Stan Musial 1949 photo from Who's Who Magazine (click on to enlarge). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask a few baseball fans the name of the greatest players of all time, and you'll normally hear the response of Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, and even Pete Rose; but Stan Musial is often left out. Stan Musial was an amazing baseball player, becoming one of the top players to ever play the game. In retrospect, there is one common thread throughout Musial’s entire career, consistency. Usually, consistency is linked to mediocre players, but in this rare case, Musial’s consistency caused him to become one of the best players in baseball history. Not enough people realize how great he truly was. Musial led the National League in slugging percentage, batting average, hits and on-base percentage, six times each; he also won the NL MVP four times and is the only player to hit 5 home runs in one day. When Musial retired, he held the all-time NL record for hits with 3,680, and still ranks fourth all-time. Musial was consistently a great hitter. In fact, he remarkably had the same amount of hits playing at home as he had playing away; 1,815 hits each. He ranks 30th all-time with a .331 batting average, he has the most career home runs for a player who has never won a single-season home run title. Musial played in 22 major league seasons, but played in 24 all-star games. (There were two all-star games in 1960, 1961 and 1962.) His nickname, Stan “the man” Musial, comes from Brooklyn Dodgers fans who would say, “Uh-oh, here comes that man again.” To summarize his career, Musial is ranked in the top 10 in career All Star games, MVPs, at-bats, doubles, games, runs, hits, total bases, doubles and RBIs. He led the National League in batting averages seven times, slugging percentage six times, on base percentage six times, as well as runs scored fives times. Stan Musial is one of the best baseball players to put on a uniform, but unfortunately, no one talks about how great he was. Stan Musial’s career is defined by his consistency. Most players would not like to be associated with that characteristic, but Musial’s consistency has made him by far one of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game. |
