Musial Sets Record

Earlier this year, Cardinal Nation was saddened by the passing of the Greatest Cardinal of them all, Stan Musial.  51 years ago today, Stan etched his name once again in the record book.

Not even 25,000 showed up on July 25^th, 1962 at the original Busch Stadium, the one formerly known as Sportsman’s Park.

It’s staggering to think about a small crowd when you consider that the visiting Dodgers had Don Drysdale on the mound that afternoon.  He already had 17 wins on the season.  This, of course, was before a fan could see any game they wanted to on TV.  The Cardinals were countering with Ray Washburn who was 8-4 entering the game.

The Dodgers were in 1^st place with a slim 1-game lead over San Francisco.  The Giants would eventually catch the Dodgers and win a 3-game playoff between the teams.  Despite being 11 games over .500 on July 25^th, the Cardinals were 11 games behind the Dodgers in the National League standings (divisions in Major League Baseball were still 7 years from existence).

Cardinals’ Manager Johnny Keane penciled in Stan Musial as the cleanup hitter, playing right field for the 2:35 game.  Lifetime, Musial would go 22-for-68 against Drysdale, an average of .324 and 1 lone home run.  Drysdale would claim that as a boy, he idolized Musial.

In the bottom of the 1^st inning, the 1^st two Cardinals were retired.  However, Cardinal left fielder Bill White tagged Drysdale for a double to left field.  Musial came up with a chance to make history.  Unfortunately, he fouled out to Dodger 1^st baseman Ron Fairly.   Musial batted again in the 4^th inning with the same result—fouling out to Fairly.

In the 6^th inning, the Cardinals were trailing 2-0, and Drysdale was cruising along, already striking out 5 Redbirds, and giving up just 4 hits.  That’s until White collected his 2^nd hit of the game, a line drive single to right.  That brought up the Man from Donora, PA.  Stan sent the 1^st pitch he saw from the big Dodger right-hander over the right field wall to tie the game at 2.  The Associated Press reported that the ball hit 85 feet above the playing field and bounced off a light tower.  Umpire Ed Vargo got the ball after it caromed back onto the field.  He gave it to Cardinal trainer Bob Bauman.  The Dodgers would answer back with 2 runs in the top of the 7th and another in the 9th to win the game 5-2.

Those 2 runs batted in gave Stan the record for most RBI in the National League with 1,862, passing Mel Ott’s mark.  Musial would play one more year and finish his career with 1,951 RBI, which is still 3^rd best in the National League (behind Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds*) and 5^th best in all of Major League Baseball.

1962 was a special season for Stan.  At the age of 41, he would hit .330 with 19 home runs and 82 RBI.  On April 13^th, he passed Ott for the most runs scored in the NL with 1,806.  On June 22^nd, he set an NL record for total bases with 5,864.

On this date, July 25^th, 1962, he set another record.