Musial’s DVD and letters to his hometown

Since the last Musial article in a Sports Stew column, some new – yet very old – material about Donora’s hero cropped up.

One source was a DVD entitled “The Legend of Stan ‘The Man’ Musial.”

When a rookie named Mike Shannon joined Musial’s Cardinals in 1962, it was a bit of a shock to Musial when he realized that the newcomer had been the quarterback on the same high school team as his son, Dick.

Shannon recalled football players from other high school teams who “used to love to try to kill Musial’s kid, but he was very talented.”

In one game, he scored three touchdowns. Despite that, one team jeered to Shannon, “Give it to Musial.” Shannon related, “I said, ‘OK, here it is,’ and he ran for a touchdown. I came up to the line the next time and said, ‘You want any more of Musial?’” Looking back on playing with Shannon as a fellow big leaguer, Stan chuckled, “I was playing with fellows who played with my son. So I figured for the first time I was getting old.”

He was 41 when Shannon was a rookie, but he wasn’t an old 41. He hit .330, one point shy of what his lifetime average wound up being, and he drove in 82 runs in another All-Star season.

Donora’s Smog Museum came into possession of letters Musial sent home from his days in the minors and the time he was in the Navy . They were sent to his former mentor, Joe Barbao. Here’s a sampling: July 17, 1940: Musial wrote from Daytona Beach.

At season’s end, Stan and his wife Lil decided to spend the offseason in Florida, not Donora.

He noted “it seemed lonesome,” but with a good job and fine weather, Musial reported that he and Lil soon “got over it and were enjoying being here.” He wrote that he even went to work on getting a good tan.

His letter mentioned his brother Honey, “same old kid — always joking,” and reported his brother was going to join the Army.

“I also received a letter from my mother and she’s the same, always wanting to know if we need any help of any kind,” Musial wrote. “We have asked her to come down for a vacation (and) we hope she does come down. We’d be tickled to death to have her.”

He also expressed hope that he’d move up the minor league ladder to make more money so he could help her out financially.

Musial was destined to move up that ladder quickly. After hitting .311 in Daytona Beach at the age of 19, he was destined for much bigger things.

Moving on to early March in 1945 when he was in the U.S. Navy after enjoying huge success with the Cardinals including leading the league in hitting with a .357 average.

“Donora certainly is going to town and I hope they continue and become state (basketball) champs. I have high hopes they will be.” he wrote. “Sorry I’m missing all the fun and the games. They are the best club Donora has had and they deserve a lot of credit. Jerry Wunderlich has done a good coaching job and I’m glad to see him come through and develop this great club.”

The Dragons did go on to win the WPIAL championship in 1945. In doing so, they became the first to win the WPIAL football title (they won it all in 1944 and 1945) and the basketball championship in the same school year. Unfortunately, in the Class AAA state title game held in Philadelphia’s Convention Hall, Donora suffered a heartbreaking 4038 defeat to Allentown.

DHS had crushed their two opponents in the quarterfinals and semifinals by scores of 47-25 and 45-20.

June 18, 1945: In a letter from Hawaii, Musial mentioned friends such as Ed Pado, saying the Donora resident was anxious to get out of the armed service and begin playing baseball again.

“I think he has possibilities if he takes the game seriously, which he said he would,” Musial wrote. Pado had been a teammate of Musial and Ken Griffey Sr.’s father at DHS.

Musial said he had also run into Frank Pavelko, Paul Gambrosky, Paul Nescott, Teddy Gee, Jimmy Norton, Manuel Alvarez, John Ichkowski, Bob Horn and Bud Hauck.

Still following the baseball scene, Musial wrote that he was naturally pulling for the Cardinals, “but if they don’t win, I’ll settle for Pittsburgh and give the local fans a break for a change.”

He concluded the letter by saying, “I wish this darn war was over so that I could be back home with Lil and the children once again. Give the boys at the plant my regards.”

As great and as famous as Musial was, he remained loyal to his hometown and kept strong ties to the town and his classmates, often attending DHS reunions. It’s no surprise Donora has always been enormously proud of their “Man.”