RetroSimba: “I’m here to see Stan Musial, not Joe DiMaggio”

Musial might have had a slightly higher OPS+ than DiMaggio…but suddenly the gap seems wider.

I was 32 and a lifelong fan of Musial, but I never had met him. Figuring I might never get another chance, I hatched a plan. I would go to Doral and attempt to meet him. I brought a Sharpie pen, my 1963 Topps Musial baseball card, a notebook and a ballpoint pen. My hope was to have Musial autograph the card or a page in the notebook.

...I reached for the notebook and the ballpoint pen.

“Mr. DiMaggio,” I said. “May I have your autograph?”

DiMaggio looked purposefully into the eyes of each of us.

“I’ll remember you,” he said, addressing us as a group. “I better not see any of you behind the 18th green, asking for another autograph.”

...I had accomplished what I had set out to do. I had met Stan Musial. I got to tell him my story and how much he meant to me. I had gotten a personal autograph. There was nothing more to do.

And, oh, yeah, I got stared down by Joe DiMaggio, too.