When Musial Did NOT Wear No. 36 – Or Did He?

photo: Musial no. 36 uniform (courtesy Wolff Kirsch)

When and why did the number 36 become affixed to the back of what appears to be a Stan Musial road uniform from 1942? This mysterious St. Louis Cardinals uniform connects the Hall of Famer Musial with a fascinating, but obscure former minor leaguer named Roland Chalifoux, but the chain is not yet entirely closed.


Sometimes we work incredibly hard for a story.

Other times, the story finds us, but with the hard work still ahead.

Such was the latter case following the receipt of an email from a man who had read about my long quest for the explanation of a photo that depicted Stan Musial wearing a St. Louis Cardinals no. 19 uniform. My effort to prove the related events from 1942 ran from 2009 until its final resolution in 2013.

Now batting, number 19, Stanley Musial

This new inquiry immediately piqued my curiosity, pulling me into a new Musial quest.

This is the story of a Musial uniform that found its way to a war hero and later a Cardinals minor leaguer, who treasured it for decades before his son gave it to an 87-year old St. Louis native and decorated neurosurgeon.

Dr. Wolff Kirsch, now a California resident, has in his possession a 1942 Musial road uniform, complete with identifying name and year stitching on the tail and the one-year only HEALTH patch on the left sleeve commemorating the Hale America Fitness Campaign.

However, the number on the back presents the mystery – it is neither 6, nor is it 19 – it is 36!

Musial no. 36 uniform (courtesy Wolff Kirsch)

After months of investigation, I do not yet have a definitive explanation of why a Musial uniform was numbered in this manner – hence one of the reasons I am sharing this story with you. Perhaps a reader will provide the lead that will enable me to close the loop.

My current primary theory is that this is a recycled uniform, sent to a Cardinals minor league affiliate after St. Louis was done with it. While common in that era, and confirmed to have been a practice of the Cardinals organization, the hand-me-down suspicion is still unproven in this specific case.

However, there is strong circumstantial evidence to be reviewed.


From where did the uniform come?

Dr. Kirsch received the uniform as a gift from Dr. Roland Chalifoux, Jr., a colleague. Dr. Chalifoux shared an oft-repeated family explanation of its history. His father, Roland Sr., who was a Cardinals minor leaguer in the late 1940’s, had been befriended by Musial. Father told son (and everyone else) that the uniform was originally a gift from Stan to Roland Sr., who passed it to Roland Jr., and eventually to Dr. Kirsch.


How might Chalifoux have connected with Musial?

Though both served during World War II, the elder Chalifoux was primarily in Europe, while Musial was assigned to multiple bases stateside – from Maryland to Hawaii.

Once they returned to baseball post-war, they were in very different places – both geographically and from a career perspective. As a result, I struggled to identify how a relationship could be formed between an established major league star and a minor league pitcher seemingly distant from St. Louis in every way. Upon his discharge from the service, Chalifoux played for an unaffiliated Class C team in Canada in 1946 and the next season as a Cardinal farmhand in Class B.

1947 Allentown Cardinals scorecard

With Chalifoux pitching for the 1947 Allentown Cardinals, a possible explanation for the hand-me-down uniform to have become his seemed to present itself. However, that idea was mortally wounded when I located an Allentown program (in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.), only to learn that Chalifoux wore no. 12 with the club. Further, no one on that Allentown team, including the manager, was assigned a number higher than 24.

Still, the parent Cardinals could have sent the recycled no. 36 uniform, which was unused in Allentown and secured by Chalifoux as a keepsake. We will almost certainly never know if this occurred.

I later proved that Chalifoux also pitched for the 1948 Lynchburg Cardinals for three months, information that had been lost in the annals of time. Securing a numeric roster from this club for verification remains an important open item.

In either case, why no. 36 and why would the 1942-only shoulder patch still be affixed five or six years later? Again, this entire hand-me-down line of thinking is speculation that may never be proven, though I believe it to be the most likely explanation of the uniform’s lineage.

Any ideas that readers have that might help solve this mystery, please contact me via the email address at the bottom of this story or the CONTACT US form at the top center of this page.


Continue if your curiosity is piqued

What follows is substantial additional background on the key players in this story – Roland Chalifoux and Dr. Wolff Kirsch – as well as further background about multiple blind alleys I explored and vacated.

If you are only casually interested in these events, you may want to stop here. However, if you are like me and enjoy a good mystery, please continue!


