Musial Is Baseball’s No. 1 Citizen,” Sport, Feb. 1958.

  21 in a classic study: Bryng Bryngelson and Thomas J. Clark, “Left-Handedness and Stuttering,” Journal of Heredity, 24 (1933): 10.

  22 “I saw a group of women”: Kahn, “The Man.”

  23 Stan was alert, observant: Betty Jane Schmidt, interview, 2008.

  24 “Three times a week”: Stan Musial, “The Man’s” Own Story, 11.

  25 Upon Frank’s death: Pawelec, interview, Apr. 2, 2009.

  26 “One thing the children of alcoholics”: Roger Rosenblatt, “Person of the Year,” Time, Jan. 2, 1981.

  27 “Addicted parents often lack”: National Association of Children of Alcoholics, “Children of Addicted
Parents: Important Facts,” http://www.nacoa.net/pdfs/addicted.pdf.

  8 | INVITATION TO LUNCH

  1 They had never met: Ulice Payne Jr., interview, Apr. 7, 2009.

  9 | HOW DONORA GOT ITS NAME

  1 In 1753, working for the British: Borough of Donora, Pa., Donora Diamond Jubilee, 1901–1976.

  2 The Iroquois who fished and hunted: William Keyes, ed., Historic Site Survey of the Greater Monongahela River Valley (Pittsburgh: Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1991).

  3 the Carnegies and Fricks: William Serrin, Homestead: The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town (New York: Times Books, 1992).

  4 In May 1899: Keyes, ed., Historic Site Survey, 113.

  5 West Columbia: Charles E. Stacey, Brian Charlton, and David Lonich, Images of America: Donora (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2010), 9.

  6 While on a European vacation: David Cannadine, Mellon: An American Life (New York: Knopf, 2006).

  7 There is no record: Charles E. Stacey, interview, Mar. 24, 2009.

  8 Belgians settled farther: Keyes, ed., Historic Site Survey, 112.

  9 At its peak: Borough of Donora, Pa., Donora Diamond Jubilee, 1901–1976.

  10 “The monstrous crucibles of molten iron”: Serrin, Homestead, 62.

  11 Sometimes death happened fast: Devra Davis, When Smoke Ran Like Water (New York: Basic Books, 2002).

  12 During World War II: Stacey, interview, March 24, 2009.

  13 Working in the steel mills: Serrin, Homestead, 62.

  14 “That’s why I appreciate the unions”: Cecconi, interview, March 24, 2009.

  15 “the strong smell of sulphur”: Stan Musial, “The Man’s” Own Story, 6.

  16 “Fumes from the mills”: Davis, When Smoke Ran Like Water, 11–15.