Baseball’s Finest Gentleman

Sports Illustrated had Stan Musial on its cover a couple weeks ago, with a story about the greatness of the man. Which means that writer Joe Posnanski probably has received an e-mail by now.

A couple years ago, for one of my By the Numbers columns, I wrote something about how Musial was underrated as a player and was one of baseball’s great gentlemen:

Yet Musial, it seems, is rarely thought of in the same class as (Ted) Williams, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.

Maybe it was the fact that he played in the relative outpost that was St. Louis. Maybe it was the fact that he always conducted himself with class and dignity rather than self-aggrandiezement.

Whatever the reason, Musial probably isn’t as revered as he should be. He was one of the great players the game has seen . . .

Out of the blue, I got a very gracious e-mail from Musial’s daughter, thanking me for the kind words. I don’t remember where she lived, but she somehow ran across the column online and dropped me a note. Just goes to show that class runs in the family.