ST. LOUIS (CNS) – A funeral Mass was scheduled for Jan. 26 at St. Louis Cathedral Basilica for Stan Musial, the Hall of Fame outfielder-first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Musial, a Catholic who played all 22 of his Major-League seasons with the Cardinals, died Jan. 19 at age 92 at his home in nearby Ladue, surrounded by family.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, a former auxiliary bishop in St. Louis, will celebrate the funeral Mass. Bishop Richard F. Stika of Knoxville, Tenn., who as a priest of the St. Louis Archdiocese was Musial’s pastor in Ladue, will preach the homily.
Musial, frequently called “Stan the Man” for his hitting prowess, won seven National League batting championships. At the time of his retirement following the 1963 season, he held 17 Major League batting records.
He banged out 3,630 hits during his career – split evenly, with 1,815 at home and 1,815 on the road. He belted 475 home runs, 725 doubles and 175 triples, an uncommon mix of power and speed. He won the National League’s Most Valuable Player award three times, as well as three World Series championships with the Cardinals. The owner of a .331 lifetime batting average, he became President Lyndon Johnson’s physical fitness adviser following his retirement.
Although he never led the National League in home runs or stolen bases, he topped the league in virtually every other important category, including games played, at-bats, hits, doubles, triples, RBI, total bases, walks, intentional walks, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
In 2011, during ceremonies at the White House, Musial was awarded the Medal of Freedom, considered the nation’s highest civilian honor.
He was boyhood friends with the late Archbishop Nicholas Elko, once head of the Pittsburgh Byzantine Diocese and later appointed by Pope Paul VI as auxiliary archbishop of Cincinnati. He and Musial both had grown up in Donora, Pa.