“The minor leaguer”

Roland “Lefty” Chalifoux was a talented, decorated and giving individual who served his country and his community for decades. Born in 1924 in Lewiston, Maine, he also died there 77 years later, in 2001. In between, he lived an active and diverse life, much of which revolved around sports.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder was a three-sport star in high school, with hockey joining baseball and football among his interests. He graduated in 1943.

From there, it was off to war. Chalifoux became a decorated soldier in World War II, receiving a Purple Heart, Oak Leaf cluster and four bronze clusters. His heroics in the European Theater included being wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. Chalifoux was a tank commander and took shrapnel to the throat. His attributed his life being saved to field surgery conducted by a German doctor.

(Courtesy Roland Chalifoux Jr.)

In these two wartime photos provided by his son, Chalifoux is standing, second from the right, in the Belgium photo. In the German one, he is at the far left.

Like so many servicemen, Chalifoux returned home to baseball, as new leagues were being created and inactive circuits were revived to satisfy post-war fan demand for entertainment. In 1946, the left-handed pitcher’s professional debut occurred in the opening season of the Class C Border League for the unaffiliated Granby (Quebec) Red Sox.

In 1947 at the age of 23, Chalifoux pitched in relief for the Allentown (PA) Cardinals of the Class B Inter-State League. This was a St. Louis farm club.

In 1948, however, he was back in Granby, which had moved to the independent Provincial League, and outside the governing body of what is now Minor League Baseball, then called the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. The next season, Chalifoux played for Granby, Drummondville and St. Jean, all in the Provincial League, and returned to St. Jean for 1950, the same year the Provincial League joined the NAPBL as a Class C circuit.

Chalifoux’s 1948 and 1949 stats appear to have been lost, but over the three years his online records exist – 1946, 1947 and 1950 – he logged a record of 16-33 with a 5.34 ERA, primarily as a starter. His statistical history (the portion of which has been preserved) can be viewed at Baseball-Reference.com.


Player index cards

What I shared above is what the commonly-accessed and familiar records tell us about Chalifoux’s professional pitching career. I knew there could be more, however, and there is. Quite a bit more, in fact.

Minor League Baseball has kept a treasure trove of records of players from this era, with key transactions having been recorded on index cards, which are still on file in their St. Petersburg, FL headquarters.

Roland Chalifoux MiLB Player Card (courtesy Minor League Baseball)
Roland Chalifoux MiLB Player Card (courtesy Minor League Baseball)

Upon securing Chalifoux’s card, I learned many more details about his career. When playing for Granby in 1946, he appeared to have been Cardinals property, perhaps on loan to the unaffiliated Red Sox. At the end of that season, his contract was assigned to Allentown, where he went on to pitch in 1947, including in the Inter-State League playoffs, as newspaper accounts confirm.

This is where the prior story diverges, however. As 1947 closed, Chalifoux was moved to the West Frankfort (IL) Cardinals roster, a Class D club that played in the Illinois State League. During the spring of 1948, he was shifted again, this time to the Class B Lynchburg (VA) Cardinals, apparently never playing for West Frankfort. (The Lynchburg club went on to win the Piedmont League title in 1948 as they did in 1944 and again in 1949.)

While Chalifoux was assigned to Lynchburg, from late March through June of 1948, there is no online statistical record of him appearing in any game action. He was on the disabled list for three weeks in late May into early June. On June 19th, he was suspended and at the end of the month was ruled to be ineligible, per his player card.

The Cardinals kept Chalifoux on reserve that winter before he returned in February 1949, still listed on the Lynchburg roster. On April 8, he was released. There is no further record on his card for 1949, as he likely returned to the Provincial League, where his Baseball-Reference record indicates he played that season.

In 1950, with St. Jean, which as noted above was then back in the NAPBL, Chalifoux reappeared with a new contract. However, in late June, he was suspended and released two days later. That appears to be the conclusion of his five-year organized baseball career.

But, it wasn’t.


Online newspaper archives

Researching Chalifoux via online newspaper archives became a third major endeavor, leading to many additional facts learned. It was not a path I had planned to take, but the more I learned about Chalifoux, the more I wanted to know.

Despite there being no formal records, newspaper accounts of Chalifoux’s 1948 on-field exploits are fairly plentiful. He pitched for Lynchburg of the Class B Piedmont League, including as the Cardinals’ starter on the second game of the 1948 season, on April 23.

