Tuesday, June 23, 2015

World Series: Did You Know?

Stan "The Man" Musial hit only one home run in the Fall Classic. The Man had a little growing up to do in his early years in baseball, but he got plenty of World Series experience.

Stan had been called up late in the 1941 season. While he batted .426 over the course of his twelve games, he couldn't get his St. Louis Cardinals past the Brooklyn Dodgers. The next year, it was different. Stan hit .357 to lead the National League, and the Cards were in the Fall Classic against the New York Yankees. Joe DiMaggio hit .333 to Stan's .222, but it was St. Louis with the win in just five games.

The next year, same two teams, but a different result. The Cardinals won 105 games and Stan hit a respectable .278 in the October Showdown, but it was the Yankees needing just five games themselves to win.

The Cardinals were favoured again the very next year, and it was the cross-town Browns who faced them. This was an all Sportsman's Park affair. But after three games, it looked like the Browns might pull off an upset. They led two games to one and were the "home" team in game four.

The Cards needed a boost and quick. And they got it! Stan was the man to do it. In the top of the first with one out, Johnny Hopp singled. Stan Musial came to the dish, and got a pitch he liked. Stan put the Cardinals out in front 2-0 with the four-bagger. He singled and scored in the top of the third, added a double and a walk later, and propelled the Cards to a 5-1 lead. The stunned Browns never got back on track in the Series.

The Cardinals won it all in six games, and Stan had one World Series left in him. The 1946 Fall Classic was hailed as a showdown between Stan and Ted Williams, but Stan hit what he had in 1942, .222, with no home runs. Williams hit only .200, and also failed to go deep. The Cardinals won in seven games.

It wasn't long after that Stan began to hit the long ball with regularity. In 1948 he hit a career-high 39. Five more times he was to pass the thirty home run plateau. Stan had taken his game to a new level, but try as he might, he couldn't get St. Louis back to the World Series. The 1946 Fall Classic proved to be his last, and Ted Williams only.

And, in one of the game's great irony's, Stan's team returned to the World Series in 1964, just one season after he retired with the second most hits behind Ty Cobb. Pete Rose passed Stan and Ty for that eventually, but Musial ranks near the top of many offensive categories. Stan Musial finished with 475 home runs. Just two days ago, David Ortiz hit # 476 to pass Stan for 29th on the all-time list.

But The Man and all his milestones can't be overshadowed by just one World Series home run.

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