[stlcardsfan]

Sad indeed. What a gentleman.

I was at a Cardinal game in a suite about 10 years ago with an older customer of mine who knows Red quite well - hunts with him, has dinner, etc - they are friends. He calls Red on his cell phone and tells him what suite we are in and come join us. Red shows up and the three of us are sitting in the "lobby" section of the suite talking, sort of watching the game. There is a display right next to us with a 1956 card of Nelson Burbrink, a catcher. I ask Red if he remembers the guy and says "oh yeah, and that was the year I was traded".

He proceeds to tell us he and Stan would drive to the park together for every game, and their wives would ride together later, and they would ride home with their wives that night. Well, one day Stan picks up Red and is in a foul mood, Red asks him what's wrong, and Stan says "Lane (Cards GM - "Trader Lane") called me and said he is thinking about trading me!" (can you imagine). Stan proceeds to tell Red he tells Lane he will do no such thing and calls ownership and they assure Stan it's not going to happen. This is the day before the trade deadline. Red is driving home with his wife after the game and thinks to himself "if Lane was going to trade Musial he might trade me!". Sure enough, Red is traded to the NY Giants the next day for Al Dark (I think there were some other players thrown in).

The next year (at the deadline) he is traded to Milwaukee where they go on to beat the Yankees in the 57 World Series, and then lose to the Yanks the following year in '58. He was a big part of those teams. He misses the '59 season with tuberculosis and is then traded back to the Cards after the '60 season.

It was pretty cool listening to that story.