Stan the Man and Trader Lane: How Musial almost ended up in Philadelphia

Cardinals general manager Frank Lane nearly traded Stan Musial to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1956. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

 

It seems almost unfathomable to think of Stan Musial as anything but a St. Louis Cardinal.

Few players are as completely intertwined with the history and identity of a team as Musial is with the Cardinals. A statue of him in his unique batting stance (White Sox pitcher Ted Lyons, who saw Musial play in the Navy, likened it to “a kid looking around the corner to see if the cops are coming”)1 stands in front of the current iteration of Busch Stadium, with an inscription from Commissioner Ford Frick’s remarks on the occasion of Musial’s retirement in 1963: “Here stands baseball’s perfect warrior; here stands baseball’s perfect knight.”2

Musial’s entire career came with the Cardinals, a sign of his popularity and talent as much as a remnant of the days where the reserve clause meant that no player left a team unless the team wanted him gone. And in 1956, at least one person wanted him gone from St. Louis. He happened to be the general manager.

“Except, apparently, for the boldness of my business partner, Biggie Garagnani, and the intervention of August A. Busch Jr., I would have been sent to the Philadelphia Phillies for Robin Roberts at the trading deadline,” Musial recalled in his autobiography.3

After dominance in the 1940s, when they won three World Series and appeared in another, the Cardinals fell from their perch as one of the National League’s top teams in the 1950s. In that decade, the “Boys of Summer” – the Brooklyn Dodgers – were in full ascent, while the New York Giants won two pennants and a World Series as well. After their World Series win over the Boston Red Sox in 1946, the Cardinals finished second in the National League in each of the next three years, and then slid further down into the standings in the 1950s, which also marked a transitional period in the team’s ownership.

Sam Breadon, on whose watch the Cardinals had become one of the best teams in the National League, sold his interests in 1947 to Fred Saigh. In turn, Saigh was forced to sell the team in 1953, following a conviction for income-tax evasion. The team’s new owner was the Anheuser-Busch brewery, fronted by president August A. “Gussie” Busch Jr. The Cardinals had never had a general manager until Busch installed brewery executive Richard Meyer in the position.

Meyer, who like Busch had considerable business experience but little baseball experience, served in the role for two years before the Cardinals hired Frank Lane, a longtime sports executive who’d gained credit for turning around the Chicago White Sox in his only other stint as a general manager.

Lane was a man of action, described as an indefatigable force of nature. “Frank Lane is as restful as a hurricane,” wrote Arthur Daley of the New York Times.4 “Probably the most exciting chapter in the history of St. Louis baseball is about to be enacted,” J.G. Taylor Spink of The Sporting News said on Lane’s arrival.5

Lane had played minor-league baseball in his native Ohio (for a Class-D team owned by future President Warren G. Harding) and football for the Dayton Triangles, one of the initial teams in what became the NFL. His physical fitness belied his limitations as an athlete,6 and he moved into officiating, where he distinguished himself in college football and basketball, and then into the front office. He’d worked for the Reds and the Yankees before being named president of the American Association in 1946. In October 1948 he was named general manager of the White Sox, taking over a job viewed by many as radioactive, as enfant terrible Chuck Comiskey, Charles Comiskey’s grandson, tried to wrest control from his sister, Dorothy Comiskey Rigney, who was the team’s majority owner.

“It was the one job in baseball nobody wanted, and Frank was warned of the problems: Chicago, then in eighth place, had never drawn a million people in its history; the White Sox were financially impoverished,” Mark Kram wrote in a 1968 profile of Lane for Sports Illustrated.7 But Lane took the job, and immediately took action. He waived or traded 38 of the 40 players on the team within a year of taking over and made 253 deals for a total of 341 players – an average of three trades a month by Lane’s own calculation. But he laid the groundwork for the Go-Go Sox of the 1950s before his resignation in September 1955 amid rumors of a feud. “I left Chicago because young Chuck was breathing down my neck a little harder than I liked,” Lane said in a Saturday Evening Post story the following summer.8 Comiskey, for his part, called stories of a feud overblown and said shortly after Lane’s departure for St. Louis, “Believe it or not, I wish Frank had stayed on a couple more years.”9

Lane was given a three-year contract and started making changes right off the bat – literally, as he redesigned the Cardinals’ uniforms, banishing the birds-on-a-bat design seen even today in favor of a script “Cardinals” across the chest. The move was widely excoriated, and lasted only a year.

