Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Stan the Man, Manny, and oh yah, Camp...

-- Stan the Man Musial from Donora, for you young 'uns, is the greatest ballplayer that Western Pennsylvania has ever produced, or at least one side of a coin with Honus Wagner.

He was an outfielder/first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941-63, played on three World Series champions, was MVP three times, had a career BA of .331 and was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1969. The Man was also one of the best humans to ever play the game, right up there with Chuck Tanner.

The 90 year-old added the crowning touch to his trophy case today as he was one of 16 people to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award bestowed by our grand nation. Other winners were George Herbert Bush, Maya Angelou, Bill Russell, Yo-Yo Ma, Warren Buffet...well, you get the idea. It's a big deal.

Bob Cohn of the Tribune-Review has his bio. If you're not aware of Musial's accomplishments on and off the field, give it a read. He's one of the unsung giants of the game.

-- This weekend, Manny Sanguillen was inducted into the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame along with Edgar Martinez, Luis Tiant, Andres Galarraga, Rico Carty, Dennis Martinez and Fernando Valenzuela, reports Jen Langosch of MLB.com on her blog.

In 13 seasons (1967-1980), twelve with the Pirates, he put together a .296/65/585 slash, was an All-Star three times and played on a pair of World Series-winning clubs.

-- Sifting through the tweets and reports from camp, here's today's news: Tyler Yates and Mike Crotta were throwing well, the Bucs will announce their closer sooner rather than later (maybe this week) and James McDonald got engaged. Hey, what did you expect for day 2?

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