RIP Stan Musial and Earl Weaver

[revo]

Both Hall of Famers passed today.

[TS Garp]

Very sad. Just read that Musial was married for almost 72 years (his wife passed away earlier this year)!

[Mithrandir]

Very sad. Just read that Musial was married for almost 72 years (his wife passed away earlier this year)!

Musial was born right across the river from where i live. The same small town that Ken Griffey and Deacon Dan Towler grew up. Right next door to Joe Montana's hometown.

Musial's wife was the aunt of a friend of mine.

[Judge Jude]

Cardinals fans of the era used to root for this gentleman to win the NL batting title every year when that was far bigger a goal than today. Stan's finishes, 1st 18 years

3rd
1st
2nd
WAR (not the stat, the scary one)
1st
5th
1st
2nd
1st
1st
1st
3rd
4th
3rd
4th
1st
3rd

Started before integration, and soon competed with Banks, Mays, Aaron, Clemente, FRobinson, etc. He held up rather well, once given the privilege to actually play against his peers.

fyi, this works just as well with OPS

a full career of relentlessnesss - Frank Thomas did this more than halfway through - and is a HOFer - and Pujols may yet match this relentlessness

[B-Fly]

Very sad. Just read that Musial was married for almost 72 years (his wife passed away earlier this year)!

After reading your second sentence I disagree with the first one. He was a 92-year-old beloved baseball hero - one of the greatest hitters of all time - and it seems as if he was just as blessed off the field. To me, that's about as happy a passing as I can imagine.

[Judge Jude]

B-Fly, applying to attend an Irish wake!


The Irish don't get everything right - nobody does.

But celebrate the life - who does it better?

at the Stan statue:

https://twitter.com/huyMach/status/292998390927720449/photo/1

[madducks]

A couple of stories about Stan Musial as told to me by members of my family. I grew up in Monessen Pa, as did both of my maternal grandparents and my fraternal grandmother. My fraternal grandfather grew up in Donora,Pa which is the neighboring town on the other side of the river. Donora was also the hometown of Stan Musial.

My paternal grandfather's younger brother was friends with Stan Musial. And when Musial played in his final All-Star Game at Cleveland in 1963, he got tickets behind the NL dugout for my grandfather's brother and my grandfather and they made the 2.5 hour trip to Cleveland to attend the game. And not only did Musial get them tickets, but he also got each of them a baseball autographed by the entire 1963 NL All-Star team! In addition to Musial's signature on the baseball, there was Clemente, Mays, Aaron, Koufax, Drysdale, Marichal, Spahn, etc. My grandfather gave the ball to his youngest child (my uncle). My uncle told me the story and showed me the baseball a few years back (before cell phone cameras) and i was completely in awe.

Not sure if Stan knew about this next story or not. I just heard it recently from my aunt and got a good laugh out of it. Just before my paternal grandparents met, my grandfather, who was older than Stan, briefly dated Musial's older sister. The story goes that my grandfather bought a bottle of perfume as a gift for Stan Musial's sister. But before he could give it to her, he met my grandmother, asked her out on a date, and gave the perfume to my grandmother instead. When Stan Musial's sister found out about this, she walked from Donora to Monessen and confronted my grandmother. Musial's sister said, "That's my perfume because he bought it for me." And my grandmother simply said, "Well he gave it to me so it's mine." It seems like Musial's sister cared more about the perfume than she did about my grandfather. So, he obviously made the right choice. This would have taken place in the mid 1930's when they were all teenagers. My grandparents ended up getting married not long after this humorous event.

[rhd]

A couple of stories about Stan Musial as told to me by members of my family. I grew up in Monessen Pa, as did both of my maternal grandparents and my fraternal grandmother. My fraternal grandfather grew up in Donora,Pa which is the neighboring town on the other side of the river. Donora was also the hometown of Stan Musial.

Donora also is the hometown of Arnold Palmer, as well as both Ken Griffeys.

[Mithrandir]

Donora also is the hometown of Arnold Palmer, as well as both Ken Griffeys.

Arnie was born in Latrobe, PA

[rhd]

Arnie was born in Latrobe, PA

You are correct, my bad.

In looking up these towns on the map I saw that there is a "Donora Smog Museum" (!!?).

[chancellor]

In looking up these towns on the map I saw that there is a "Donora Smog Museum" (!!?).

Horrible event I studied in college days. Can't remember the exact year - I'm thinking early 50s but might be wrong - but a smog layer got locked in by some sort of weather pattern, and the smog had a significant amount of free fluorine. Fluorine is nasty, nasty stuff. I mean, they use it to etch glass. Imagine what inhaling it would do to your lungs.

[madducks]

Horrible event I studied in college days. Can't remember the exact year - I'm thinking early 50s but might be wrong - but a smog layer got locked in by some sort of weather pattern, and the smog had a significant amount of free fluorine. Fluorine is nasty, nasty stuff. I mean, they use it to etch glass. Imagine what inhaling it would do to your lungs.

from wikipedia:

"The fog started building up in Donora on Wednesday, October 27, 1948. By the following day it was causing coughing and other signs of respiratory distress for many residents of the community in the Monongahela River valley. Many of the illnesses and deaths were initially attributed to asthma. The smog continued until it rained on Sunday, October 31, by which time 20 residents of Donora had died and approximately one third to one half of the town's population of 14,000 residents had been sickened. Another 50 residents died of respiratory causes within a month after the incident; notable among the fatalities was Lukasz Musial, the father of future baseball Hall of Famer and the 1948 National League MVP Stan Musial."

"Hydrogen fluoride and sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. Steel's Donora Zinc Works and its American Steel & Wire plant were frequent occurrences in Donora. What made the 1948 event more severe was a temperature inversion, a situation in which warmer air aloft traps pollution in a layer of colder air near the surface. The pollutants in the air mixed with fog to form a thick, yellowish, acrid smog that hung over Donora for five days. The sulfuric acid, nitrogen dioxide, fluorine, and other poisonous gases that usually dispersed into the atmosphere were caught in the inversion and accumulated until rain ended the weather pattern."

"Researchers analyzing the event have focused likely blame on pollutants from the zinc plant, whose emissions had killed almost all vegetation within a half-mile radius of the plant. Dr. Devra L. Davis, director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, has pointed to autopsy results showing fluorine levels in victims in the lethal range, as much as 20 times higher than normal. Fluorine gas generated in the zinc smelting process became trapped by the stagnant air and was the primary cause of the deaths. Further research was conducted by Mary Amdur about the effects of the smog; she was pressured to withdraw publication of these results but refused to be bowed."

"Preliminary results of a study performed by Dr. Clarence A. Mills of the University of Cincinnati and released in December 1948 showed that thousands more Donora residents could have been killed if the smog had lasted any longer than it had."



My grandfather worked at the American Steel & Wire plant in Donora. My grandparents and their three young children were extremely fortunate not to get sick while living in Donora during this time.

[madducks]

The Donora Smog event is often credited with initiating the clean-air movement in the United States and the passing of the Clean Air Act of 1963.

[madducks]

Donora also is the hometown of Arnold Palmer, as well as both Ken Griffeys.

Ken Griffey Jr's grandfather, Buddy Griffey, was a high school teammate of Stan Musial.

[TranaGreg]

The Donora Smog event is often credited with initiating the clean-air movement in the United States and the passing of the Clean Air Act of 1963.

I consider myself fairly well versed in recent history but I'd never heard of this! thanks for the info!!!