The one that got away.

[Vintagedeputy]

Several years ago, I was contacted by a woman named Kathi who was asking for information on a game used Cardinals uniform that she had. She sent me photos, which took my breath away. It was a 1962 Stan Musial jersey and pants.

Kathi told me that her husband Sam was a pitcher in the Cardinals minor league system and he went to spring training with the Cardinals in early 1963? She said that he pitched very well and was expected to make the team, but during that spring training, he injured his arm and with medicine being what it was at the time, it was pretty much a career threatening injury.

Kathi said that during spring training, Sam became very close with Stan Musial and Musial gifted his jersey and pants from that spring to Sam as a momento of their brief time together and perhaps what Sam’s career could have been. After the injury, Sam got hired by the Anheuser Busch company where he stayed for many years in their employ. He treasured the uniform until he passed, and after his death, his wife kept it for safekeeping for many years until she reached out to me.

I of course, fell in love with the uniform and talked to Kathi about purchasing it directly from her. She said that she had no idea what it was worth and as we talked about the Uniform and her life with Sam, a friendship developed. I would talk to Kathi every few months about our lives and our families and our love of sports. She would tell me about Sam’s Corvette out in the barn and his love of cooking, especially making his own famous Chop Suey. I would bring up the uniform every once in a while, but our conversations always drifted into things that friends talk about. I would send her messages on Facebook as well as birthday and Christmas cards and as her health declined, I would check in with her more regularly and she would tell me how she was doing.

Kathi was in poor health and after a while I stopped hearing from her and she stopped posting on Facebook. I checked on her status one day and saw that her home in West Plains, Missouri had been sold at auction and I tried diligently to find out anything I could about how she was. I finally was able to reach her daughter who told me that Kathi had passed a few months earlier after a long illness. I was so sad to hear this as Kathi was an amazing woman.

I inquired about the uniform and told her daughter that Kathi and I had met initially discussing the uniform and asked whatever happened to it. Her daughter simply told me that Kathi had sold it before her death. I had forgotten about the uniform for a little while, but just ran across it in a Grey Flannel auction. It looks like she consigned it to them and it found a new home with someone for 32K.

While I would’ve absolutely loved to have the uniform for its own significance, I would’ve treasured it more because of what it meant to Sam and Kathi and it would’ve been one of those pieces that never left my possession. I hope the new owner, whoever that is enjoys the uniform for being more than what it is physically, it meant the world to Sam and Kathi and it should be treasured as such.

Here are the photos that Kathi sent me initially as well as a link to the Grey Flannel auction.

https://greyflannelauctions.com/lot/...annel-uniform/