Baseball, the Pope and Politics: Stan Musial and Poland

In 1987, Stan Musial traveled to Poland. He is shown here during a baseball clinic in Kutno (wearing a Boston Red Sox cap borrowed from another American) with Waldemar Goralski and Moe Drabowsky. (Courtesy of Slawomir Podemski, with thanks to Josh Chetwynd)

 

Stan Musial’s father, Łukasz, believed in the American dream. Work hard, get an education, and succeed. In fact, he was so committed to that ethos that when Stan, the fifth of six children, was offered a basketball scholarship at the University of Pittsburgh, he famously tried to push his son in that direction, because he believed that education came first. Thankfully, for baseball fans everywhere, Stan’s mother, Mary, was there to intercede, ensuring that what became a Hall of Fame career remained on track.

But as much as Łukasz fit the striving immigrant role, the native of Przemyśl, Poland, was deeply proud of his roots and imbued that love of his ancestral home in Stan. This affection would last a lifetime and lead to both the important development of baseball in Europe and the start of a long friendship between Musial, a devout Catholic, and Pope John Paul II. This primarily happened through the prism of the Cold War, which colored much of the early work that the three-time National League MVP did in Poland.

Musial’s connection to his Polish heritage began at a young age. In his preteen years, he started going to the Polish Falcons’ Alliance of America in his hometown of Donora, Pennsylvania. The Polish Falcons were a movement that began after an 1863 uprising. Its purpose was to improve the Polish spirit through physical fitness, and eventually it became an international organization. In 1934, Lukasz formally signed him up for classes.

“We marched and trained [in] military drills, and then we exercised on machines and mats,” Musial later said. “We swung on gymnastic handrails, jumped over the horse and performed acrobatic exercises, which helped me avoid any injuries in my professional career. In the spring, our instructors took us outside to compete in athletic tournaments against other cities. I have no words to describe how much these three years of gymnastics with the Falcons have given me.”1

Musial would hold to close to his heart both those experiences and the importance of Poland to his father, And while Poland was still under the sway of a Communist government when Musial’s career came to an end in the early 1960s, he made it a priority to visit the country and make a difference to its people.

According to the St. Louis Beacon, Musial and his wife, Lillian, made a trip to to Poland during this period “with a small group of prosperous Polish-Americans to see what they could do to help its people.”2

While not much is known about that reported journey, Musial’s next sojourn to Poland proved to be particularly memorable.

While planning a trip in 1970, Musial asked St. Louis’s archbishop, John Carberry, for a letter of introduction to Cardinal Primate Stefan Wyszynski, who was based in Warsaw and someone Musial had admired for his anti-communist stances.3 Carberry wrote the letter, but also recommended that the retired baseball star meet another Polish cardinal, who was around Musial’s age. His name: Cardinal Karol Wojtyla. While Wojtyla didn’t speak great English and Musial had just a rudimentary ability in Polish, the pair got along, which would start a relationship between baseball’s greatest Cardinal and the man who later became Pope John Paul II.

Two years later, Musial returned to Poland for the first time in a more public capacity. In what was dubbed the “Stan Musial Sportsman Tour,”4 a group of 22 “distinguished” business and political leaders traveled with the stated goal being an opportunity for Musial to hand out trophies and some baseballs at various sporting events. Considering the time – the Cold War was in full bloom – Musial’s appearance in Poland was quite notable. This was particularly true because Musial became the first foreigner to receive Poland’s Merited Champions Medal from Communist Poland. No doubt such an act by the Communist government toward an American showed bravery on the part of the Polish government.

“It is an honor to award this medal to one of the greatest American athletes of Polish descent,” said Dr. Wlodzimietz Reczek, who was the chief of the Polish Olympic Committee. “It is a measure of the high regard with which we view our links with the Poles of America.”5

This was just the first of many times that Musial’s work in Poland would be used by politicians and pundits in discussing the role of Americans in a country on the western border of the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. Musial seemed to be fine with this attention as he made visiting Poland a regular occurrence for much of the rest of his life.

