MLB Bullets Honors 'The Man'

Usually my goal is to stick it to the Man, but in this case we take time out from our Cardinals-hating outlook and take a second to honor one of the greatest players to ever play the game, Stan Musial. Nobody did it with more grace and class. He was a quiet hero who didn't call attention to himself and that meant he sometimes got forgotten in discussions of the greatest players of all time. And truth be told, if Musial hadn't missed all of 1945 serving his country, Cub fans likely would be talking about having not been to the World Series since 1938.

Baseball also lost one of the greatest managers of all time in Earl Weaver. One could say that all Bill James ever did was sit in a pork and beans plant and tried to figure out what Earl Weaver already knew.

• George Vescey looks back at what kind of a man Stan "The Man" Musial was.
• Allen St. John in Forbes asks if Musial had been baseball greatest living hitter. His answer is either Musial or Barry Bonds.
• Jim Palmer remembers his manager and sparring partner, Earl Weaver. If you aren't old enough to remember the 1970s, the battles between Palmer and Weaver were legendary at the time.
• USA Today also remembers some of Weaver's epic rants.
• The Sporting News collects Twitter posts from baseball men on the passing of Musial and Weaver.
• Ron Fraser, the long-time coach of the Miami Hurricanes, also died over the weekend. Fraser was a two-time winner of the College World Series and an inductee into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Brewer's first baseman Corey Hart is having arthroscopic knee surgery and will miss three to four months. I'm sure you're all devastated.
• Adam Kennedy is opening up a baseball development facility in Anaheim as he waits for a team to call him with a job offer. I'm sure it was just too noisy there for him to hear the phone ring.
• Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says that the Rangers strength in 2013 is likely to be their starting pitching, for a change.
• Jonathan Schoop is playing for the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic. Go Orange!
• Braves pitchers Craig Kimbrel and Kris Medlen think that the WBC will help them have a strong 2013 season.
• The Braves also have a really crummy TV deal with 14 years left to go on it. However, Braves CEO Terry McGuirk says that the Braves will still be able to compete. And we thought the Soriano contract was too long.
• Bill Madden of the New York Daily News thinks the Nationals are doing everything necessary to win in 2013 and beyond. That's how bad the Mets are: The NY media are writing stories on the Nationals.
• Finally, and this is serious, Hall of Fame writer Hal McCoy wants to know if you can give him a ride to the Reds games. McCoy is legally blind and he's asking for someone to drive him to every game. There's no pay, but you do get to watch every game for free from the press box.

The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team won an emotional game over Wisconsin on the twentieth anniversary of the death of Chris Street.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.