Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man

The St. Louis Cardinals are a storied Major League Baseball franchise, second only to the New York Yankees in the number of World Series championships they have taken. Like the Yankees, the Cardinals have employed some of the most exceptional ballplayers ever, and the penultimate Cardinal has to be Stan Musial. Although Rogers Hornsby, Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, and a host of other Hall of Famers were Cardinals for the bulk of their careers, it is Stan "The Man" Musial who defines the team and its place in baseball lore. This fine biography by historian James N. Giglio explains why this is the case. A sore-armed left-handed pitcher whose retreading into an outfielder might have been the most fortunate transformation of any player since Babe Ruth moved from the pitcher's mound to leftfield for good in 1919, he proved to be the greatest Cardinal of them all. In a stunning 22-year career, The Man (and no other identification is necessary) wracked up a .331 career batting average and won the batting title seven times, hit 475 career home runs, hit safely 3,630 times, was named Most Valuable Player in the National League three times, enjoyed perennial all star game appearances, and upon retirement held 17 major league, 29 National League, and nine all-star game records. While Musial played with the Cardinals it won National League Pennants in 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1946, and took three World Series championships in 1942, 1944, and 1946. His career represented the pinnacle of all the great players produced by the Cardinals farm system. Musial's was also a career of great dignity and poetry both on and off the field, and he remains an icon in St. Louis more than forty years after his retirement. Equally important, Musial epitomized the American heartland with its virtues of rusticity, small towns, Protestant beliefs, and hard-working. Hailing from the backhills of Pennsylvania's mining country Musial strode across the National League as a giant for more than twenty years, but one who never forgot that hard work, good manners, and honorable actions brought him to greatness. His streak of 895 consecutive games played stood as a National League record until broken by Billy Williams of the Cubs in 1970 and was one record that Musial especially prized, for it demonstrated his commitment to working-class values in the everyday task of showing up and playing the game of baseball. This is a fundamental part of the story told by James Giglio in "Musial." But there is another side of Musial that Giglio finds less compelling. He was never a crusader and remained apart from the efforts to integrate MLB and to challenge the reserve clause that bound players to one team indefinitely. With his stature in the game and the society around him, with his secure place as one of the premier major leaguers of his era, he might have offered leadership in helping to end those injustices. He failed to do so. To his credit he did not oppose integration,

The book covers all phases of Musial's life, including his personal life and post-baseball life. Unlike many baseball bios, it covers some weaknesses in the personal characteristics of this great star, although there were very few in Musial. What I especially liked about the book is that the author contacted and obtained interesting information from numerous former major league players and others who knew Musial. The author had apparently written letters to more than 500 former major leaguers.I couldn't put the book down. I'd rate it even better than the recent book I read about Ted Willimas, which I rated as the best baseball bio I had ever read. Stan Musial was my favorite ball player wehn I was growing up in the 1950s, and I wasn't disappointed.If anything, I would have liked to hear even more about Musial's post baseball life, although there's a lot in the book. However, I understand Stan did not cooperate with the author.

Giglio, a professional historian, spent many years researching his subject and produced, in my view, the first serious examination of Musial's life. Given Musial's well-desrved reputation as a perfect gentleman and role model, many biographical accounts of his life slip into hagiography, but Giglio carefully avoids this trap. He cuts through much of the Musial mythology, and assesses the facts (laboriously compiled from archival research and interviews with many of Musial's contemporaries) in order to present Musial as a real human being. You wont find much dirt in this book--Musial really was a good guy for the most part. About the only blemish Giglio uncovered from Musial's personal life was that he impregnated his wife 6 months before they were married--a mere peccadillo by contemporary standards, especially considering that Stan and Lil Musial have remained happily married for over 60 years. Musial's only serious character flaw, according to Giglio, was an unwillingness to take provocative and controversial positions publicly on important issues of his time. For example, although Musial personally detested racism and bigotry, he never publicly condemned racist teammates like Enos Slaughter. According to at least one second-hand account, Musial and Slaughter once came to blows over the matter in private, but Giglio couldn't substantiate this, and publicly Musial has always denied that he and Slaughter, who died just a few weeks ago (12 August 2002), fought over the issue. The only criticism I have of Giglio's book is his embarrassingly amateurish statistical analysis. In comparing Musial to the other greats of his era (Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle), Giglio uses a simplistic ranking methodology incorporating some common statistics like batting average, home runs and RBIs among others, but he ignores walks and on-base percentage completely, and he doesn't even attempt to account for fielding statistics or ballpark affects. Anyone familiar with serious scientific analysis of baseball (e.g. the work of Pete Palmer, Bill James or the gang at Baseball Prospectus) will laugh out loud at obvious lack of sophistication in Giglio's analysis. Mercifully, Giglio's statistical analysis only takes up a few pages. Overall though, I give Giglio high marks for producing an excellent biography of Musial. I feel I know Musial much better than I did before, and ultimately that's the best test of any biography.

James Giglio's exhaustive research pays dividends in this biography. A fascinating look at the man who grew up in the grime of Donora, Pennsylvania, a steel town south of Pittsburgh along the Monongehela RIver. While Musial has been one of the great ambassadors of baseball's, personally he is a somewhat mysterious man - read this book and find out why. Giglio's authority on Musial was forefront in ESPN Classic SportsCentury's Stan Musial documentary. With an East Coast press mythifying again and again players like Dimaggio and Mantle, it is refreshing to read about one of the most underrated players in baseball history.

James Giglio's recently released book on Stan "The Man" Musial is a winner in my opinion. Anyone can write a book quoting stats and on the field accomplishments, but Giglio goes back to the style that I most appreciate in a biography. He actually started at the beginning. Learning about Stan's childhood, his life in small town Pa. and his acsension into stardom was what I wanted when I bought this book. I always feel I know a little bit more about a person when I get to see what effects that person has had from events along the way. Certainly in Stan Musials case the depression, WWII, and the good years in the 50's and 60's shaped Stan into the man that he is. I give the book 5 stars and ask Mr. Giglio to find another superstar from yesterday to write about.