In 1976 Musial traveled through Poland and wowed Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Tom Fox with his abilities on the harmonica. In a restaurant in Warsaw, Musial played with a polka band of which Fox wrote: “None of the Poles were aware that the guy playing the harmonica was Stan Musial, the American baseball legend, one of the most famous Polish-Americans of all time, but that didn’t stop the dancing.”6 Three years later, Musial visited Krakow to spend time with his friend, Pope John Paul II, who had assumed leadership of the Catholic Church the previous year.7

 

 

The friendship endured. In 1999, when the pope paid a pastoral visit to St. Louis, Stan Musial was named honorary co-chair.8

But it was his trip in 1987 that really kicked off his role as a baseball ambassador in his father’s homeland. That year, Commissioner Peter Ueberroth asked Musial and fellow major-league veteran Moe Drabowsky, who was born in Ozanna, Poland, to be “goodwill ambassadors” on behalf of baseball. Baseball was just starting to get a toehold in Poland at the time. With baseball receiving recognition as an Olympic sport, the Polish Baseball Federation was registered as an official discipline within the country’s Ministry of Sport. Baseball had existed in Rybnik for some time and other areas of the country like Kutno and Warsaw were also seeing growth.9

Musial and Drabowsky provided clinics, offered media interviews, and met with teams throughout the country. They also served as the face for $25,000 in equipment donations from the United States to Poland’s relatively nascent baseball efforts. Clearly, Musial showed great charm during the tour. At one point on the trip, he met Gary Gildner, an American expat teacher and baseball coach, and his team, which was called the Warsaw Sparks.

The retired Cardinals star was so warm with Gildner that after he left, one of his players was sure that the two previously knew each other and had played together. Gildner assured the player he had never met the 24-time All-Star, but on reflection of the importance of Musial to the baseball world (and his baseball experience), he conceded: “Musial and I never played baseball together, but you’re absolutely right, we’re old friends.”10

Communism was on the wane in Poland by this point, but hardline media still couldn’t help but talk about the trip through the lens of capitalism. Articles referenced the local bat-and-ball sport of palant as an antecedent to baseball. (A common claim in communist countries during this era was to take credit for baseball by suggesting baseball was a copy of their regional game.)

One Polish sports magazine made the wry comment that “Coca-Cola and the potato beetle have lost their imperialistic sting over time, but somehow baseball couldn’t get through.”11 Grzegorz Stabeusz, a Polish native who played baseball in Warsaw during this era, explained the reference to the potato beetle: “During the 1950s, when there was a potato harvest failure, communist propaganda said it was due to the fact, that Americans were dropping the potato beetle on crop fields in Poland, and Coca-Cola as a symbol of the American lifestyle was used as an example of American ‘nouveau riche,’ which contrasted with hard-working labor class in the Eastern Bloc,” he said.12

Also biting was Walka Mlodych, a weekly publication of the Polish Communist Party PZPR, which was geared toward young adults. That publication wrote: “If you ask a random American who is [famed Polish athletes] Irena Szewińska, Ryszard Szurkowski or Zbigniew Boniek, they’ll flip their eyes and say they’ve never heard these names. That’s because America is such a backwater place, where the interest in sports by the fans is very limited and focused mainly on professional types of sports practiced on that continent.”13

But Musial’s upbeat tone received positive reviews from the American media. The seven-time batting champ diplomatically described the level of play – and its relative importance at that juncture: “[I] reckoned that an American high school team could probably handle Kutno easily. … But that’s not important. … We’re here to help get them going, and maybe we can invite some of their coaches to the U.S. next year to see how we train so they can come home and teach the kids more.”14

The trip was an overall success and got the attention of Little League Baseball, which was looking for a permanent home for conducting baseball tournaments in the European region. While the premier youth baseball organization considered many locales, the willingness of the city of Kutno to donate 40 acres of land appeared to jump-start it as the top location to build.

In 1989 President George H.W. Bush gave a speech in Warsaw to celebrate Polish baseball receiving a Little League charter. That year, Poland had established itself as a democratic republic and Bush’s words seemed to hold Musial up as an exemplar of the American – and Polish – spirit.

“As the son of Polish immigrants in Donora, Pennsylvania, Stan Musial had a dream – to make the big leagues,” Bush said. “Like so many Poles, hard work made his dream come true. Stan the Man was already climbing toward the majors when Little League began. He never played it, but he embodied its qualities. For he was a humble winner and a gracious loser. A man of self-discipline and pride.”15

From there, the effort was on to build a massive complex in Kutno – an endeavor Musial didn’t shy away from helping. According to one estimate, the facility cost $6 million to build.16 Among Musial’s work on this front: He would lend his name and time to fundraisers, like one he did in 1996 in St. Louis at $100 a ticket.17

It took some time, but the funds were eventually raised – in part thanks to the help of Edward Piszek, a longtime friend of Musial’s who was the co-founder of Mrs. Paul’s frozen food brands. When the Kutno complex had its official opening in August 2000, Musial was in attendance. The main field at the complex was named the Stan Musial Stadium18 and it featured an electronic scoreboard draped by the likeness of the Cardinals legend. (Another diamond was named after Piszek.)

