The Day I Met Stan Musial

I met Stan Musial on September 12, 2000. I read that he was going to be inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians at the state capitol, and since I was living in Jefferson City and working as a stringer for a weekly newspaper, I decided to see how far the Power of the Press would get me. Turns out it got me a front row seat for a very casual press conference with The Man. We, reporters and photographers, were ushered into a large side room set up with a bunch of chairs facing a podium. Within just moments, Stan came out with a couple of folk, and one said: "Stan will take your questions now." No big introduction, no mention of limit on time – none of that usual press conference stuff. Then Stan walked past the podium, pulled an empty chair away from a wall, and sat down to face everyone with a big smile. As I recall, he answered every question, good or lame, with the same interest and pleasant tone. Born in 1920, he was a spry 79 on that September morning, and he seemed to be enjoying himself as much as all of us were enjoying being in the presence of The Man. Upon request, he even pulled his harmonica from his sport coat pocket and played us a little tune. After awhile, as the TV folk left after getting their pictures, some of the older print and radio reporters moved closer. I stayed close enough, taking notes, but also having a lot of fun. These guys grew up listening to Stan play baseball. They told him so. He smiled. They would tell him of what they remembered about the game in which he did a certain thing, and he would tell them what he remembered about that game. If lunch had been brought in, I think all of us would have stayed all day. But a man came back and mentoned that The Man had to go meet some legislators, so we let him go. He was born Stanisław Franciszek Musiał on November 21, 1920 in Donora, Pennsylvania. He was the fifth of six children born to Mary, of Czech descent, and Lukasz, an immigrant from Poland. My Polish friend tells me that Musial means "he had to," as in "Musiał zagrać baseball" meaning "He had to play baseball." I think that's about right.