June 13, 1948 Lynchburg Cardinals game recap (Norfolk Daily Press)

Soon, Chalifoux was moved into a relief role. June 13, 1948 may have marked his final game as a Cardinals farmhand. At Norfolk, the left-hander relieved future major-leaguer Johnny Klippstein with Lynchburg down 5-0 in the second inning and threw the final 7 2/3 innings, yielding five additional runs on 10 hits. As noted in his player card information above, a few days later, he was removed from the active roster.

Note the “Lefty Ed Ford” who dominated for Norfolk in this game is none other than future Yankee and Hall of Famer Whitey Ford. (h/t reader Michael Roberts)

In another interesting item of trivia nested in a story that might be considered trivia itself, Chalifoux and his Lynchburg teammates trained in the spring of 1948 in Albany, GA, a facility used by the Cardinals in the 1940’s and 1950’s for minor leaguers. Seven springs earlier, Albany was the very camp at which sore-armed 20-year old Class D pitcher Stan Musial began his historic conversion to the outfield.

My unproven theory as to why Chalifoux’s 1948 Lynchburg stats (and even his presence on the team) are not captured in the standard online record sources – which do include his many teammates – is that he was inactive at the end of the season. Gone and forgotten, perhaps.

(Updates: SABR member Chuck McGill reminded me that stats from players of the day who had limited action were called “less thans” and their results may not have been represented individually. Another SABR member, Jeffrey Yeo, has the 1949 Sporting News Guide, which lists the prior season’s stats. Pitchers with fewer than 45 innings and fielders with fewer than 10 games played are excluded. Chalifoux is nowhere to be found in the stats, putting upper boundaries on his 1948 action with Lynchburg.)

On August 31, 1949, Chalifoux made his only appearance in the national publication The Sporting News, at least that I can locate. In an article about the Quebec Provincial League, it was noted that the pitcher was traded from the first-place Drummondville Cubs to the Granby Red Sox.

Also mentioned was that in his first outing for “St. Johns” (on August 18), Chalifoux had pitched a six-inning no-hitter against Sherbrooke. (Apparently, St. Johns was an alternate representation for St. Jean.) This no-hitter is also mentioned in compilations of minor league no-hitters I have seen elsewhere.

A February 18, 1950 item in the Montreal Gazette noted that Chalifoux had been signed by the St. Jean Braves, again consistent with his player card in that he returned to the ball club for a second season.

However, Chalifoux did not give up sports after his release by St. Jean. In the winter of 1950, he returned to the ice with the Berlin (NH) Maroons, well-known as a top Eastern hockey team after earlier having played for their rival, the Lewiston Pepperells.

He reappeared on the baseball diamond as well in July 1951, playing for the Winona Chiefs of the Southern Minnesota League. It was an amateur circuit, which attracted local, college and professional players, including former Negro Leaguers. That season, Chalifoux went 3-1, allowing 53 hits, 22 walks and 17 strikeouts, but there is no record of innings pitched or runs allowed.

In the fall of 1951, Chalifoux stayed in the area, signing with the Rochester (MN) Mustangs of the American Amateur Hockey Association. In those days, he was often known as “Rollie”, though later he went by “Lefty”, or perhaps one was a hockey nickname and the other baseball-related.

The forward and center was tough, but also superstitious. From the Winona (MN) Daily News on February 13, 1952:

‘He was gashed in a hockey game recently. When the doctor completed sewing up the wound, he told Rollie, “Well, that is it, son. It took 13 stitches.” “Thirteen,” Chalifoux cried. ”That is bad luck. Will you please put in one more?” The doc complied, so it goes into the records as 14 stitches, not 13, and Rollie can rest a little more easily.’

Just a few days afterward, Chalifoux’s fortunes improved as he moved from the below-.500 Mustangs to the playoff-bound Sioux City Suhawks, also in the AAHL.

Less than two months later, Chalifoux the pitcher was back for a second summer with the Winona Chiefs. Appropriately, the left-hander is at the far left of this 1952 team picture.

1952 Winona Chiefs (Winona Republican-Herald)

However, by late June, the then-28-year old was released by Winona. His final season record was 2-1 with a 4.07 ERA over 24 1/3 innings. Chalifoux gave up 11 earned runs on 26 hits to go with 12 walks and 15 strikeouts. Based on all of my research, this was his actual swan song as a baseball player.


