This story of what may have been Stan Musial's finest moment was sent to me by Pat Day. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. Stan Musial played in 3026 games, and never got thrown out of one. Never. In a game in 1952 the Cardinals were trailing the Dodgers by two runs in the bottom of the ninth with bases loaded and two outs. Musial hit a long grand slam home run to right field to beat the Dodgers. Musial started around the bases, but the third base umpire had seen a ball roll out on the field and had called timeout before the pitch was thrown.
The home run was disallowed. The stadium erupted. Fans went wild. The St Louis manager raced out of the dugout, and called the umpire every name he could think of. He was thrown out of the game, as were five other Cardinals. The umpire later said he felt like a cowboy in one of those old Westerns cleaning out the saloon, throwing out people through the front doors.
Musial, who in the confusion had not been told anything, calmly asked the umpire what happened. The umpire explained, and Musial said, "Well, there's nothing you can do about it." Stan stepped back in the batter's box and promptly tripled off the top of the center field wall to score three runs and give the Cardinals the victory anyway.
After the game, the umpire, Tom Gorman, said, "Stan is in a class by himself." I think many of us agree with that sentiment. Thanks, Pat Day, for a great story.
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