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The Day Stan Musial Became a Granddad! September 10, 1963
Here’s something pretty neat that I stumbled on to yesterday…and I think it’s something our “senior” readers will find interesting!
It’s the story of the day Stan Musial became a grandfather. On September 10, 1963 – shortly before his planned retirement at the end of the season – the 42-year old Musial and his wife Lillian became grandparents!
Here’s Stan’s recollection of the “Blessed Event”:
“Lil and I awakened with a start at exactly the same time – 4:40 a.m.- and got up, troubled, but not sure why. As she brewed coffee, I paced the floor. Suddenly, the phone rang. Son Dick was calling from Fort Riley, Kansas. Sharon had given birth to a boy. When? Just two minutes after Lil and I woke up!”
Was it ESP? We’ll never know. Surely becoming a grandfather was nice in itself, but what followed later that day was even better. Read on…
The baby was born that morning to Stan’s son Dick and his wife Sharon. Some of you may recall that Stan’s son Dick (Richard) was named after Dickie Kerr, one of the “clean” Sox from the 1919 Black Sox scandal, who later became the scout who signed Stan and became his baseball mentor…but that’s a story for another day.
Stan had a game later that night against the Cubs in St. Louis. Can you guess what Stan did in his first at-bat, actually the very first pitch he saw after becoming a grandfather? You got it! He hit a two-run home run over the right field wall. In doing so, he became the first grandfather in major league history to hit a home run. Later in the game, he also doubled in a run as the Cardinals beat the Cubs 8-0.
Then things got even better for the new baseball granddad. Stan got hot. From September 10 until September 29, he hit at a .341/.348/.500 rate with two homers and seven RBIs. That’s how the great Stan Musial ended his career.
The quintessential family man, Stan’s family was very important him. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Lillian, for more than 70 years. The couple had four children, 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
In an attempt to mildly “tease” the new granddad, the Reds even honored him with a fitting gift before his last game at Crosley Field on Sept. 22: a rocking chair!
Here’s a few words about the great Hall-of-Fame career of Stan “The Man” Musial:
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 his records 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 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 #6 has been retired by the Cardinals. He was elected to the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame, the Major League All-Century team, and the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.
-Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All from Google search
Information: Excerpts edited from aarticle on MLB.com: http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2015/09/13/148537416/stan-musial-once-hit-a-homer-after-becoming-a-grandfather
Statistics: Baseball-Reference.com
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