What A Hero Looks Like

"There, at the end of the world, you are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be."
--Godfrey of Ibelin (Kingdom of Heaven)

Yesterday Stan Musial passed away at the age of 92. Stan 'the Man' was a baseball legend. His achievements on the field are among the best: .331 lifetime batting average, 475 home runs, 3630 hits, 20x All Star, 3x MVP.

And he did it all with a single team, 22 years (23 counting his missed yr for WWII military service) with the St Louis Cardinals.

My dad kept a copy of Bob Broeg's biography of Musial down in the basement and it was one of the first baseball bios I read. Dad thought that Musial was the greatest left handed hitter that he had ever seen. Although he was largely' hands off w.r.t. to my baseball pursuits growing up, Dad did pull me aside a couple of times and suggested that I hold the bat with my hands back--in a manner resembling Musial's cocked, coiled stance.

I probably should have listened...

There is also a family tale that my uncle and his buddy gave Musial and other Cardinal great Red Schoendienst a ride back to their hotel after a Reds game. Not sure how true though.

The most admirable thing about Musial is how he carried himself on and off the field. No flash, no press conferences, no off field antics. Willie Mays notes, "I never heard anybody say a bad word about him - ever."

Generations of Americans felt that they knew The Man. No weird surprises. Someone they could count on.

Just a man being what he had it in himself to be.