Stan the Dead Man

Or

Fallen Arches

 

Or

Deep Sixed

Stan Musial, the greatest baseball player ever in the City with a Handle, has died of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 92. A promising minor league pitcher, Musial hurt his arm and had to make do with the National League record for hits, 16 straight .300 seasons, 3 NL MVP Awards, a record 24 All-Star Games, and 3 World Series Rings. He was kind of the National League answer to Ted Williams, except he wasn’t a miserable bastard everyone hated. Musial was arguably the most beloved west of the Bronx, when St. Louis represented the western edge of Major League Baseball. After notching his 3,000^th hit in Chicago, fans cheered the team train at whistlestops all the way back to St. Louis. An annual highlight of the Hall of Fame Induction was Musial entertaining the crowd by playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on his harmonica. The statue of Musial in his corkscrew stance outside Busch Stadium bears the valedictory then-commissioner Ford C. Frick gave to Musial’s career the day he retired: “Here stands baseball’s perfect warrior. Here stands baseball’s perfect knight.”