Bill James tells in one of his books how in polls taken among fellow players in both the 1940's and the 1950's, Stan Musial was chosen as Player of the Decade. Some would argue it was because everyone loved Stan and Ted Williams spent time in both decades in war and he was not very well liked till he retired and Joe Dimaggio thought highly of himself. Joe used to advertise coffee makers on TV and was always called "world's greatest living player". A sports writer (can't recall who) told of a time they had Mickey Mantle day or something at Yankee Stadium and he emceed. At the end, he was to introduce Joe and Joe would make a short speech. He ended with "and now here is Joe DiMaggio.". Joe told him he wasn't going to talk and walked over with the other dignitaries. Later, Joe caught the writer alone in the hallways of the stadium, punched him in the stomach and said, "it's Joe DiMaggio worlds greatest living player."
Always love the history @berniecarbo...never heard that particular story of DiMaggio but always heard about his demand to be labeled the world's greatest living baseball player. Ted Williams on base percentage was incredible...I think Musial was just such a great guy, I remember when they did a documentary of him, there was a flight that Musial wasn't going to be on and a few of the Cardinal players were concerned...a little bit uneasy about a flight without Stan cause they felt Stan was 'protected' by the Almighty haha.
Speaking of Mickey Mantle, I do remember a piece about him and Stan spending some time together late in Mickey's life and Mickey admitting later if he had lived like Musial he probably would have put up way bigger stats.
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