Musial’s legacy looms large in St. Louis but the continued development of the sport in Poland – and in all of Europe, since the Kutno facility is the home for Little League tournaments for teams across the continent – also deserves a big tip of the cap for the Cardinals great.19

JOSH CHETWYND has written seven books, including Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History. He is also a past recipient of a SABR Baseball Research Award. A long-time journalist and broadcaster, Chetwynd has served as an on-air analyst and host for baseball telecasts on both television and radio. As a player, Chetwynd competed at the NCAA Division I, independent minor league, and international levels. He was a member of the Great Britain National Baseball Team for a decade and was inducted into the British Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Grzegorz Stabeusz for his assistance on this article.

 

NOTES

1 Justyna Staroń, “‘Stan the Man.’ A Baseball Player with Poland in His Heart,” Przystanek Historia, May 5, 2024, https://przystanekhistoria.pl/pa2/tematy/english-content/104568,Stan-the-Man-A-baseball-player-with-Poland-in-his-heart.html.

2 Patricia Rice, “The Man, the Pope and Poland,” St. Louis Public Radio, January 20, 2013, https://www.stlpr.org/arts/2013-01-20/the-man-the-pope-and-poland. (The article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon.)

3 Musial appears to have had strong anti-communist feeling. According to one source, he was partially driven to develop baseball in Poland because he heard that Cuba was planning to send coaches to Poland and that didn’t sit well with him. See Robert Strybel, “Pol-Am Baseball Great Stan Musial Dies,” Am-Pol Eagle, February 2013, https://ampoleagle.com/polam-baseball-great-stan-musial-dies-p6441-1.htm.

4 Associated Press, “Stan Musial to Visit Poland Next Month,” Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), January 21, 1972: 19.

5 Associated Press, “Poland Honors Stan Musial,” Hartford Courant, February 12, 1972: 26.

6 Tom Fox, “Stan Musial Still Hitting,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 1976: 3.

7 “Former Cardinal, Musial Impressed in Poland,” Belleville (Illinois) Messenger, June 6, 1979: 8.

8 Patricia Rice, St. Louis Public Radio, January 20, 2013, https://www.stlpr.org/arts/2013-01-20/the-man-the-pope-and-poland).

9 Information from this paragraph comes from Josh Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History (2nd edition), (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2019), 229-233.

10 Gary Gildner, The Warsaw Sparks (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1990), 148.

11 Andrzej Person, “A Batter’s Visit,” Wiadomości Sportowe, October 13, 1987: NR 41. (Translated from original Polish by Grzegorz Stabeusz).

12 Correspondence with the author, August 26, 2024.

13 “To the Olympics With a Bat,” Walka Mlodych, November 1, 1987. (Translated from original Polish by Grzegorz Stabeusz).

14 Paula Butturini, “Stars Coach Poles in Basics of Baseball,” Chicago Tribune, September 27, 1987: 3.

15 Lawrence M. O’Rourke, “Bush Pitches Musial Story to Young Poles,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 11, 1989: 10-A.

16 “Braun,” Newark Star Ledger, July 4, 2001: 8.

17 “Miklasz,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 2, 1996: 6-C.

18 It’s worth noting that this wasn’t the first time Musial had a field named after him in Poland. In 1990 the city of Wroclaw in Silesia built a monument in Musial’s honor at that city’s first Little League field that included a 6-foot-high gray granite marker and a bronze plaque with the name and likeness dubbing the diamond the Stan Musial Little League Field. See Theresa Tighe, “Stan the Man: Musial a Hero in Poland, Too,” St Louis Post-Dispatch, September 9, 1990: 42.

19 As of 2024, former major-league pitcher Dennis Cook was named manager of the Poland national team. Cook enlisted the help of former Seattle Mariners manager John McLaren to serve as bench coach. Michael Clair, “Poland Hires Former MLBer Dennis Cook with Hopes for Future Success,” MLB.com, April 11, 2024.

https://www.mlb.com/news/poland-hires-former-mlb-player-dennis-cook-to-manage-team.