cover image Stan the Man Musial

Stan the Man Musial

Jerry Lansche. Taylor Publishing Company (TX), $19.95 (212pp) ISBN 978-0-87833-846-7

When Musial retired in 1963 after a 22-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals, he held some 50 major league and National League records, including seven batting titles, and enjoyed the esteem of just about everyone in the sport (virtually the only negative note about him was struck by some reporters, who found him ``colorless''). The son of a Czech and Polish immigrant couple who was born in Donora, Penn., Musial disappointed his father by not attending college, but he spent so little time in the minors that it became clear he was destined to be a star on the diamond. Married and a father when WW II broke out, he was deferred until almost the end of the war, and so lost little time to the military. Lansche ( Glory Fades Away ) focuses on Musial's doings on the field, telling a story of triumph after triumph, which makes for a solid--if not exactly suspenseful--biography. Photos not seen by PW. (May)