Again, Lane started wheeling and dealing. He inquired about buying Ernie Banks’ contract from the Cubs but was rebuffed.10 Lane then completed a five-player deal, sending Harvey Haddix, Stu Miller, and Ben Flowers to the Phillies for Murry Dickson and Herm Wehmeier.11 Solly Hemus also went to Philadelphia, for Bobby Morgan. Bill Virdon, the previous year’s rookie of the year, was traded to Pittsburgh for Dick Littlefield and Bobby Del Greco. Then Alex Grammas was traded with Joe Frazier to the Reds for Chuck Harmon.

“I didn’t come to St. Louis to raise red roses or tell after-dinner stories or take the tenor lead in Hearts and Flowers,” Lane said not long after the trades were made. “I came here to win a pennant, and that’s exactly what I intend to do, any way I can.”12

In the short term, the Cardinals were contending neck-and-neck with the Dodgers as May turned to June on the calendar. The trade deadline loomed on June 15. The Cardinals needed pitching – something Lane had pointed out when he took the job the previous fall – and Lane was ready to make a deal to bring arguably the best pitcher in the major leagues to St. Louis. And all it would cost him was Stan Musial.

Shortly before the trade deadline, Garagnani, a well-known St. Louis restaurateur even before taking on Musial as a partner, heard a rumor from a reputable source that Musial was on the verge of being traded straight up for Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts, who’d been a 20-game winner in each of the previous six seasons, and led the majors in wins in each of the previous four.13 A call to J.G. Taylor Spink, the editor of The Sporting News, confirmed the details. Garagnani then tried to call Busch, who’d previously stated that Musial was untouchable. Unable to reach Busch, Garagnani tried to reach his associates at the brewery, one of whom said, “Lane’s moving so fast, we can’t keep up with him.”14

Garagnani took the bold step of telling team officials – before consulting with Musial – that Musial would retire before accepting a trade. (Musial said in his autobiography that Garagnani’s read on the situation was correct, but that if he really had to think about it, with his 3,000-hit milestone looming, he might have reported to Philadelphia.)

When word reached Busch about the proposed deal, he felt obligated to step in. “When the Musial trade rumors persisted last year I made up my mind they had to be stopped,” he told the Saturday Evening Post. “To my way of thinking, Stan was, is and will continue to be a St. Louis institution.” Busch then commissioned the brewery’s PR firm to draft a statement that said, simply, “At no time has a trade for Stan Musial been considered.” Lane suggested he should release the statement. “I don’t give a damn who makes it,” Busch retorted, “so long as it’s made.”15

The Musial deal was dead,16 but Lane couldn’t be stopped. Three days later, on June 14, the day before the deadline, Red Schoendienst, another fan favorite who’d played with Musial since the 1940s, was traded to the New York Giants.17 “The telephone receiver had to be taken off the hook at my home,” Busch recalled.18 After the Schoendienst deal, all of Lane’s trades were subject to Busch’s approval.

The Cardinals finished 76-78-2 in 1956, a distant fourth in the National League (although an eight-win improvement from the previous season). The following February, at a dinner for the Knights of the Cauliflower Ear, a St. Louis sportsmen’s club started by Busch’s father (August Anheuser Busch Sr.), Gussie said, “I expect the Cardinals to come damn close to winning a pennant in 1957, and 1958 is going to be a sure thing, or Frank Lane will be out on his rump.”19 Busch and Lane both said later that the remarks were not made in total seriousness, but contemporary coverage suggested that Busch’s patience with Lane was running thin. Lane himself tested the waters by asking for a contract extension but received a three-word telegram from Busch: “Kiss my ass.”20

Lane’s departure from St. Louis kept him from consummating one more deal, sending third baseman (and future NL MVP) Ken Boyer to the Phillies for Richie Ashburn – a stroke of good fortune for the Cardinals.22

Musial finished out his career with St. Louis, but the idea of his returning to his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates was broached at least once more, in 1960. Benched by Hemus, who’d returned to manage the team, Musial was still looking for a way to prove himself. Before that year’s trade deadline, Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh inquired, and was told Musial might be available, but general manager Joe L. Brown said he couldn’t make an offer for fear of putting Lane’s successor, Bing Devine, in a bad spot. The only way they’d take on Musial was if he was released. Musial said in his autobiography that he considered asking for his release but decided against it.23

After retiring as a player in 1963, Musial became the Cardinals vice president but stepped in to become the general manager in 1967. The manager was his old friend and roommate Schoendienst. The two got into the team bus at the hotel to go to the ballpark when Schoendienst heard a familiar voice. It was Lane.

