Stanley Frank Musial 1920 - 2013

The sports world lost a true icon yesterday when Stan Musial passed away.  One of the most revered giants of any sport, and someone who a bad word was never said.  As a baseball fan growing up in the 70's and learning about the greats of the game, Musial stood out even among the other all-timers.  I had a long post about Musial in November of 2011 so I won't go long into it.  Part of that post is copied below.  Suffice to say that an era is now truly gone.  I associate baseball with the iconic players of the era.  There was the "Cobb, Wagner, Johnson, Matthewson" era, the "Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Hornsby, Grove" era, then the "Williams, Musial, DiMiaggio, Feller" era.  Musial was the last of baseball's golden age, when the players were truly hero's and the exploits were seen through boxscores and radio only.  My wife was taken aback at the look on my face this morning when she told me Musial had passed.  I am truly sad today.

From my earlier post:

But when you look at what Musial accomplished, it is hardly rivaled by any player, and what he lacked in flash he made up for with sheer dominance. Start off with 7 batting titles in a 14-yr period. And while hitting at that level, he rained extra base hits on the league, leading it 8 times in doubles and 5 times in triples, and maintaining a slugging average near the .600 range. Never thought of as a pure slugger, he nonetheless led the league in OPS 7 times because he added an on-base average of around .425 to that .600 slugging average. And of course I always call out the 1948 season, in which Musial led the league in: hits, runs, doubles, triples, RBI, batting average, slugging average, on-base average, OPS, and total bases. He missed the triple crown by 1 home run, which was washed away in a rainout. Typical of his career, this season rivals any ever had by a ballplayer, but because he missed the triple crown, it’s largely forgotten.

If you remember I always liked to evaluate players on how much they dominated their league or era. Bill James liked to look at “Black Ink” and “Grey Ink”, meaning how many times did a player lead the league in a major category (Black) or finish in the top 10 (Grey). Musial is 5th all-time in black ink and 3rd all-time in grey ink. He totally dominated his era. Also, James came up with a hall-of-fame tester to evaluate a player’s worthiness for the hall. In his point system, Musial is 1st all-time.

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