Heroes or Role Models – We all have them!
Posted on March 27, 2013
I was saddened this past weekend to learn that one of my boyhood heroes passed away.
St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial as he was depicted on his 1953 Bowman baseball trading card. Wikimedia Commons
Stan “The Man” Musial, a legend in the Midwestern states, and quite possibly the greatest St. Louis Cardinal ever, passed away on Saturday, January 19, 2013 at the age of 92 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
Stan Musial was a treasure to St. Louisans, one in a million. Quite rare in this day and age, Stan played his entire 22-year Major League career for the St. Louis Cardinals (1941-1963), and continued to live in St. Louis for the remainder of his life. He was active in the business community in St. Louis, as well as being the instantly recognizable and beloved ambassador for the St. Louis Cardinals team. At his Hall of Fame induction in 1969 he expressed his wish to give back as much as he had received from St. Louis and from the game of baseball.
I began following Stan Musial during the 1958 season, when he was approaching 3,000 hits. I was captivated by the constant newspaper coverage and the fact that only 7 players in all of baseball history had collected that many hits at that time. I was suffering from the mumps at the time, home from school for about 3 weeks, and I just latched onto Stan during his quest for 3,000 hits. I was already a diehard baseball fan, but the stories about Stan made him seem larger than life.
I became a huge fan of Stan’s during the subsequent years as I learned more about what a great person he was. I didn’t ever get to meet him, but I have autographed balls, a bat, and a couple of posters in my office, and I can quote chapter and verse about him. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969, with 93% of the votes possible on the first ballot. Baseball people knew what a great player he was.
There are two statues of him outside Busch Stadium in St. Louis – I’ve visited them twice during my travels, and the inscription always gets to me – “Here stands baseball’s perfect warrior. Here stands baseball’s perfect knight”. It kind of sums up the baseball side of Stan Musial, but the personal side is even better. No other player in the history of the game captured the love of the fans quite like Stan did, not even Babe Ruth. I think Henry Aaron said it best – “I didn’t just like Stan Musial. I wanted to BE Stan Musial.”
My other childhood heroes were my dad, who passed away in 2002, and Chuck Yeager, the Air Force test pilot who broke the sound barrier in 1948.
Brigadier General Chuck Yeager, United States Air Force Wikimedia Commons
My dad was a regular guy as well, always willing to help any friend in need, and always a role model to me. I so much wanted to be like my dad in all ways – that was a rare thing back in the counter culture ‘60s, but while we disagreed on a lot of things, it never got in the way of our relationship or my admiration of him. I miss him every day, and it has been over 10 years since he passed. After he passed, I remember thinking to myself, “who am I going to turn to for advice when I need it?” – he was not only my dad, but he was very much my friend as well.
Another byproduct of my dad’s passing is that I can no longer watch the movie “Field of Dreams” without tearing up when Kevin Costner says “Hey, Dad, you wanna have a catch?” Dad was always there for me, whether it was to have a catch, or to listen and offer advice. He was never one to push, but if you asked, he was always there. I’ve tried to emulate him with my own boys as much as I could.
Chuck Yeager became a hero of mine a bit later in life, when I could understand the amount of courage needed to accomplish the things he did. He’s another person I’ve always wanted to meet and shake his hand. His exploits go WAY beyond breaking the sound barrier – the movie “The Right Stuff” was mostly about him and what he did to pave the way for the first astronauts and the NASA space program. He is a very special individual in a much different way than either Stan Musial or my dad, but he’s been a hero of mine for a long time.
Why are these men my heroes?
My dad, for being a great guy, and for always being there for me – always willing to have a catch, to chat about things that interested me, being a mentor and a friend, the way he loved my mom and showed respect and consideration for everyone he ever met. I treasure the time we had together, and wish we had more – there’s so much more I would have liked to share with him.
Stan Musial? For being a regular guy, despite being one of Baseball’s all-time greats, for his consistency in excellence, for his ego-less personality, for his faith and devotion to his wife of nearly 72 years, and for having a smile on his face every time anyone saw him. Add to that the fact that you could go around the world and not find anyone to say a single negative word about him, and that he was one of the most decent human beings ever to live on this earth. Even as a player, he would autograph things for fans until the last fan had gotten one. After his retirement, he always said that anyone that came up to him and talked to him would get an autograph – he carried around a stack of baseball cards to autograph for anyone who asked.
Chuck Yeager? I think I admire most the unbelievable courage it took to accomplish the things he did – literally, going where no man had gone before, to paraphrase Gene Roddenberry. Prior to his record-breaking flight, every pilot who had attempted passing the speed of sound had lost control of his plane, crashed and died. His skill as a pilot was legendary as was his uncompromising pursuit of excellence in both himself and in his subordinates, leading by example rather than by dictate. To go along with this astounding combination of skill and courage was a self deprecating persona which downplayed his accomplishments. I remember one of the last lines in the movie “The Right Stuff”, where he has just narrowly escaped death as his plane crashed, and he is walking toward the rescue truck. One of the men in the rescue truck sees him in the distance, and asks “Is that a man?” to which the other man responds “You’re darned right it is”.
Who are your role models?
Stan Musial Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Musial
Chuck Yeager Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager