Baseball Hall of Famer Stan (The Man) Musial passed away last week. He was an incredible baseball player and a quality man. I had the chance to meet him in St. Louis in 1964. My American Legion Baseball team (Ages 16-19) won the National Championship. The prize for the championship was a free trip to the Major League World Series. My entire team was flown to St. Louis where we got to attend the first two games of the World Series which featured the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees. Let's just say that it was a cool experience for this 16 year old kid.
The Cards won the first game, and the Yankees won the second. Immediately after the second game, our team was bussed to the St. Louis Airport, where we had a three-hour wait for our return flight to Los Angeles. While seated in the American Airlines Terminal, the thought occurred to me that both the Cards and the Yankees might be traveling back to New York for Game 3. Having read a Sports Illustrated Advertisement for United Airlines that boasted that 90% of all Major League Baseball teams fly United, I snuck over to the United Terminal just to see what I could see.
When I arrived, I was the only person there, but just minutes after, I saw a trickle of people coming my way. The first person I recognized was Tim McCarver, the catcher for the Cards. Shortly after that Roger Craig, a Pitcher for the Cards came up to me and began reading the patch on my gold blazer. (Our whole team had to wear these bright gold blazers with a big embroidered patch that read, "World Champions" along with more details about our team.) Roger Craig read the patch and extended his hand and said, "Congratulations son."
Next came Stan the Man who was with his wife. Musial retired in 1963, but became the Vice President of the Cardinals in 1964. He walked right up to me and after glancing at the patch on my jacket said to me, "I saw you guys in my binoculars sitting in the right field box seats. I wondered who you guys were." Then he too shook my hand and congratulated me. At that very moment, some of my other teammates got the same idea that I had and came running down the concourse toward me. One of the star players on our team went right up to Stan the Man, and said, "Mr. Musial, my dad played ball with you in the minor leagues. Do you remember him?" Musial politely asked my teammate, "Well what is his name son? My teammate told him the name of his dad, George Fingers. Musial wrapped his hand around his chin in a meditative posture and responded, "No son, I don't remember ever playing with a man by that name."
The name of my teammate is Rollie Fingers, who would go on to become a Hall of Famer himself. He was the second relief pitcher to be voted into the Hall of Fame, and he is only one of 8 Major League players to have his number retired by two different teams (Oakland A's and Milwaukee Brewers). Stan Musial didn't remember George Fingers, but I'm sure he was able to follow Rollie's entire career through the major leagues.
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