Another Chapter in the Series: Greatest Individual Seasons of All-Time
Stan “The Man” Musial, 1948
“Stan Musial is a better player than Joe DiMaggio was in his prime.” -Ty Cobb speaking of Stan Musial in 1952.
“Cobb is baseball’s greatest. I don’t want to contradict him, but I can’t say that I was ever as good as Joe DiMaggio.” – Stan Musial replying to Ty Cobb’s compliment, with his usual modesty.
Wednesday marked the third anniversary of the death of Hall-of-Famer, Stan Musial. So let’s all take a moment to pay tribute to the memory of one of the true greats in baseball history. Someone mentioned to me recently that Frank Robinson is the most underrated player in baseball history. That may be true…but if so, then Stan Musial must be a close second. His career stats are staggering.
Last year, as part of my “Greatest Individual Seasons of All-Tme” series, I featured Stan Musial’s 1946 season, which as I said at the time, was surely one for the record books. Thanks to one of our readers, Joe Baumgart, for pointing out to me that his 1948 season may have even been better. Both were “off the charts,” but I’ll let you decide for yourself which was the best!
Stan Musial’s Career Stats:
Stan Musial played 22 seasons for the Cardinals, from 1941 to 1945 and from 1946–63. He is universally regarded as one of the greatest and most consistent hitters in baseball history. Musial batted .331 over his career and set National League records for career hits (3,630, currently 4th all-time); RBIs (1,951, 6th all-time); games played (3,026, 6th all-time); at-bats (10,972, 10th all-time); runs scored (1,949, 9th all-time); doubles (725, 3rd all-time ), total bases (6,134, 2nd all-time), and extra base hits (1,277, 3rd all-time) most of which were later broken by Pete Rose. At the time of his retirement, his 475 career home runs ranked second in National League history behind Mel Ott’s total of 511. Had his career not be interrupted by military service in 1945, he may well have been a member of the 500 Home Run club.
A seven-time National League batting champion, and two-time National League RBI champion, his 6,134 total bases remained a major league record until surpassed by Hank Aaron. He also compiled 177 triples, .417 OBP, and .599 slugging average. In 10,972 career at-bats he struck out only 696 times. Musial had identical totals of 1,815 hits at home and on the road. He won three National League MVP awards, and led the Cardinals to three World Series championships (1942, ’44, and ’46). He shares the major league record for the most All-Star Games played (24) with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.
Stan Musial’s 1946 Season:
In 1946, Musial led the National League in virtually every category, including: games (156), plate appearances (702), at-bats (624), runs (124), hits (228), doubles (50), triples (20), batting average (.365), OBP (.434), slugging ( .587), and OPS (1.021), as he won his second National League MVP award. He led the Cardinals to their third pennant in five years and the 1946 World Series championship. It would be hard to top a season like this, however…
Could 1948 Have Been Even Better?
Joel Baumgart pointed out that in 1948, Musial again led the National League in virtually every offensive category. But what made this season so historically significant was that his lead in most of these categories was by huge margins over his nearest competitor: Batting average (.376, 43 points higher than second place finisher), hits (230, 40 higher), runs (135, 18 higher), doubles (46, six higher), triples (18, six higher), RBIs (131, six higher), OBP (.450, 27 points higher), slugging average (.702, 138 points higher), extra base hits (103, 28 higher), and total bases (429, 113 higher). In 611 at-bats, Musial struck out only 34 times. His 39 home runs, a career high, left him just one short of league-leaders Johnny Mize and Ralph Kiner, and thus one home run short of the Triple Crown.
Stan Musial was a first-ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. He was also selected for the Major League All-Century team, and to the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 2014. His #6 has been retired by the Cardinals.
Thanks again to Joel Baumgart for pointing out these subtle points – points that usually go unnoticed – so that we can all fully appreciate what a great ballplayer Stan “The Man” Musial truly was. And, as we all know, he was a great human being as well!
-GL
Photo Credits: Sports Illustrated The Baseball Book; and Public Domain
Information: Excerpts edited from the Stan Musial Wikipedia page
Statistics from www.Baseball-Reference.com, Stan Musial page.
