Talking About Musial, Live and Streaming

11/9/2012

Two Left-Handers. Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2011. Photo by the great Doug Mills.

I’ll be talking about my book, Stan Musial: An American Life, on Saturday, Nov. 10, in Harrisburg, Pa.
The talk will also be streaming live at 3 pm at:
http://pcntv.com/

The talk is part of the Harrisburg Book Festival, Friday through Sunday, at the terrific Midtown Scholar Bookstore-Café, 1302 N. Third Street in Harrisburg. Tel: 717-236-1680.

My appearance has been arranged through my daughter Corinna Vecsey Wilson, vice president of programming and host at PCN.

The book was a New York Times best-seller in 2011. For a couple of glimpses of Musial, please see:

http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/11191/1159123-148-0.stm

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/the-story-of-stan-the-man/

Musial will turn 92 on Nov. 21, and is the icon of St. Louis. I will be linking his modest, hard-working persona to his Pennsylvania roots in Donora in the western part of the state.

Stan the Man was one of the great baseball players of his time, or any time. At first I thought the subtitle should be The Forgotten Man (reference to the song in High Society) but when I began researching his roots as an immigrant's son in zinc-and-steel-and-smog country, I realized the subtitle An American Life was much better. It is always an honor to talk about one of the sporting heroes of my childhood.

Sanford Sklansky

11/9/2012 04:26:37 am

I think he has been forgotten. He never gets mentioned in the same breath with Mays, Aaron and some other greats of the game.

George Vecsey

11/9/2012 10:28:57 am

Thanks, I make a case that he was considered the equal of Wms and DiMaggio -- he was voted the best player of the post-war decade. The book goes into reasons their aura grew and his declined -- except in St, Louis and a cadre of aging fans (like me) who adore him. GV

Brian Savin

11/9/2012 12:48:37 pm

I'm not sure, Sandy -- I'm trying to think back to give proper perspective. As I remember my baseball card trading days, he was in the same league but different. He was an ancient - a venerable "generation" (to us) older than Mays and Aaron and so we kids weren't quite sure how to value his card for our trades. The other names were bigger to us, but there was still this guy Musial who we all knew was there even before and still doing really incredible things and would be in the All-Star games, too.

Alan Rubin link

11/9/2012 09:45:35 am

Good to see that your Musial book is still in demand. You are getting to be part of today's world now that you have added streaming.

It was a good read. Although I grew up a Yankee fan in Washington Heights, Manhattan, I read many books about the "Gas House Gang" and its cast of characters. I enjoyed seeing play at the Polo Grounds and always included him with the greats.

I assume that there is heat and electricity in Harrisburg.

Good selling!!

Philip Barnett

11/10/2012 04:40:26 am

We Brooklyn Dodger fans were the people responsible for the "Stan the man" nickname, probably because he regularly beat up on our pitching staff. I'm pretty sure, but not positive, that it was at Ebbets Field when he had five home runs in a doubleheader.

His batting stance was among the most recognizable in the history of major league baseball. I recall somebody describing it as "a kid peeking around the corner."

It's a shame that more of today's athletes cannot emulate Stan when it comes to "class."

George Vecsey

11/14/2012 02:08:09 am

His five home runs in a DH were in St. Louis against the Giants. Legend says Mays pulled another one back, but it was a long fly to CF.
He hit 3 in one game against the Mets 1962. PG.
http://retrosimba.com/2011/05/20/stan-musial-still-oldest-to-belt-3-home-runs-in-a-game/
It's all in my book (hint-hint) GV

Ed martin

11/10/2012 11:59:51 am

A really fine book, on my recommendation list. Best wishes. Ed

Joe G link

11/12/2012 07:04:31 am

Thanks for the reminder about Mr. Musial's 92nd birthday coming up. Stan "The Man" will never be forgotten in baseball lore. I will say a few prayers for him on his birthday and have marked my calendar to do so. Thanks again.

