Recognize and Honor Good

Last weekend, I watched the funeral mass for beloved St. Louis Cardinals great Stan 'The Man' Musial who died at age 92. It was a fitting tribute to this notable baseball Hall-of-Fame player who spent his entire 22-year big league career with St. Louis. Musial's records and statistical numbers accomplishments are mind boggling. Perhaps most gaudy is 1815 hits at home and 1815 hits on the road; coupled with seven National League batting titles. Musial, forever, will be etched in the minds of St. Louis baseball fans and likely until time ends, he will be celebrated along the banks of the Mississippi.

Interestingly, I had lunch last week with another former major league baseball player who finished a season hitting one thousand; finished his career hitting one thousand. Roe Skidmore is the former Chicago Cubs player who made one at bat appearance and singled. Roe is also a Decatur Eisenhower high school graduate who played on that school's State Championship team his junior year, 1962.

The purpose for lunch with Skidmore is to bring him on as a committee member. I recently made the proposal to the Decatur School District to name a remodeled baseball field, "Panthers' Pro Park" as we lift the names of 15-former Major League baseball players with Decatur connections; either born in Decatur or played for a Decatur high school. One of those fifteen players from Decatur had big time stats. That is 15-year veteran Bill Madlock who won four (4) National League batting titles.

The purpose and point to all this effort is saluting those who achieved a level of excellence and offer those accomplishments as standards for Decatur youth to aspire. Along with Skidmore and Madlock, the other Decatur players who made the 'bigs' and will subsequently have their names placed for public recognition at Panthers' Pro Park are: Walter "Boom Boom" Beck, Chuck Dressen, Harry East, Jeff Innis, Kevin Kosloski, Hobie Landrith, Fred T. Long, Dan Porter, Kevin Roberson, Art Scharein, George Scharein, Brian Snitker and Del Unser.

There is relativity in this journey called life and there is levels of acknowledgement and praise. Nevertheless, when we can say 'job well done,' we should.

PS. A trivia note on Stan Musial that I did not hear reported was the following: In 1952, Musial and Chicago Cubs player Frankie Baumholtz were locked in a close race for the National League Batting Title for much of the season. The Cubs were in St. Louis for the final games of that season and on the last day, Cardinals ' manager, Eddie Stankey brought Musial in from center field to pitch to lead off hitter, Baumholtz. Baumholz, a Left handed hitter turned around and batter right handed against Musial and reached second base on an error. Musial did not appreciate the circus gimmick. Musial won the Title. Baumholtz was the first MLB player who also played professional basketball.