MY LIFE IN 2023
EC's Life's Is Filled with Glee in '23
"Wit, Quips and Quotes from the Diamond Minds"
Stan "The Man" Musial was my favorite ballplayer... fell in love with him in the early 1950s listening to the St. Louis Cardinals on KMOX with Harry Caray doing the broadcast... Did you know Stan was never thrown out of a ballgame... nope, not a single, solitary time... Stan was a man on the field and off the field, too.
Here an excerpt from Joe Posnanski's fine book "The Baseball 100" - it a book about his choice of the top 100 players in MLB history.... yep, EC is becoming a renaissance man... even reading books now.
"It is true that Stan Musial was never thrown out of a game. There was a game in 1954 that best tells that story. In the seventh inning, the Cubs are up by run. Wally Moon is on first base. Stan is at the plate. Musial promptly doubles, scoring Moon and putting himself in scoring position.
Only he didn't tie the game. The first base umpire Lee Ballanfant called it foul. Everybody at Wrigley Field knew it was fair, but Ballanfant. The appreciative Cubs fans cheered wildly in support of Ballantine's view.
The Cardinals on the bench were not so supportive, as one might imagine. Shortstop Solly Hemus was the first to charge the field and get ejected. Manager Eddie Stanky soon followed him and was colorfully thrown out of the game. Other Cardinal players came on the field, too. Peanuts Lowery charged after home plate umpire Augie Donatelli and was about to get thrown out, too. Stan The Man came in from second base and asked Donatelli what had happened.
"Lee called it foul," Donatelli said.
Instead of arguing, Stan stepped back in the batter's box and promptly rifled another double to almost the exact spot."
That was my Man Stan.
