Saying Good-bye to Stan Musial

(This post was originally run on February 9, 2012. In light of yesterday's public visitation and tomorrow's private funeral. We're running it again.)

Wanna hear something awesome?

Pitchers and catchers report on February 18.*

I know.  It makes you giggle, doesn't it?**  I don't care if that groundhog tangoed with his shadow, Spring Training is around the corner, and THAT means spring is on the way.***

*For the St. Louis Cardinals, that is.  Not every team starts on the same day.  Check out the schedules here.

**Actually, based on the number of you that commented on the last post that sports = guy stuff, you may not be giggling.  You may not even care. It's okay.  I still love you.  I may not understand you, but we can still be friends.

***Yes, yes, winter hasn't really been that bad.  I don't care.  I'm ready for spring and Spring Training.

My precious . . . I mean, the Commissioner's Trophy

Look at the shiny, pretty, precious trophy.  It's actually coming to a cell phone store near me!! For realz!!!  I, I, um. . . actually, maybe my exclamation points and I should have a moment to ourselves.

(deep breath)

Where was I?  Right. Spring Training is right around the corner, and while my baseball team won't look exactly like it did this time last year****, that's okay because a new season is a fresh start.   During Spring Training, the post-season is still every team's dream.  Every pitcher still has a chance for a shut-out; every catcher has a chance to throw out that sneaky baserunner. Every batter has a chance to hit like The Man, Stan Musial (career .331 batting average, 475 HR, 1951 RBI.)

****No. We're not going to talk about that here.  We're going to talk about the real Man.

Stan is known for his stance.

Stan Musial is arguably the best player to ever wear a Cardinal uniform.  He is arguably one of the best players to wear any baseball uniform, frequently spoken of as part of the Big Three (Musial, DiMaggio, and Williams).  In Stan Musial: An American Life, George Vecsey argues those cases well. For Stan Musial, the usual Spring Training dreams of position players--hitting well, winning pennants, and being chosen as an All-Star--were a reality for most of 22 seasons.  In addition to being amazing on the diamond, Stan is generally referred to gentleman off the diamond and a savvy businessman.  Would that all professional athletes had his commitment to his wife, his soft touch with fans, and his foresight to earn money in non-athletic pursuits.  We'd have a lot more role models in professional sports if they did.

In fact, Stan Musial: An American Life almost seems too good to be true.  The stories told, though, are consistent with what was said about Stan when he was an active player and when he was an active businessman.  The only real complaints to be found about Stan seem to be that he wasn't omnipotent.  If his teammates were looking for a political leader who would use his weight to address the social inequalities of his time, they were looking in the wrong place.  Stan wasn't the kind of teammate to chase confrontation.  If his hometown was looking for someone to save a small town in the Rust Belt, they were looking in the wrong place.  Stan was known to be generous on an individual basis, but he never formed a foundation that makes major donations for hospital wings and children's libraries.

So it seems that Stan wasn't perfect, but as man he was very, very good, and as a player he was great.  I'll take that, and I'll take George Vecsey's collection of Stanley anecdotes to carry me over until the baseball season really begins.  I liked this glimpse into the history of baseball (Musial's career spanned racial integration and union formation) and the history Stan (his upbringing, his playing days, and his relationships).

For a St. Louis Cardinals fan, this is a must read.  For a true fan of baseball, this is a must read. For all of us, it's a great lesson of a life of meaning and value.

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

I could sit in that chair
for days.  With coffee, of course.

This is for all of you Nicholas Sparks lovers out there.  You are out there, aren't you?  I love his stories.  They are chock-full of emotion, feeling, connection and love.  But they are also chock-full of sadness.  Heavy, heavy sadness.  That is why I can only read one of his works every year or so.

This year I decided on The Best of Me.  It features two high school sweethearts with the odds HEAVILY stacked against them.  Dawson is from the wrong side of the tracks and hails from a family known for violence and numerous run ins with the law.  Amanda comes from money and a family that expects her to marry nothing less.  After a  mostly secret courtship during high school, Dawson pushes Amanda to go to college and forget about their relationship.  The pain endures over the years as Dawson  endures a stint in prison (for a traffic accident that killed a man) and as he performs his lonely duties on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean.  Amanda on the other hand, fulfills her families wishes, marries well and goes on to have three children.  Her adult life is consumed by child rearing and charity work with Dawson always in the back of her mind.  And then one day they are both summoned back to Oriental, their hometown.  Unbeknownst to each of them, a man they had in common in their past included them in his will with very specific instructions.  Their feelings and desires are still present after all of the years apart and their future will be determined by the how they spend the next 48 hours.

