Stan Musial dies at 92

[Jaga]

His first and last name indicate that he was a Polish American, maybe with Czech admixture according to the article

Stan Musial, epitome of good hitting and good sportsmanship, dies at 92

Stan “The Man” Musial, one of major league baseball’s most prolific hitters and a model of good sportsmanship during his Hall of Fame career with the St. Louis Cardinals, died Saturday. He was 92.

The death was announced by the team. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that he had Alzheimer’s disease.



The most beloved Cardinal of all, Mr. Musial led the National League in batting seven times in the 1940s and ’50s and was voted the league's most valuable player three times. His lifetime batting average was .331, his total of 3,630 hits ranks fourth all-time, and he was a perennial all-star. After spending the entirety of his 22-year career with the Cardinals, Mr. Musial retired in 1963 with so many firsts to his credit that he may have carved out a new category: the record for holding the most records at one time.

Of Polish and Czech extraction, Stanley Frank Musial was born Nov. 21, 1920, in Donora, Pa., a mill town south of Pittsburgh. He recalled learning to hit “with a broomstick and a ball of tape.” As a pitcher for mill teams and Donora High School, he caught the eye of a Cardinals scout. In 1938, Mr. Musial signed a contract paying him $65 a month.

[Nictoshek]

Stanley Frank Musial, a poor Polish immigrant’s son, made it “great” in America’s pastime-baseball. His accomplishments and feats made him a natural favorite as the inaugural inductee into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1973.

polishsportshof.com/inductees/baseball/stan-musial/

[Jaga]

Nictoe, this is good info and nice pictures. Here is more from Rob Strybel who met him:

A quintessential Cardinal and proud Polish American
PolAm Baseball great Stan Musial dead at 92
By Robert Strybel, Polish/Polonian affairs Writer

Stanley Musial, one of baseball’s all-time greats, died at his St Louis County home recently, surrounded by family and friends. His health had declined in recent years as a result of various afflictions including Alzheimer’s disease, and he was under hospice care when he quietly passed away at the age of 92.

Stan “the Man” Musial was the greatest player in the history of the St Louis Cardinals and the quintessential Cardinal down to the very end. Musial played his entire 22-season career with the Cardinals, from 1941 to 1963. A .331 lifetime batter, Musial hit .300 or better 16 straight seasons, beginning in 1942. He played on three world championship teams (1942, 1944 and 1946) and in 24 All-Star Games, tying a record. He won three National League Most Valuable Player awards.

A friendly, fun-loving likable sort, Musial enjoyed making other people happy. He would tell a joke or play his harmonica at the drop of a hat and was always baseball’s perfect goodwill ambassador. In 1969 he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. When Polonia’s Orchard Lake Schools first established the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame (http://polishsportshof.com) on their lakeside campus near Detroit in 1973, Musial was the first Polonian athlete to be so honored.

A large bronze statute to Musial at St Louis’ new Busch Stadium carries the inscription: “Here stands baseball’s perfect warrior. Here stands baseball’s perfect knight.” In 1999, Musial was named a member of the 20th century’s All-Century Team, and in 2011 President Barack Obama presented him with the Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian decoration.

A proud Polish American who spoke a fair brand of Polish, in his later years Musial wanted to share his love of the sport with kids in his ancestral homeland. Born in Donora, Pennsylvania, a town some 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, he may have come close to ending up in the NBA. His Polish-born dad £ukasz had been pressuring him to accept a basketball scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, but his mother Marysia went to bat for her son. “Why did you come to America?” She asked her husband. “Because it’s a free country,” he replied. To which she retorted: “Yes, and that means a boy is free NOT to go to college if he doesn’t want to.”

I had the good fortunate to meet Musial in Warsaw during some of his numerous trips to Poland when he was working on various pro-Polish projects with his good friend Edward Piszek, Philadelphia industrialist and humanitarian. Having heard that coaches from Castro’s Cuba were planning to introduce baseball to Poland, they put their heads together to do something about it.

After years of effort and sizable financial outlays, Musial and Piszek were largely instrumental in introducing Little League Baseball to Poland. Their negotiating skills were also responsible for the central Polish town of Kutno becoming the Little League headquarters for all of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Initially the German city of Ramstein had been nominated for that distinction. One of Kutno’s seven stadiums is now officially known as Stan Musial Little League Stadium.

[Nictoshek]

There's quite a few inductees into the Polish Sports Hall of Fame, including of course....the world's premier ambassador of peace and love and Polish American saint:

polishsportshof.com/inductees/figure-skating/janet-lynn/