Elliott Kolker

1/14/2016 01:02:39 am

"(Musial) had always talked about doing things other Americans did...and became something of a regular at the Kentucky Derby."
George Vecsey, Stan Musial: An American Life, pg 265.

I met Phil Donahue in Jan., 2012, when he stumped for an Anti-War Congressional Candidate in my district's primary. He said his wife, Marla Thomas would have been there were she not currently appearing on Broadway. That reminded me of the 1970 episode of "That Girl," in which Ann Marie, on a visit to her fiancé’s home town, St Louis, was to meet his parents at a well-known local restaurant, Stan Musial and Biggies'.

She and her fiancé arrived first, and an excited Donald introduced her to the maître d, owner Stan Musial (That ALMOST NEVER happened, except on very rare, prearranged occasions like when filming a hit TV Show.) When Ann's reaction indicated she had no idea who Stan was, Don repeated, "You know, Stan Musial… of the Cards!" The light bulb of recognition lit and she beamed, "Oh, you must be one of Donald's poker buddies." Stan, as unperturbed as if he was digging in against Steve Dalkowski smiled, "I've been known to play a little." Fortunately, Donald's parents appeared in time to spare the viewer from further embarrassing examples of Stan's Thespian talents.

At the end of the meeting, I had a moment to speak with Phil personally, and asked him if he had ever met Stan Musial. He laughed and said he met him once at the Kentucky Derby a year or two after that episode. He said Stan had a "reliable tip" on a horse he was enthusiastically touting. Convinced by Stan's guileless sincerity, he placed a bet on the horse, which showed sometime later that spring. Phil said when he chided him about it, Stan gave him his patented titter.
.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES
"Among the things that have long fascinated people about Jesus and explain his enduring appeal is his method of dialogue and teaching. "He asked a lot of questions and told a lot of stories in the form of parables. In fact, parables form about a third of Jesus’ recorded teachings. The Gospels were written decades after he died, so his questions and parables clearly left a deep impression on those who bore testimony to him....
"Some of Jesus’ questions were rhetorical; others were meant to challenge or even provoke. In some cases, Jesus used questions to parry attacks by religious authorities who set traps for him. In others, he used questions to enter more fully into the lives of others and to help people look at the state of their hearts. He asked people about their fears and their faith. Jesus used questions to free a woman caught in adultery from condemnation and to inquire whether people considered him to be the Messiah. He probed deeply into questions not many had asked before him, like “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
---(Peter Wehner, long-time White House consultant and writer, in the NYT last week about Jesus Christ’s method of teaching by asking questions.)

"Would that I could mention all the illuminating details in this biography, for example, why Wells praised Black Americans so highly, saying, 'I took a mighty liking to these gentle, human, dark-skinned people,' and 'Whatever America has to show in heroic living today, I doubt if she can show anything finer than the quality of the resolve, the steadfast efforts hundreds of black and colored men are making today to live blamelessly, honorably and patiently, getting by themselves what scraps of refinement, beauty and learning they may, keeping their hold on a civilization they are grudged and denied.''
-- "How H.G. Wells Predicted the 20th Century," Charles Johnson, NYT Book Review, Nov. 19, 2021. ***".

...the monsters arrive."
"They come in a deafening, surging swarm, blasting from lawn to lawn and filling the air with the stench of gasoline and death. I would call them mechanical locusts, descending upon every patch of gold in the neighborhood the way the grasshoppers of old would arrive, in numbers so great they darkened the sky, to lay bare a cornfield in minutes. But that comparison is unfair to locusts.
"Grasshoppers belong here. Gasoline-powered leaf blowers are invaders, the most maddening of all the maddening, environment-destroying tools of the American lawn-care industry."

---The great Margaret Renkl, from Nashville, one of my favorite NYT bylines, Oct. 26, 2021.
(She describes our Long Island enclave to every decibel, every stink.)
lwww.nytimes.com/2021/10/25/opinion/leaf-blowers-california-emissions.html
---

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