This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/15/2008
Perhaps no player in major league history enjoyed a more meteoric rise to stardom than Stan Musial. In 1941, Musial rose from the low minors to the major leagues during the course of a single remarkable season. To start the year, the Cardinals promoted him one level to a Class C farm team in Springfield, Missouri. There, in eighty-seven games, he hit 26 home runs and batted .379. That earned him a midseason promotion to Rochester, New York, a Class B Cardinals farm club, where he hit .326 in fifty-four games. In September, Musial was called up to the Cardinals and was an immediate sensation, getting six hits in a doubleheader and batting .426 in his twelve-game stint. In 1942, his standout performance earned him the starting left field job. The 1942 Cardinals had a team of young, inexperienced players like Musial. They were a loose, carefree bunch, including many young men with rural backgrounds, all corralled by Branch Rickey's sterling scouting network. "They horsed around more [than older players], cut up with hillbilly songs and musical instruments," recalled Musial in his autobiography, Stan Musial: "The Man's" Own Story. "I never had the courage to try my harmonica outside my hotel room, but I could make my share of noise with the slide whistle and coat hanger. I always thought it helped to laugh it up before a game, not to become too tense." The Cardinals laughed their way through the National League, surprising everyone by winning 106 games, including forty-three of their final fifty-two. In the World Series, the New York Yankees were heavy favorites, but the Cardinals rolled by them in five games. Led by Musial's hitting, the Cardinals won the National League pennant again in 1943, and Musial hit .357 to win the first of his seven league batting championships. In Stan Musial's first four full major league seasons, the Cardinals captured four pennants and three World Championships in all. Although the Cardinals failed to win another title during his career, Musial went on to become on of the game's greatest players. He won seven batting championships, three MVP Awards, and reached the 3,000 hit milestone. Vin Scully said of him: "He was good enough to take your breath away." Offered here is a simply outstanding piece of major league baseball history, the first contract signed by Stan Musial to play for the Cardinals in 1941. This contract, dated September 15, 1941, is signed in blue ink by Musial and black ink by fellow Hall of Famer, Cardinals Vice-President Branch Rickey. Both signatures rate at a strong 9/10 minimally. Fully executed and beautifully preserved in NM condition, this among the most important player contracts we have had the pleasure to present at auction. LOA from PSA/DNA.
15,000 USD - 20,000 USD