STAN MUSIAL'S TEN GREATEST DAYS

Stan Musial photographed for SPORT Magazine 1952
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STAN MUSIAL'S TEN GREATEST DAYS
by Joe Reichler

Published in the November 1954 issue of SPORT Magazine and excerpted for this blog post

STAN MUSIAL dug in at the plate. Larry Jansen pumped on the mound and threw a change‑up, high and inside. Musial swung and raised a pop fly to the first‑baseman. The crowd of 26,662 at Busch Sta­dium stood up and cheered. The ovation lasted for sev­eral minutes and Musial, after returning to the dugout, had to emerge and tip his cap in acknowledgment.

Weeks later Musial was talking with a group of baseball writers when one of them mentioned the incident. “That’s the first time in all my years of cover­ing baseball that I heard a player cheered for popping up,” he said.

“Come to think of it,” Musial said, “it never hap­pened to me before.” He gave the high‑pitched laugh which he often uses to cover embarrassment.

The reporter was kidding. And so was Musial. They both knew the reason for the unusual ovation. It came after Stan’s last time at bat in a doubleheader in which he had made baseball history by hitting five home runs. The big crowd had sat through six and a half hours of baseball, despite interruptions by rain and the appear­ance of dark storm clouds that had made it necessary to turn on the lights as early as the ninth inning of the first game. Most of the fans didn’t get home until long after suppertime but few were willing to leave the park until Stan had batted for the last time.

It was a rewarding day for the noisy Cardinal fans. They saw Musial go to bat ten times. Twice he walked, once he singled and twice he was retired. Five times he hit home runs into the stands or out of the park completely. No ballplayer had ever done it before in the major leagues.

Talking about the feat later, a writer said to Stan, “That was a big day for you but you’ve had others. Which of them have given you your biggest thrills?”

“I guess I’ve had more than one guy’s share,” he said. “Probably that five‑homer day gave me my big­gest kick. Until then, I had always favored the game back in September, 1948, when I tied Cobb’s record of getting five hits in a game for the fourth time in a single season.”

“Okay,” the sportswriter said, “I’ll really put you on the spot. Let’s pick your ten greatest days in baseball—the ten games or doubleheaders that have given you your greatest thrills. Just the top ten.”

“It’s hard for me to single out more than a few games and pick them as the best ones,” Stan replied.

“But I’ll try. You know, some players can remember exactly what they hit in a certain game. But I’m not too good at that. I just enjoy playing ball. Sure, I like my hits as well as the next guy, and get a pleasure out of my records, but in a ball game I’m interested in win­ning the game. That’s the big thing.”

With some prodding by the interviewer and some help from the record books, Stan finally settled on the following as his ten greatest:

(1) The record five‑homer day against the Giants on May 2, 1954.

(2) The day he tied Cobb’s record with five hits against the Braves. That was September 22, 1948.

(3, 4) The next two were successive games against the Dodgers, May 19 and May 20, 1948. In the first Stan hit a triple, double, three singles, drew a base on balls and scored five runs. All those hits came with two strikes on him. The next day, he hit a homer, two doubles and a single. Nine for 11 against the unfor­tunate Dodger pitchers!

(5) A five‑for‑five day against the Braves in which he won the game with his fifth hit in the ninth. The date was September 19, 1946, and Red Sox manager Joe Cronin and Ted Williams were in the stands, scouting the Cards for the World Series.

(6) A game on September 17, 1948, against the Dodg­ers when he pulled two spectacular outfield catches, including a tumbling grab for the final out in the eighth inning with the tying run on the bases. The Cards won, 4‑2.

(7) Beating the Braves with his fifth hit of the game in the ninth on June 22, 1948. It was his third five‑hit game of the season.

( 8 ) A double­header on September 25, 1947, against the Pirates dur­ing which he got seven hits. The performance was a fitting climax to a tremendous late‑season batting surge by Musial, which had enabled him to lift his average from .140 in mid‑May to .312 at the end of the season.

( 9 ) A July 14, 1946, doubleheader against the Dodgers in which he scored the winning runs in the first game and both runs, on a triple and 12th‑inning homer, in the second. The Cards won, 5‑3, 2‑1.

(10) July 21, 1943, his first five‑hit day. He got one hit against each of five Giant pitchers. The Cards won, 14‑6.