Stan Musial St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer

Stanley Frank "Stan" Musial (born November 21, 1920), born Stanis?aw Franciszek Musia?, () (Myou`-zee-uhl) is a retired Polish-American professional baseball player who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. Nicknamed "Stan the Man", Musial played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963. A 24-time All-Star selection, Musial accumulated 3,630 hits and 475 home runs during his career, was named the National League's Most Valuable Player three times, and was a member of three World Series championship teams.

Musial was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, where he frequently played baseball in both informal and organized settings, eventually playing on the baseball team at Donora High School. Signed to a professional contract by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher in 1938, by the time Musial made his Major League debut on September 17, 1941, he had been converted into an outfielder. Musial quickly established himself as a consistent and productive hitter, leading the National League in six different offensive categories in 1943 while concurrently earning his first MVP award. Noted for his unique batting stance, Musial won his second World Series in 1944, then missed the entire 1945 season while serving with the United States Navy.

Receiving his nickname of "The Man" from Brooklyn Dodger fans in 1946, Musial continued his consistent hitting and annual All-Star appearances. In 1948 Musial finished one home run shy of winning baseball's Triple Crown. After struggling offensively in 1959, Musial utilized a personal trainer to increase his productivity until deciding to retire in 1963. At the time of his retirement, Musial held or tied for seventeen major league records, 29 National League records, and nine All-Star Game records. Musial served as the Cardinals' General Manager in 1966 and 1967, in addition to overseeing various businesses both before and after his playing career, such as a restaurant. Musial also became noted for his harmonica playing, a talent he had learned during his playing career. Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969 on his first ballot, Musial was selected for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999.

Outfielder is a generic term applied to each of the people playing in the three defensive positions in baseball farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. An outfielder's duty is to try to catch long fly balls before they hit the ground or to quickly catch or retrieve and return to the infield any other balls entering the outfield. Outfielders normally play behind the six other members of the defense who play in or near the infield.

By convention, each of the nine defensive positions in baseball is numbered. The outfield positions are 7 (left field), 8 (center field) and 9 (right field). These numbers are shorthand designations useful in baseball scorekeeping and are not necessarily the same as the squad numbers worn on player uniforms.

First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a baserunner in order to score a run for that player's team. A first baseman is the player on the team playing defense who fields the area nearest first base, and is responsible for the majority of plays made at that base. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the first baseman is assigned the number 3.

Also called 1b, first base, first sacker or cornerman, the first baseman is ideally a tall player with good flexibility and quick reflexes. Flexibility is needed because the first baseman receives throws from the other infielders, the catcher and the pitcher after they have fielded ground balls. In order for the runner to be called out, the first baseman must be able to stretch towards the throw and catch it before the runner reaches first base. First base is often referred to as "the other hot corner" — the "hot corner" being third base — and therefore, like the third baseman, he must have quick reflexes to field the hardest hit balls down the foul line, mainly by left-handed pull hitters and good right-handed hitters that possess the ability to hit to the opposite field. Such prominent examples of first-basemen include: Lou Gehrig, Jeff Bagwell, Albert Pujols, Hank Greenberg, Tony Pérez, Andres Galarraga, Keith Hernandez, and Don Mattingly.

The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won a National League record 10 World Series championships, second only to the New York Yankees (who have 27) in Major League Baseball.

The Cardinals were founded in the American Association in 1882 as the St. Louis Brown Stockings, taking the name from an earlier National League team. They joined the National League in 1892 and have been known as the Cardinals since 1900. The Cardinals began play in the current Busch Stadium in 2006, becoming the first team since 1923 (NYY) to win the World Series in their first season in a new ballpark. The Cardinals have a strong rivalry with the Chicago Cubs that began with the 1885 World Series.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of baseball-related artifacts and exhibits, and the honoring of persons who have excelled in playing, managing, and serving the sport. The Hall's motto is "Preserving History, Honoring Excellence, Connecting Generations".

The word Cooperstown is often used as shorthand (or a metonym) for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, just as the expression "Hall of Fame" is understood to mean the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1901 (the National League having been in existence since 1876). In 2000, the two leagues were officially disbanded as separate legal entities with all their rights and functions consolidated in the commissioner's office. MLB effectively operates as a single league and as such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States. It is currently composed of 30 teams?29 in the United States and one in Canada. In conjunction with the International Baseball Federation, the MLB also manages the World Baseball Classic.

Each season consists of 162 games (with an additional game, or games, in case of a tie breaker needed to determine postseason participation), which generally begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the first Sunday in October, with the postseason played in October and sometimes into early November. The same rules and regulations are played between the two leagues with one exception: the American League operates under the Designated Hitter Rule, while the National League does not. Utilization of the DH Rule in interleague play, the All-Star and World Series games is determined by the home team's league rules.

MLB is controlled by the Major League Baseball Constitution that has undergone several incarnations since 1876 with the most recent revisions being made in 2005. Under the direction of Commissioner of Baseball (currently Bud Selig), Major League Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. As is the case for most of the sports leagues in the United States and Canada, the "closed shop" aspect of MLB effectively prevents the yearly promotion and relegation of teams into and out of Major League Baseball by virtue of their performance. Major League Baseball maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of minor league baseball. This is due in large part to a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, which held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years.

The production/multimedia wing of MLB is New York-based MLB Advanced Media, which oversees MLB.com and all 30 of the individual teams' websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the League itself, but it is indeed under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. MLB Productions is a similarly-structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media.