“I never saw Stan move so fast in my life,” Schoendienst recalled in his autobiography. “He sprang up from his seat and walked to where Lane was sitting. ‘Get the hell out of here,’ he ordered Lane. ‘Get off our bus.’”24

VINCE GUERRIERI is a journalist and author in the Cleveland area. He’s the secretary-treasurer of the Jack Graney SABR Chapter, and has contributed to the SABR BioProject, the SABR Games Project, and several SABR anthologies, serving as an editor for the book on the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes. Additionally, he’s written about baseball history for a variety of publications, including Ohio Magazine, Cleveland Magazine, Smithsonian, and Defector. He can be reached at vaguerrieri@gmail.com or found on Twitter @vinceguerrieri.

 

NOTES

1 The Sporting News, August 20, 1947: 13. Quoted in Lyons’ SABR bio.

2 Larry Schwartz, “Musial Was Gentleman Killer,” ESPN. https://www.espn.com/sportscentury/features/00016375.html.

3 Stan Musial, as told to Bob Broeg, “The Man’s” Own Story (New York: Doubleday, 1964), 177.

4 Arthur Daley, “Sports of the Times: Baseball’s Man in Motion,” New York Times, January 4, 1961: 37.

5 J.G. Taylor Spink. “‘Tradin’ Man’ Will Shake Up St. Louis,” The Sporting News, October 12, 1955: 1.

6 Famously, he was nearly blind, and well into his old age was too vain to wear glasses, finally opting for prescription sunglasses.

7 Mark Kram, “Would You Trade With This Man?” Sports Illustrated, August 26, 1968. https://vault.si.com/vault/1968/08/26/would-you-trade-with-this-man.

8 Frank Lane, as told to Roger Kahn, “I’m Here to Win a Pennant,” Saturday Evening Post, June 23, 1956.

9 “Feud With Lane Overplayed, Chuck Tells Luncheon Group,” The Sporting News, October 26, 1955, 2.

10 August A. Busch Jr., as told to Milton Gross, “Baseball’s Got Me,” Saturday Evening Post, May 18, 1957. Busch, who’d made overtures to the Dodgers about Gil Hodges before hiring Lane, said Lane went as high as $500,000 for Banks, but Busch, a multimillionaire, was told, “Mr. Wrigley needs a half a million dollars as much as you do.”

11 Dickson had been sold from the Cardinals to the Pirates in 1949, a period when Saigh was attempting to buy out partner Bob Hannegan. A potential sale of Musial to the Pirates was discussed but never consummated. Bob Broeg, “The Man Reveals Near Miss as ’48 Bucco,” The Sporting News, April 6, 1963: 29.

12 Lane, “I’m Here to Win a Pennant.”

13 In 1953 he had been tied with Warren Spahn. In 1954 he was tied with Bob Lemon and Early Wynn.

14 Musial, The Man’s Own Story, 178.

15 Busch, “Baseball’s Got Me.” Lane, for his part, denied ever attempting to trade Musial, saying in Kram’s Sports Illustrated story that it was “one of the great myths of baseball.”

16 It’s an interesting counterfactual to wonder how the Cardinals would have made out had the deal gone down. Roberts led the league in losses in the next two seasons, and never won 20 games in a season again in his career.

17 In his memoirs, Schoendienst said he found out about the deal on the radio.

18 Busch, “Baseball’s Got Me.”

19 Bob Broeg, “Outfield Gone, Pennant Must Come, Bush Warns Lane,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 13, 1957: 24. The quote has been variously stated as “out on his ear” or occasionally, “out on his ass.”

20 Bob Vandenburg, Frantic Frank Lane: Baseball’s Ultimate Wheeler-Dealer (Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland, 2013), 77.

21 Joe Maxse, “The Boys of Past Indian Summers,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 3, 1988: 50.

22 Robert L. Burnes, “The Bench Warmer,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 4, 1958: 21.

23 Musial, The Man’s Own Story, 216.

24 Red Schoendienst with Rob Rains, Red: A Baseball Life (Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing, 1998), 83.