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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Stan Musial
Cardinals’ great visited Iowa for baseball, golf
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
In 1963, after 22 years playing baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals, Stan “The Man” Musial retired, going from the playing field to becoming vice president in charge of goodwill for the Cards. He was the first Cardinal to have his number, No. 6, retired.
Musial made his major league debut in 1941 and was the National League’s most valuable player in 1943, 1946 and 1948. He was named to the league’s All-Star team for 20 consecutive years.
After Musial retired, President Lyndon Johnson named him director of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. He also was a partner in the St. Louis restaurant, Stan and Biggie’s.
Visit to Cedar Rapids
Musial visited Cedar Rapids in 1965 to see the Cedar Rapids farm club, the Cedar Rapids Cardinals, in action.
He arrived in the city on an Ozark Airlines flight at 9:12 a.m. Aug. 9, where he was greeted by the local team’s general manager Ed Morris, manager Ron Plaza and president Lee Winterberg.
The Cardinals-Quincy Cubs doubleheader started at 6:30 p.m. at the old Vets Memorial Stadium. (The old 1949 stadium was replaced by a new, updated stadium on land adjacent to the old one in 2001.) Both games were shortened to seven innings each.
“A crowd of 4,120 turned out to see the Cards’ doubleheader and get a good look at Stan Musial, the famous St. Louis slugger, who came here as a vice president of the St. Louis Cardinals and chairman of the President’s National Council on Physical Fitness,” The Gazette reported. “He signed hundreds of autographs with his customary patience and winning smile.”
Musial gave a short talk between games.
“I feel right at home here at home plate,” he told the crowd. “I only wish I were 19 years old again so I could have the thrills of baseball to live over.”
He spent part of his time at the park sitting in the dugout with the Cedar Rapids team.
The Cards split the double header, each team winning one game, 1-0.
1972 visit
Musial and Cards manager Red Schoendienst were scheduled to be back in Cedar Rapids in February 1969 as part of a Cardinal Caravan. The scheduled date, Feb. 3, arrived, but the baseball stars did not.
Musial was booked for the farm club’s home opener April 24, 1972. The club planned a special fan promotion, selling a Stan Musial button for $1 as admission to the game. The Musial buttons also got wearers into games for half-price on April 25 and April 27.
The Cedar Rapids Cardinals’ last year at Vets Memorial was 1972 after an eight-year run. The reason for ending their agreement with Cedar Rapids was financial, they said.
In 1973, the local club became a Class A team for the Houston Astros. The team’s new manager was Leo Posada of Miami.
When Posada was interviewed during his first visit to Cedar Rapids on March 1, 1973, he was asked what baseball man influenced him the most.
“Stan Musial,” he replied. “Stan was never a manager, of course, but he has always been a sort of hero to me. And I have heard him talk maybe three times, and I am very much impressed with him.”
Golfing visits
Musial returned to Eastern Iowa in 1972 as one of the celebrities recruited to play in the Amana VIP Pro-Am golf tournament along with singer Bobby Goldsboro.
The tournament released stats about Musial to draw spectators. He was still the seventh leading batter of all time. He was No. 1 in total bases (6,134) and in extra base hits (1,377). He also was fifth in runs-batted-in.
Musial had such a fun time at the VIP, he made almost every tournament after that until 1984, missing only 1979.
Musial and former New York Yankee Mickey Mantle shared the links at the eighth annual Amana VIP in 1974 along with 38 PGA professionals as well as other celebrities, including musicians Chet Atkins and Glen Campbell.
Lou King, vice president for marketing for Amana Refrigeration, said Musial “is a tremendous gallery favorite and one of the most congenial people you will ever meet. Our golf pros will have to play some of their better rounds if they want to keep their galleries from leaving to follow Musial.”
When Musial was back for the VIP in June 1983, he told The Gazette he would be in uniform with the old-timers at the All-Star Game in Chicago in July, but probably wouldn’t play because of a sore knee.
He would be in shape, he said wryly, to judge the Miss Universe contest after that in St. Louis.
When asked about All-Star games, Musial said, “I played in 24 of them. Hey, I hit more home runs in All-Star games than anybody else. I hit six. The one I remember best was the one in Milwaukee in 1955.” Musial hit the first pitch in the 12th inning, giving the National League a 6-5 victory.
While the Amana VIP continued until 1990, Musial’s last appearance there was 1983, the year Amana Refrigeration and Amana VIP founder George Foerstner bowed out.
When the Cardinals won the World Series in 2011, Musial took part in the festivities, but he never made another public appearance in Iowa after the VIP.
Musial, who was born in Pennsylvania, died Jan. 19, 2013, at age 92 at his home in suburban St. Louis. “We have lost the most beloved member of the Cardinals family,” Cardinals Chairman William DeWitt Jr. said. “Stan Musial was the greatest player in Cardinals history and one of the best players in the history of baseball.”
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