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 Stan Musial Photo Gallery
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Stan Musial Strikes Out Three Times!

Here’s something to really think about. It should wake up anyone who doesn’t think the game has changed drastically over the years…

Fifty-six years ago today, on July 28, 1963, Cubs’ lefty Dick Ellsworth struck out Stan Musial three times in the Cubs’ 5-1 victory over the Cardinals in a game played at Wrigley Field.

What’s so unusual about that? Read on…

Over Stan’s 22-year career, a span of 3,026 major league games, this is the only time Stan struck out three times in a game! And this was in his last season, a couple of months before he retired. Until this game, he had never struck out three times in one game.

I know this is hard to believe, especially the way guys strikeout today, but apparently it’s true. No one I know has been more vocal about the dramatic increase in both strikeouts and home runs in today’s game than our friend Bill Gutman (not to mention how the analytic nerds have taken over the game, Bill’s pet peeve) so I’m sure he’ll be weighing in about this. 

Meanwhile, back to Stan and strikeouts…

Over his 22-year career, Stan struck out just 696 times. The most he ever struck out in a single year was 46 times, and that was in 1962, the second-to-last year of his career. His best year for strikeouts was 1943, when he struck out just 18 times in 700 plate appearances, a rate of once every 38.8 appearances!

There a lot of ways to put Stan’s performance into proper perspective. In his 12, 718 plate appearances, 696 strikeouts is one strikeout every 18.27 trips to the plate; over his 10,972 at-bats, that’s once every 15.76 at-bat; over a 22-year career, that’s an average of just 31 per year.

Don’t forget Stan his 475 home runs over his career (with a year lost to military service in his prime), so he’d have to be considered a slugger. How many of today’s sluggers could match a performance like that? Usually today they’re in the 150-200 range.

Here’s a little more about the great career of Stan Musial:

Stan Musial played 22 seasons for the Cardinals, from 1941 to 1945 and from 1946–63. He’s universally regarded as one of the most consistent hitters in baseball history. Stan batted .331 over his career and set National League records for career hits (3,630); RBIs (1,951); games played (3,026); at-bats (10,972); runs scored (1,949); doubles (725), total bases (6,134), and extra-base hits (1,277) most of which were later broken by Pete Rose. He’s still in the top-10 all-time in all of these categories. 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 most likely would 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. 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.

I love writing and reading about Stan Musial’s career. When you see his stats all put together like this, you realize he’s was one of the game’s great players and truly one of the most underrated players in major league history. I feel very fortunate I was able to see him play.

With the way the game has changed over the years, we may never see his like again!

Gary Livacari 

Photo Credits: All from Google search

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