RIP Stan Musial

RIP

 

Go back and look at Musial's numbers and put up 'em next to Williams'. No significant difference. Williams was just better (maybe nobody has ever been better) at attracting attention.
It's sad that he has passed, but a life in full indeed.

 

Simply the greatest St. Louis Cardinal ever, and that's a mighty strong field.

 

R.I.P. to the best ambassador for St. Louis. The stats speak for themselves. The actions he took to help major league integration along are a less-told story.

 

Think before you type.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/musiast01.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/willite01.shtml

 

Age 92? Gosh, didn't realize he was THAT old. Maybe the greatest St. Louis Cardinal of all-time (although Bob Gibson and Ozzie Smith might argue).

 

And if Bob Gibson or Ozzie Smith argued, they'd be wrong. The heir apparent was Pujols, but he left.

 

Hit between .310 and .376 for the first 16 years of his career.

Second in career total bases (6,134).

All the stats: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/musiast01.shtml

 

Ruckus, what's the difference? In the context of baseball games played by nine man teams, how is one of those sets of stats going to win more games than the other, or contribute to winning more games than the other? It was the opinion of all of baseball in those days that these two men were equals. That opinion is correct.

 

Buh, buh...calculator!

 

No, it's not.

Musial's slash line was 331/417/559.

Williams' was 344/482/634.

Big advantage Williams in all categories.

Musial's OPS was 975. Williams' was 1116. That's almost 150 points difference. That is massive.

Musial's OPS+ was 159; Williams' was 190.

The only advantage Musial has is titles (thanks to Williams going up against the Yankee juggernaut his entire career) and some counting stats, by virtue of almost 800 more career games. And Williams still had more home runs, almost as many RBI and 500 more walks. And Williams lost five seasons serving his country. You can't ding him for that.

It's not even an argument. Musial is one of the best players ever. But he's not better than Williams.

 

Decent year in '46:

702 PA
624 AB
124 runs
228 hits
50 doubles
20 triples
16 homers
103 RBIs
73 walks
31 strikeouts
.365 average
.434 OBP
1.021 OPS