Stan Musial - Stan The Man
Stan Musial, at age ninety, received the Medal of Freedom award from President Obama on Tuesday, February 15, 2011. The President called the recipients, "the best of who we are and we we aspire to be." Certainly in Musial's case he was the best in his world of baseball.
As a St. Louis Cardinal he was a three-time World Champion and he appeared in 24 All-Star Games. He retired with a .331 batting average and 475 home runs and 3,630 career hits. These major accomplishments occurred despite the time he took off to serve in the Navy during World War II.
The Medal of Freedom is the highest honor awarded to Civilians and is meant to recognize those that have made exceptional contributions to national security, world peace, or the culture as a whole. Only 257 American have ever received this honor.
Other outstanding individuals receiving this honor on Tuesday were:
- President George H.W. Bush
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel
- Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.
- John H. Adams, co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council
- Poet Maya Angelou
- Investor Warren Buffett
- Artist Jasper Johns
- Holocaust survivor and author Gerda Weissmann Klein
- Dr. Tom Little, an optometrist and aid worker killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan
- Cellist Yo-Yo Ma
- Civil rights activist Sylvia Mendez
- Baseball legend Stan Musial
- Basketball legend Bill Russell
- Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of President John F. Kennedy and founder of VSA, the International Organization on Arts and Disability
- John J. Sweeney, former AFL-CIO president
Maya Angelou is my favorite person in all the world. What an incredibly wise, well-spoken woman she is. Also special congrats to John Lewis. Without him, this would be a far different (and much worse) country. And yay, baseball guys!
ReplyDeleteI will give a nod to Maya Angelou on President's Day. Even though I am a Cubs fan, I will acknowledge home town St. Louis player Stan The Man, he really is a role model for kids.
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