Another hero from the Boys of Summer is gone with the death of Cardinal great Stan “The Man” Musial.
Another great memory of our collective past, the traditions and personalities that made baseball the National Pastime, are going the way of the do-do. Do we still refer to them as the Boys of Summer?

He retired before I entered this mortal coil, so I can only speak from watching past films and such, but he was still a hero to many of us — even Reds’ fans! — growing up.

He did it with class, even if he wasn’t the most “sound” player.

We wanted to be like those guys — current and retired — playing in the backyard or at the park and we had their baseball cards.
As kids, the four youngest of the Metcalfe clan — I won’t name names but you know who we are! — pretended we were certain teams in the backyard. Of course, the oldest always chose the Reds, so I was either the Orioles or the Cubs. If your batter was left-handed, you had to bat lefty. The only time this didn’t apply was if your pitcher was a lefty; I’m not sure any of us could have survived throwing lefty!
Whoever wasn’t playing was either the catcher or the umpire … Let’s not go there!