From Donora to Cooperstown

Stan Musial

Happy birthday today to not one, but two Hall of Famers from Donora, Pa. – the late Stan Musial, who would be 104 if he were still with us, and Ken Griffey Jr., who in comparison is a mere child at 55.

Now, what are the odds of that, of two Hall of Famers coming from the same town that is located 27 miles south of Pittsburgh with a dwindling population in 2024 of 4,479?

Add to that the factoid is that two Hall of Famers come from tiny Donora, while Pennsylvania’s two largest cities each with a total population of 1.8 million produce just two Hall of Famers with catcher Roy Campanella born in Philadelphia in 1921 and early 1900s shortstop Bobby Wallace in Pittsburgh in 1873.

Ken Griffey Jr.

As an aside, another of Donora’s baseball players – Musial’s younger brother, Ed – spends time on Harrisburg's historic City Island in 1948, batting .219 in 44 games for the old Class B Senators.

That average, though, is an anomaly for the younger Musial, who is a .304 lifetime hitter in the minors.

Of course, older brother Stan is a .331 hitter in the majors for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941-63.

Griffey also enjoys a fairly decent – OK, really outstanding – stay in the majors, hitting 630 homers in a 22-year career that ends in 2010.

Griffey’s father, Ken Sr., does quite well, too, enjoying a 19-year career over which he is a three-time All-Star in Cincinnati and two-time World Series winner with the Reds.

While the Musial brothers never play together professionally, the Griffeys spend two seasons – 1990 and ’91 – as teammates in Seattle.

Tim Raines Sr. and Tim Jr. are the only other father-and-son tandem to play together in the majors with that coming in 2001 with the Baltimore Orioles.

As for the patriarch of the Griffey family – Buddy – the father of Ken and the grandfather of Junior is another native of Donora, Pa., and a high school teammate in the late 1930s of, naturally, the one and only Stan Musial.

Donora’s Hall of Famers — Ken Griffey Jr. and Stan Musial