September 23, 1941: Stan Musial Hits His First Big League Homer

     On September  23, 1941, a crowd of more than 13,000 witnessed Stan Musial hit the first home run of his major league career at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The big blast came during the second game of a doubleheader that had the Cards looking to bounce back from a 4-0 loss, that included an 0 for 4 game by the kid who grew up roughly 30 miles from the ballpark. Bounce back they did. Musial went 3 for 4 with the big blast that came off of Rip Sewell in the fifth. It opened up a 6-0 lead, that was tacked on to in the seventh when Estel Crabtree blasted a three-run homer to cap off the day's scoring.

     A great deal of Stan's family and friends witnessed that historic blast. They had made the trip from Donora. Coincidentally when Musial's ball sailed over the right field wall it landed in the hands of a friend that put it back in the hands of the 20-year-old with the number 6 on his back. Stan swapped him a ball, and told said that the home run ball would be kept in his household. That was 1 of 475. All with the Birds on the Bat across his chest.


     The clipping today was featured in the Pittsburgh Press the following day. Hence the title "Local Boy Makes Good .. With The Cardinals". They were very proud of their native son for making it in the big leagues.

Check out the box score here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT194109232.shtml