Stan the Man: The Life and Times of Stan Musial
Wayne Stewart
Triumph Books, 2010
256 pp.
Somehow Stan Musial's name seems to be omitted when discussing the upper echelon of baseball's royalty. He ranks fourth all time in hits (3,630), sixth in RBI's (1,951), appeared in 24 All-Star games and won the National League MVP award three times. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969 with over 93% of the votes.
Donora, PA native Wayne Stewart does his best to elevate Musial's standing in the public eye with his biography, "Stan the Man: The Life and Times of Stan Musial."
Stewart treads down a similar path that others have traveled chronicling Musial's upbringing in the small town of Donora. We watch Musial develop into a multi-sport athlete at Donora High School where he would play with Buddy Griffey, the patriarch to the Griffey baseball legacy. He was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals at the age of 18 out of high school and the rest shall we say has been well documented.While Stewart attempts to follow Musial through his Hall of Fame career, he leaves bits and pieces of different stories hanging, leaving you wondering why certain anecdotes weren't further developed or why they were mentioned in the first place. He attempts to fill the gaps by quoting some of Musial's living teammates and opponents, most notably Carl Erskine, who is frequently quoted during the book. Conspicuously absent are testimonials from Musial's long time teammates Red Schoendienst, Marty Marion and Musial himself.
For the younger fans who aren't familiar with the achievements of Musial, "Stan The Man" will serve as a primer about the Cardinal great to whom Albert Pujols respectfully deferred the title of "El Hombre". For the baseball fan or historian that is searching for greater depth into the annals of Musial's career, they may not be satisfied by Stewart's work.
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