If Your Birthday is November 21st...
...you share it with Stan Musial, very simply the greatest ballplayer in St. Louis history. For 22 seasons, Stan the Man was the model of consistency, productivity and sportsmanship -- admired and respected around baseball and adored in his adopted home town.
More than sixty years after he retired, he is celebrated at the current Busch Stadium with a pair of statues, as well as a display across the street at the St. Louis Baseball Museum.
The stats were amazing: 3630 hits, 1815 at home, 1815 on the road. 475 home runs... 7 National League batting titles, 3 MVP awards, 24 All Star Game selections and a spot on the MLB All-Century Team in 1999.
Perhaps the only bad luck Stan had was to not play in the World Series as television became the game's principle media outlet. After 1946 -- when his Cardinals defeated Ted Williams' Red Sox -- the Dodgers, Braves and Giants kept winning pennants, and kept Musial's clubs out of the spotlight.
Visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown -- where he was elected in 1969, his first year eligible -- and you'll find his uniform with that familiar #6.




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