In New York, the temperature is falling, but acclaimed author George Vecsey did his best to keep the stove warm with a spirited discussion about St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial Tuesday evening at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse in New York City.
Sponsored by Bergino and metroBASEBALL magazine, Vecsey delved into the depths of the life of Musial, who is profiled in his new book, Stan Musial: An American Life (ESPN, 2011). Much of the baseball canon regarding the Cardinals legend centered on him being a man who nary a bad word was ever spoken. Vecsey intended to find out if Musial was the same person that everyone glowingly recollected he was. He sought out the help of Musial’s living teammates and opponents to affirm his suspicions.
“Where I was lucky, I [could] call all of these players. … To hear from guys that were still around, I was blessed,” said Vecsey. Musial’s contemporaries, such as Don Newcombe, Joe Garagiola and even lesser heralded teammates such as 95-year-old Freddy Schmidt provided valuable assistance with Vecsey’s research.
Vecsey also relied on the help of Musial’s family to gain further insight into the dealings of the quiet superstar. The 91-year-old Hall of Famer has Alzheimer’s, and is no longer able to grant interviews to the public. “A lot of Musial wasn’t available. He has Alzheimer’s; however, through his daughter, I had access to the family.”
As he began his foray in to chronicling Musial’s life, he wondered if he accurately portrayed the heralded star. “You start to think to yourself, what if I got this wrong?” Yet, the further he dug for anecdotes about Musial’s life and career, he found the fears he had about missing the mark on Musial were ill-conceived at best. “[As I went along] I was getting the feeling the Musial I knew, was the guy I was going to be writing about.”
Vecsey fielded questions from the audience for an hour after explaining the journey of writing his epic on Musial. One that was thrown his way, dealt with Musial’s place in Cardinals history with the recent departure of Albert Pujols to the Angels. Vecsey laid to rest any argument of the possibility of Pujols displacing the great legend. “[With his departure] this probably ices it for the next half century [as the greatest player in Cardinals history].”
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