Stan Musial Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Full name Stanley Frank Musial
Born November 21, 1920, Donora, Pennsylvania
First Game: September 17, 1941; Final Game: September 29, 1963
Bat: Left Throw: Left Height: 6' 0" Weight: 175

Selected to the Hall of Fame in 1969
Named NL Most Valuable Player by Baseball Writers' Association of America (1943, 1946 and 1948)
Named NL Most Valuable Player by The Sporting News (1943)
Named Major League Player of the Year by The Sporting News (1946 and 1951)
Named NL Player of the Year by The Sporting News (1948, 1951 and 1957)
Named first baseman on The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team (1946 and 1957 to 1958)
Named outfielder on The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team (1943 to 1944 and 1948 to 1954)

STAN MUSIAL
This article was written by Jan Finkel and is presented in part, courtesy of the Society for American Baseball Research

About twenty-five miles south and a bit east of Pittsburgh, roughly along the Monongahela River (Western Pennsylvanians call it the Mon and the Mon Valley), lies the town of Donora. Donora and the surrounding communities used to be a fairly thriving multi-ethnic area comprised of Italians, Eastern Europeans, and African-Americans that turned out steel, zinc, and world-class athletes. The Depression and management chicanery took care of the steel industry. A thermal inversion finished off zinc. Many of the young people left before conceiving children, athletic or otherwise.

It was glorious while it lasted, though. Dan Towler went to nearby Washington and Jefferson College and then to the old Los Angeles Rams, where he once led the National Football League in rushing. Arnold Galiffa quarterbacked Red Blaik's undefeated 1948 and 1949 teams at Army. Buddy Griffey didn't make it to the top, but his son (Ken) and grandson (Ken Jr.) did rather well. And Stan Musial stood out above them all.

According to writer James Giglio, Lukasz Musial, age 19, left "the [Polish] village of Mojstava in the province of Galicia, at that time part of Austria-Hungary" in January 1910. He sailed on the President Grant out of Hamburg on January 24, landing at Ellis Island six days later. Claiming to be 5'7" and 150 pounds but deemed much smaller by people who knew him, Lukasz went straight from New York to Donora, where he worked at a variety of unskilled jobs. Among other things, he was what was called a "'machine helper'" and a porter at the Public Hotel. Early on he met Mary Lancos, 14 years old and the daughter of Czech immigrants (who had a Hungarian surname) from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. One of ten children, Mary, born in New York, was close to six feet tall, big-boned, and although untrained, probably athletic. Not unusual for the time and place, she had become a housekeeper when she was eight.