The baseball world is reeling today (Sat., Jan. 19, 2013) in the wake of the passing of two legends of the game. Stan "The Man" Musial (1B, Outfield, St. Louis Cardinals) and Earl Weaver (Manager, Baltimore Orioles) have both gone on to their final resting places.
Stan Musial was the quintessential baseball player. He played all out every day, spent his entire career with one team and excelled beyond belief in the field and at the plate. Earl Weaver was arguably the most intelligent and fiery manager to take the field, guiding his Orioles to a World Series victory along with three other league championships, two at the expense of the Minnesota Twins (1969, 1970).
Musial was 92 at his passing. During his career, he won seven National League batting titles, was MVP three times and helped the Cardinals win three World Series Championships during the 1940s. He made the All Star team a stunning 24 times, hit .331 lifetime with 475 home runs. He was such a ferocious hitter, Los Angeles Dodgers' pitcher Preacher Roe, when asked how to handle Musial, joked "I throw him four wide ones and try to pick him off first".
While Musial was known as a 'nice guy', Weaver (82 at his passing) was more famous for being a hothead. If he disagreed with an umpire, he'd turn his hat sideways, poke his finger on the ump's chest and bellow his complaint. After being ejected, he'd kick dirt on the plate and the ump's shoes. He was ejected 91 times. When he announced his final retirement to umpire Don Denkinger, saying he'd never be back unless he ran out of money, Denkinger said, "If you run out of money call us and we'll take up a collection".
Musial was a fan of music his entire life, often playing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on his harmonica. He played his harmonica on the "Hee Haw" television show and recorded an album of 18 songs in tandem with an instructional book on playing the harmonica. Weaver worked color for ABC-TV, calling the 1983 World Series with Al Michaels and Howard Cosell. He assisted in the development of the AI for the computer game 'Earl Weaver Baseball' published by Electronic Arts.
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