Comments on: Stan Musial: Readers remember

By: unclegrubworm

unclegrubworm — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:25:22 +0000

It was 1958 and I was 7. My mother and a few others had driven the 180 miles from Southeast Missouri to see the Cardinals play a day game on Saturday and a doubleheader that Sunday against the Pirates. Saturday night we ate at Musial’s restaurant, which was packed. We stood in the lobby for two hours waiting for a table. When we finally got seated, one of my aunts asked if Musial was in the restaurant. The waiter said he was in his office and in fact he’d be happy to meet my cousin and me.

Well, I had listened to nearly every Cardinal game on the radio since I’d been 6, maybe 5. My mother would come outside and get me whenever the game started. When my parents had to go somewhere, I’d always ask if I could stay at home by myself to listen to the game. I didn’t need to–about half the houses in Naylor had the game on and the sounds drifted out of the open windows into the night air. You could have just walked around the town and kept up with the action.

Anyhow, when the waiter asked if we wanted to meet Stan, it was more than I could handle. He might as well have asked if I wanted to meet Jesus Christ. I couldn’t imagine being in Musial’s presence and refused to go. My older cousin, from Texas, went and came back with autographed picture for me. Stan had personalized it, and it was a real treasure.

But my inability to summmon the courage to walk back to Stan’s office is still one of the biggest regrets of my life. But in light of what I and nearly everyone else thought about him, it’s still completely understandable to me.

By: Jim Droll

Jim Droll — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 07:56:18 +0000

I’m 72 years old and have been a Cards fan since 8 years old. When I was 12, 1952 a train which started in OKC, went to Tulsa, then St. Louis so Okies could attend a Cards game. My 11-12 yr. old baseball team the Tulsa John Ross Oilers rode this train and attended 3 games against the Boston Braves. So we not only got to watch Stan the Man, but also Warren Spann, and Johnny Sain who pitched for the Braves. Our team also had the opportunity to play a top St. Louis team that was a little older and wore steel spikes, while we were wearing tennis shoes. We won. It is too bad my grandson didn’t get a chance to see the old ball players that played for the game.

By: Randall

Randall — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:33:48 +0000

I missed the original article until I saw this blog. It was great. And it brings back memories of Stan the Man at the end of his career. His last season, 1963, was my first year playing peewee baseball. I remember I had a booklet by Hillerich and Bradsby (I think) that covered baseball history, all-time stats leaders, etc. There was a write-up of Stan Musial in it. I paid attention to Stan’s progress that year, and was sad to see him retire at the end of it.

All he did after that is grow even greater in his stature as a man and as a living legend.

By: Harold

Harold — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:41:23 +0000

I don’ recall the Cards being on local OKC radio. I always listened to them on KMOX, St. Louis.