The search for Stan the Man's lost home run

[007]

Fantastic read...I remember my dad telling me he had a dinger washed out that ended up costing him a Triple Crown, but he couldn't remember the date, either...

ess eff? Stan? Anyone else? I've looked but only found a few rain out dates though no stats...

[triggercut1]

ess eff could tell you in some amazing detail about Hank Aaron's lost HR, but dunno about Musial.

[El Establishment 1]

My old man is a Musial junkie. I remember hearing about this.

[ess eff]

The fan referenced by Goold who remembers this home run and is trying to track down the details is Prof. Michael J. Murphy of Saskatoon, who frequents BOTB. He has been able to identify a likely date, Aug. 3, and now is just trying to find some corroboration in print.

I presume Goold has checked the P-D archives and I've looked through the NY Times with no luck. If someone wants to join the chase, my suggestion is to check the Globe-Democrat for Aug. 4, 1948, in the microfilm room at the St. Louis main library, which as far as I know is still down on Olive St., just went of Tucker/12th.

Aaron's lost home run is better documented, and I feel lucky to have been there. It occurred in this game on Aug. 18, 1965. Aaron had been frustrated by Curt Simmons' off speed junk and moved up in the batter's box to the point that when he hit the ball onto the pavilion roof in the 8th inning, plate umpire Chris Pelekoudas called him out for being out of the box when he hit the ball.

[kah]

What the article does not mention is that not only did Musial wind up losing the triple crown, but he never won a home run title in his career. For quite a long time Stan Musial held the record for most home runs by a player who never won a home run title. Roiders like Gary Sheffield and Palmeiro have passed him lately.

[kennyboyerfan]

OK, I'm confused. Yes, it's interesting that Musial may have hit one in a game that was rained out, but it was never going to count toward the home run record or Triple Crown anyway, was it?

[ess eff]

What the article does not mention is that not only did Musial wind up losing the triple crown, but he never won a home run title in his career.

Nor did he ever have a 40-homer season. That one rainout may have cost him multiple milestones.

KBF,

No, documenting the rained-out homer won't bring him a retroactive Triple Crown. I think the point of the exercise is to show what might have been/how close he came.

[kjoe]

I would zhettle for zhome of the local announcers finding the missing 'ess' in his name.

[Stan_Papi]

Fantastic read...I remember my dad telling me he had a dinger washed out that ended up costing him a Triple Crown, but he couldn't remember the date, either...

ess eff? Stan? Anyone else? I've looked but only found a few rain out dates though no stats...

Not much to offer, since there's obviously people who have done a lot more research than I, but my guess would be that it likely was hit vs either Clint Hartung, or Dave Koslo on 8/3.

The Cards and Giants played a mid-week doubleheader on 8/4, which suggests a rainout on 8/3 (since the two teams also played on the 2nd).

Jansen, Poat and Jones were the three main starters for the Giants that year, but all three either started in the DH on the 4th or started a game within a day of the 3rd, so it's unlikely that they would have been the starter for the 8/3 rainout.

Hartung and Koslo both started games on either side of 8/3, with Hartung starting on 7/28 and 8/8, and Koslo starting on 7/29 and 8/7, so either would have been a candidate for that 8/3 aborted start. I'd probably go 60/40 in favor of it being Hartung, but that's far from definitive and as mentioned before, there's a lot of people that seem to be doing work on this, so I'm sure they've already gotten it nailed down closer than I did with my 10 minutes of research!

[kah]

I am surprised this question can't be answered by simply leafing through the daily issues of the P-D and the Globe-Democrat.

[kjoe]

It was a big news day.

8-3-1948 - Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.

Maybe Hiss took it.