"Let's All Raise a Glass to The Man"

With all this St. Louis Cardinals/Albert Pujols/$30 million at age 40 talk I'm honestly just rolling my eyes.  Athletes are just people and after watching LeBron's over-zealous, blown out decision last year I decided I don't give a shit about the hype of celebrity. At least with Albert there's no over the top, primetime press conference; it's a stalemate so we can all get back to baseball and figure it out from there. I'm cool with that.  Diva athletes, superstars, whatever can take their millions and roll around in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck for all I care.  (Click Scrooge McDuck for a fantastic RetroJunk clip.)

While everyone was getting caught up over Albert Watch 2k11 I was logging my time reading about Stan "The Man" Musial's day.  A 24-time All Star, a three-time World Series winner, a nearly 20-year Cardinal.  I was fortunate to see Musial at the 2009 All-Star Game at Busch Stadium; my brother and I practically fell over ourselves cheering during his standing ovation.  He was 88 at the time but, as he encircled the field on a red cart, showed all the light and fire of someone in his prime.

Yesterday he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House and the experience, as described by the media and his own careful words, were the "greatest day in my [his] life."  It's hard to imagine how many "greatest days" Stan has had to this date.  This article by Bernie Miklasz, for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, moved me to tears and reminded me of the goodness and appreciativeness of others.  As much as I would love to transcribe these feelings I will let one of my favorite movie quotes do it for me.

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time...it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again."
- Field of Dreams

Congrats to one of my heroes.  You the man, Stan.

February 15, 2011 flight back to St. Louis from Washington D.C. (via StanTheManInc)

 During Stan's standing O, 2009 All-Star Game.

First meeting with Barack, 2009 All-Star Game. 

Yep, I was there.