For those of you that are frequent Sparks readers, this book will not disappoint.  It has all the marks of a classic Sparks tale.  You have your love, your serene surroundings for more love, and the tell-tale family drama for even more love.  What I do love about Nicholas Sparks is his ability to paint such a clean, clear picture.  Whether it was the dusty garage where Dawson and Amanda would sit for hours and talk while Dawson fixed old cars or if it was the field of wildflowers they discovered hidden away next to a flowing stream, I was there.  It was THAT real.  And I'm not sure how he does it time after time, but his characters are also always so very real.  He creates such seemingly normal people.  Could I picture myself as Amanda?  Totally.  Is it easy to imagine falling for a guy like Dawson?  Again, yes.  And that is what I think makes this book (and all of his others) so hard for me to read.  If I can put myself there, then it could actually happen!  I don't want to have someone I love taken from me.  I don't want to live a life full of regret.  And I certainly don't want to live through having to make such heart-wrenching choices over and over again.  The sadness is just too overwhelming!

Every time I read a Nicholas Sparks book I cry my eyes out.  This time was no exception.  I can't imagine what would happen if I actually watched one of the movie adaptations.  I think I will stick to reading them in the privacy of my own home....once a year.

Devil's Corner by Lisa Scottoline

My first autograph from a
non-baseball player.

I'm somewhat of a book nerd.   Ok, who am I kidding?  I blog about books I've read.  I'm not SOMEWHAT of a book nerd, I AM a book nerd.  Need more proof?  Check the picture.  That's right.  That is an autograph (and an 'xoxo' thank you very much) from one of my new favorite authors,  Lisa Scottoline.  She was at the National Book Festival in September and when I was supposed to be in the Mary Pope Osborne line with my kids, I snuck over to see her.  Her line was relatively short (everything was short compared to Ms. Magic Treehouse), my kids had water, and their aunts were kind enough to wait with them...so why not?  She relayed to me some of her personal experiences surrounding her work in Save Me and even gave me a hug! A hug! It was pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

I swear I had already reviewed Save Me here at TFA, but it seems I did not.  (Ugh, I hate getting old and forgetting things.  I'll have to review it in the next month or so.).  But anyway, after meeting her and having my book signed, I wanted more. Meeting an author does that to you, I think.  I went to the library the next day and checked out Devil's Corner. 

So did I like Devil's Corner as much as Save Me?  Yes.  Possibly even more.  Devil's Corner is Scottoline's 12th novel and tells the story of US Attorney Vicki Allegretti in the midst of her most recent case.  The book opens with Vicki and her ATF partner Morty, calling on an informant for a scheduled interview.  The informant is home but so are the thugs who are robbing her.  Vicki then falls victim to a robbery, watches her partner die in the ensuing firefight and finds her pregnant informant dead upstairs.  All of that is just in the first two chapters, my friends.  The deeper Vicki digs however, the more she finds that Morty's death may have not been an accident.  Her findings lead her to one of the most notorious drug rings in Philadelphia.  There, she finds an unlikely accomplice/ally in an ex-con just released from prison.  oh, and did I mention she gets the added pressure of trying to suppress her deep desire for a married man who is also her best friend?  In short, Vicki is one busy gal.

This book reminded me of some of the older Patricia Cornwell novels that featured Kay Scarpetta, only with less technical jargon and more likeable characters.  With Scarpetta I got a rough-around-the-edges feel versus a tough but also more sensitive vibe from Allegretti.  I like the tough and sensitive better.  I thought it was refreshing to let your lead female character show her vulnerabilities every once in a while without letting it sacrifice her professionalism.  Allegretti also had the influence of her parents (both lawyers) in the story.  That was an interesting twist that allowed us to see a more complete picture of Allegretti.

I am pretty sure (Google told me) that this is the only one of Scottoline's novels that features Vicki Allegretti.  I'm bummed, but maybe I shouldn't be.  There are plenty of other Scottoline novels out there that sound like they would make for some great reads.  I will probably save some of those to read next summer.  For now, I'm researching who will be attending the 2013 installment of the National Book Festival.  Who needs a hug?