Persisting Excellence (in Baseball and Life)
Originally Published in the Kansas Government Journal – February 2025
As winter settles in across Kansas, baseball fans often recall the observation by Hall of Famer, Rogers Hornsby: “People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” When the Kansas wind includes the bite of winter, I similarly long for the return of green grass, warm weather, and the crack of a bat. Hornsby's words resonate both with my love of spring and baseball.
When I was in middle school, one of our school projects was to dress up as a historical figure and give a report about our selection. I chose Stan Musial. My dad went to school in St. Louis, and the characters that filled the Cardinals’ history seemed larger than life.
The Gashouse Gang was a motley crew from the 30s with the best group of nicknames: Dizzy and Daffy Dean, Duckie Medwick, and Pepper Martin were just some of the stars. In later years, the Cardinals had the intimidating Bob Feller on the mound with Lou Brock swiping more bases than anyone before him. Yet despite all the greats, Stan Musial was the one who stood out to me.
Stan the Man was born in Denora, Pennsylvania on November 21, 1920. This tidbit is interesting because Denora—a city of 4,500 today and 14,000 in the 20s—is the home of two left-handed MLB Hall of Famer outfielders who were born on November 21. Ken Griffey, Jr. followed in Stan’s footsteps a half century later. Despite his impressive baseball career, Stan’s life in many ways was fairly vanilla.
He signed with the Cardinals out of high school and joined the big leagues just a few years later. Stan began hitting immediately and continued doing so for the rest of his career, minus his tour of service in the Navy during World War II. Stan married his wife, Lillian, when they were young, and they made a life in St. Louis that was free from controversy, in which they both became beloved model citizens.[1]
On the baseball field, Stan was the model of consistency. He had 1,815 hits at home and 1,815 hits on the road. He won the MVP award three times and was runner-up four times. Stan played major-league baseball for twenty-two years and received MVP votes in eighteen of those seasons. All the while, he was a great ambassador for baseball, playing with noteworthy kindness, signing autographs for kids and playing the harmonica.[2]
By most statistical accounts, Stan Musial is one of the greatest players of all time, yet he is regularly left off lists that recognize the best of the best. Hall of Fame baseball writer, Tim Kurkjian, once wrote, “Musial was the greatest Cardinal ever, one of the greatest players ever and perhaps the most underrated player of all time.”[3] It’s safe to say, Musial mustered an incredible career and an impressive life.
I recently thought about Stan Musial when I came across a comment by Mickey Mantle, another Hall of Famer who starred for the New York Yankees. My father-in-law grew up in New York City and described Mantle in the same herculean terms that so many sportswriters use when describing the superstar. Baseball columns from the era heap praise on Mantle’s remarkable speed, power, and his status as “the biggest attraction in baseball.”[4]
Sports Illustrated gave Mantle this label despite Stan being in the midst of his ten-year run of finishing in the top ten of MVP voting. I don’t begin to contest that Mantle was the biggest star in baseball or even that he deserved this status, but his talent and fame make Mantle’s observation about Musial much more interesting:
You know, I had as much ability as Stan Musial, maybe more. Nobody had more power than me. Nobody could run faster than me. But Stan was a better player because he's a better man than me. Because he got everything out of his life and his ability that he could. And he'll never have to live with all the regret that I have to live with.[5]
Despite his remorse, Mickey Mantle still piled on some of the best statistics of all time with his own triplicate collection of MVP awards. Further, Mickey Mantle regularly comes to mind when baseball aficionados compile their lists of the all-time greats. So what should we make of Mantle’s regret as he looked back on his career? From my vantage, Mantle perfectly made the implicit argument for quiet discipline—particularly in regard to public service.
As suggested above, Mickey Mantle captured the public’s imagination, and his stories still circulate in baseball circles with great frequency. His soaring success on the field coupled with his personal struggles provided plenty of entertainment. After all, a good story needs conflict and resolution, and Mickey Mantle had plenty of both.
Yet Stan Musial did not. As the Baseball Hall of Fame once published: “In a game that seems to defy any consistency, Stan Musial was as dependable as a rooster at sunrise.”[6] Musial was seemingly as well known for his kindness as he was his skills on the diamond:
The kindness. You know all about the kindness. It was always there with Musial. “Nicest man I ever met in baseball,” Bob Gibson said. He was there to offer advice, tell a joke, fold a dollar bill into the shape of a ring that he would then slip onto a fan’s finger.[7]
Musial once met a batter for the rival Chicago Cubs in the batting cages to help him work out of a terrible slump. Graciousness was his hallmark. It is a trait we need more of in public service, but this is where discipline is endlessly essential.
American politics increasingly adhere to P.T. Barnum’s belief that “there's no such thing as bad publicity.” The result is a barrage of sensationalistic and conflict-inducing comments that often has a numbing effect on the citizenry. The attempt to “go viral” so often seems to be the priority, rather than the lunchpail effort to punch in and do a good day’s work with respectability.
If Mickey Mantle’s foibles were on display today, it would certainly still make splashy headlines and dramatic stories. But it’s Stan Musial’s approach that makes for greater productivity and effectiveness. Huxley once noted that “stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability,”[8] but perhaps being spectacular isn’t the goal.
An inflammatory comment may dominate the news cycle, but building good governance and trust takes something more. Stan Musial did not build his reputation as the model of kindness and excellence with a run of good hitting and autograph signing in the spring. He showed up from spring until October to be a good teammate, a good opponent, and a leader in his community. This persisting excellence, not fleeting fame, should be our model in the public arena.
The daily habits that add up to shape our lives may not make for viral quotes and headlines (especially when they are the habits of quiet respectability). But they do make all the difference when we look back at the end of our lives. We should take it from Mickey Mantle who spoke in admiration for how Stan Musial lived. Public officials may not be superstars in the same way as baseball players, but demonstrating decency, kindness, and hard work is the type of hero that warrants appreciation and respect. Even in the midst of winter, those daily habits of excellence are evergreen.
Footnotes
[1] Langosch, Jenifer. “Lillian Musial: The Woman Behind the Man.” May 3, 2012. www.mlb.com/cardinals/news/lillian-musial-the-woman-behind-the-man/c-30375446.
[2] Posnanski, Joe. “The Baseball 100: No. 9, Stan Musial.” The Athletic, March 25, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1697434/2020/03/25/the-baseball-100-no-9-stan-musial/.
[3] Kurkjian, Tim. "The Greatness of Stan Musial." ESPN.com, January 19, 2013. www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/8861019/stan-musial-was-one-greatest-players-ever.
[4] Holland, Gerald. “All Hail the Hero Mighty Mickey.” Sports Illustrated (March 4, 1957), https://vault.si.com/vault/1957/03/04/all-hail-the-hero-mighty-mickey.
[5] Costas, Bob. "Eulogy for Stan Musial." [Video file]. YouTube, uploaded by MLB, January 26, 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKM9Bn1aorc.
[6] Muder, Craig. “Consistency Was Stan Musial’s Hallmark During His Legendary Career.” National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, https://baseballhall.org/discover/inside-pitch/consistency-was-stan-musials-hallmark-during-his-career.
[7] Posnanski, “The Baseball 100: No. 9, Stan Musial.”
[8] Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2007. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/bravenewworld07.
