Stan Musial Used the Power of Consistency to Become the Cardinals' All-Time HR King
Plus, two incredible facts about Stan The Man that prove the Baseball Gods were up to something.
Stan Musial never led the league in home runs during his 22-year MLB career. Yet, he’s the St. Louis Cardinals’ all-time home run leader, slugging 475 taters during his time with the club. That’s what consistent production will do for you over a long period.
Stan Musial Was a Complete Hitter
Despite his lack of single-season home run titles, it’s not like Musial didn’t lead baseball in several other categories, though. He paced the league in runs scored five times, total hits six times, doubles eight times, triples five times, and RBI twice.
The Hall of Famer produced a career triple slash of .331/.417/.559, which is just eye-popping, especially considering the state of today’s game. He also won seven batting titles and three MVP Awards.
Six of those batting titles came between 1943 and 1952. Musial missed one year to serve in World War II (1945) but didn’t miss a beat upon returning. He won the batting title in 1946 after posting a .365 average. His overall numbers during those 10 years settled in well above his career averages. Musial ended up hitting .348/.434/.587.
Looking at Musial’s Home Run Consistency
When specifically looking at his home run production, the sweet-swinging left-handed hitter slugged at least 10 homers every season of his career, except once. That’d be his rookie season when he hit just one across 12 games played in 1941.
Over 10 years between 1948 and 1957, Musial slugged at least 20 homers in each season. This streak included six instances of him hitting more than 30. He accumulated 6,741 plate appearances during this time. Musial slashed .340/.429/.600 with an average of 31 homers, 40 doubles, nine triples, 112 RBI, and 111 runs scored.
He took home one of his three MVPs within this stretch and finished within the top 10 of voting in each of these 10 opportunities (finishing in the top five six of those times).
My Two Favorite Stan Musial Facts/Stats
I feel like these are well-known facts about Musial, but they’re still my favorites, so I’m going to share them anyway.
The first one: Musial racked up 3,630 total hits during his legendary career. He somehow managed to split that number right down the middle between home and away games. Musial collected 1,815 hits in 1,524 home games, along with another 1,815 knocks in 1502 games on the road.
The second one: Musial was born on November 21, 1920, in Donora, Pennsylvania. Another inner-circle Hall of Famer was born in Donora exactly 49 years later - Ken Griffey Jr.! He was born in Donora on November 21, 1969.
Single-Season HR Performances | Career HR Performances | Postseason HR Leaders | HR Derby Performances
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