Two Teams, Two Legends: Musial v. Mays
A journey to the past as the 2014 NLCS between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals gets underway.
It seems inevitable that each October either the San Francisco Giants or the St. Louis Cardinals find themselves in position to play for a World Series bid. The Cardinals are in their fourth straight NLCS, becoming the first franchise since the New York Yankees (1998–2001) to play in four straight League Championship Series. The Giants are on the verge of their third World Series appearance in the last five seasons, having won it all in 2010 and 2012.
Friday, as the ALCS got underway, we took a look at Kansas City’s George Brett v. Baltimore’s Cal Ripken, Jr. Now, let’s turn back the clock once more, and compare two of the greatest players from each of NLCS franchises: Stan Musial and Willie Mays.
OFFENSE
Mays: 3,283 Hits, 2,062 Runs, 1,903 RBI, 523 2B, 140 3B, 338 SB, 660 HR, .302/.384/.557, .941 OPS, 156 OPS+, 136.4 oWAR
Musial: 3,630 Hits, 1,949 Runs, 1,951 RBI, 725 2B, 177 3B, 78 SB, 475 HR, .331/.417/.559, .976 OPS, 159 OPS+, 124.6 oWAR
The two had similar overall batting profiles, separated just 35 points of OPS, but a deeper dive into their statistics shows significant differences in how they became known as two of the greatest offensive players in major-league history.
Mays had the advantage in home-run power, with 185 more longballs than Musial — his 660 career homers are surpassed by only three players (Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth). Stan The Man had more of a gap-to-gap power stroke, amassing an additional 202 doubles and 37 triples over his career than Mays. Musial’s 6,134 total bases rank second only to Hank Aaron (6,856) in MLB history, while Mays (6,066) is the only other player with more than 6,000.
Musial was also the better pure hitter, collecting nearly 350 more hits in nearly the same number of at-bats as Mays. He was a seven-time batting champ, behind only Tony Gwynn (eight), Honus Wagner (eight) and Ty Cobb (12), and his 3,630 hits are the fourth-most all-time. Mays won one batting title (1954) and hit over .330 in just three seasons, a mark that Musial reached an astonishing 14 times during his 22-season career.
Mays, however, was clearly a superior baserunner, leading the NL in stolen bases four times, while Musial never had as many as 10 steals in a season.
ADVANTAGE: TIE
DEFENSE
Mays: OF: 20,315 Innings, 139 Errors, .981 Fielding Percentage, 12 Gold Gloves. 1B: 637 Innings, 15 Errors, .979 Fielding Percentage. 3B: 5.2 Innings, 0 Errors, 1.000 Fielding Percentage. SS: 4 Innings, 0 Attempts
Musial: OF: 19 Seasons (No statistical innings from 1941–1955), 64 Errors, .984 Fielding Percentage. 1B: 14 Seasons, 78 Errors, .992 Fielding Percentage.
Measuring defense is an inexact science in baseball, but there is no doubt that Mays is one of the greatest defensive outfielders in baseball history — based on advanced metrics and the “eye test”.
He accumulated the third-most fielding runs in MLB history among outfielders, per the Baseball Reference’s Total Zone ratings, and his 12 Gold Gloves are tied with Roberto Clemente for the most all-time among outfielders. He also made what is considered one of the greatest defensive plays in major-league history, an amazing over-the-should catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series to rob the Indians’ Vic Wertz of an extra-base hit in the eighth inning of a 1–1 game that the Giants would eventually go on to win in extra innings.
Musial finished his career with -9.3 Defensive Wins Above Replacement — the statistics are probably being somewhat unkind — and he played what are considered much easier defensive positions (first base, right field) than Mays (center field) .
(HUGE) ADVANTAGE: MAYS
POSTSEASON
Mays: Five appearances, six series, 25 games, one World Series ring. .247/.323/.337, .660 OPS, one home run, 12 runs, 10 RBI
Musial: Four appearances, four series, 23 games, three World Series rings. .256/.347/.395, .742 OPS, one home run, nine runs, eight RBI
Surprisingly, neither Mays or Musial were postseason heroes. Both had mediocre statistics in October, though in small sample sizes of just 23 games for Musial and 25 games for Mays. Both men won four pennants, but the difference is that Mays’ Giants won just one World Series with him (1954) while Musial’s Cardinals racked up three Fall Classic titles during his career. Stan The Man’s rings gives him the nod here.
ADVANTAGE: MUSIAL
LONGEVITY
Mays: 22 seasons, 2,992 games played, 12,496 plate appearances
Musial: 22 seasons, 3,026 games played, 12,717 plate appearances
This is a dead-heat based on the numbers, with both Mays and Musial playing 22 seasons and roughly 3,000 games. Both also played until they were 42 years old, though Musial managed better production in the twilight of his career — hitting .330/.416/.508 with 19 home runs at age 41, while Mays put up just a .733 OPS in his final two seasons.
ADVANTAGE: TIE
AWARDS
Mays: 1951 NL Rookie of the Year, 1954 and 1965 NL MVP, 12 Gold Gloves, 20 All-Star Games
Musial: 1943, ‘46 and ‘48 NL MVP, 20 All-Star Games
Musial is one of just 10 players to win three MVP awards and finished runner-up another four times. Mays won two MVPs and had two second-place finishes, but his greatness is better understood by the fact that he led the NL in Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Replacement nine different times during his career.
Both Mays and Musial played in 20 All-Star games, tied with another Hall-of-Famer, Hank Aaron for the most all-time. Mays owns the only Rookie of the Year Award among the two players, but that hardware didn’t yet exist during Musial’s rookie season.
ADVANTAGE: TIE
YOUTUBE AWESOMENESS
Mays: We have a little bit of a theme with this one. I certainly could have picked Mays squaring off with Mickey Mantle in the Home Run Derby or his the aforementioned World Series catch, but instead I went the musical route:
Musial: Stan the Man was talented, indeed:
LEGACY
Mays: Say Hey Kid, 1979 Hall of Fame inductee (94.7 percent votes), 156.2 WAR, JAWS center field: 1st
Musial: Stan the Man, 1969 Hall of Fame inductee (93.2 percent votes), 128.1 WAR, JAWS right field: 3rd
Mays and Musial both stamped their names in the history books as two of the greatest players in baseball history. Each brought a smoothness to the game, making it look easy both in the field and at the plate, a trait that can rarely be replicated. Based on Jay Jaffe’s peak WAR system, Mays is the top center fielder in baseball history, while Musial ranks behind just Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron for right field. Mays was the quintessential speed-power machine, clobbering home runs, flying around the bases and becoming a human vacuum for anything hit his way in the outfield. Musial was Mr. Consistent with the bat, gracefully producing 16 straight seasons of hitting .300 or better and never having fewer than 150 hits in 15 consecutive seasons played from 1943–58 (he missed one season due to military service). Beyond the numbers, both were iconic players, role models and real-life heroes to children and adults everywhere.
FINAL VERDICT: MAYS (by a win-win coin flip)
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