Post-baseball

Just because the pitching phase of his career (apparently) ended in June 1952, however, it did not mean the talented and well-traveled athlete was ready to retire.

In fact, Chalifoux returned to the ice with the Berlin Maroons in an amateur hockey career that continued until 1956. It only seemed fitting that Chalifoux laced up his skates for a team known as “The Flying Frenchmen”, winners of multiple national championships in the 1950’s and into the 1960’s. Chalifoux had first played for the Maroons in the late 1940’s and again on the 1954 National Champions.

After his playing days ended, Chalifoux officiated hockey at the high school, college and professional ranks and coached hockey and American Legion baseball. During the day, he delivered mail for the United States Postal Service for 36 years – an especially interesting number in the context of this story!

In his later years, Chalifoux noted without regret that his baseball career was likely compromised by his choice to remain active in hockey, as well.

“Maybe I would have been better off to stick to baseball in my playing days,” Chalifoux told Bob Gardner of the Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation in 1995. “A separated shoulder caused by a hockey injury probably ended any real chance I had to make it all the way.”

It certainly wasn’t the money that kept Chalifoux going all of those years.

“I can’t imagine today’s salaries,” he said. “My best year (playing professional baseball) was $1,700.”

Given how Chalifoux felt in 1995, one can only imagine what he would say today.

Roland Chalifoux plaque (courtesy Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame)

In 1995, Chalifoux was inducted into the Auburn-Lewiston (Maine) Sports Hall of Fame. His plaque notes:

Roland “Lefty” Chalifoux

Exceptional performer on some of Lewiston H.S. great all-time football, baseball and hockey championship teams in 1942-43. Entered World War II service earning Purple Heart for battle wounds. Skated for Lewiston Pepperell’s Berlin Maroons, Bates Fabrics and Rochester, Minnesota (A.H.L.). Worumbo & Winthrop Mills semi-pro grid teams, pro baseball in Canadian League and N.Y. Giants farm team in Rochester, N.Y. Pitched for Auburn Asas in first game in Pettingill Park. Organized and coached Lewiston Legion baseballers. Baseball and hockey official for over 30 years.

In the following photo, Chalifoux, second from the left, holds his plaque on induction night, April 7, 1995. Others (from the left) are Gerard Delisle, Mrs. Frank Daunis, Allen Harvie and Pennell Woodard.

Roland Chalifoux induction (courtesy Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame)

For a future Chalifoux researcher, open questions to explore include his semi-pro football exploits as well as the Giants minor league chapter of his baseball career, for which I have uncovered no evidence.

One of his two sons, Roland Jr., became a neurosurgeon. Years later, Roland Jr. presented the no. 36 Cardinals uniform to his colleague, Dr. Kirsch, as a gift. Unfortunately, no photographs or documentation of any kind are available to assist in validating the uniform’s history.


The uniform’s “caretaker”

I almost feel guilty every time I communicate with Dr. Wolff Kirsch. The 87-year old is a decorated scholar, neurosurgeon and inventor currently working in Alzheimer’s disease research, a crucial endeavor for our society.

Dr. Wolff Kirsch

Kirsch grew up in University City, Missouri, across from Flynn Park Grammar School. He recalls that during World War II, he and his mates converted the tennis courts into a diamond. This make-shift ballfield was visible from the apartment of Browns general manager Bill DeWitt Sr., who lived with his family on the second floor of the Pershing duplex facing the courts.

The Kirsches’ fandom came to life when his brother, who was the better athlete, received an offer from the Browns after throwing a no-hitter in a suburban league game in 1945. But he, too, went to med school. Their Uncle Harry was employed by the Brownies as a scout.

In 1942, the six-year old who later became Mrs. Kirsch was in Europe. After she and her family successfully evaded the Nazis, they were eventually liberated through the heroics of soldiers like Chalifoux.

For obvious reasons, the proud St. Louisan Wolff insisted their first child be named “Stanley”. In the late 1960’s, when Musial’s business office was notified of the naming, they provided a bat as a gift, a keepsake which Stanley Kirsch still treasures today.

Wolff Kirsch studied biochemistry and completed his neurosurgery training at the Washington University School of Medicine. Over his distinguished career, he has secured more than 40 United States and international patents based on discoveries resulting from his research efforts, was instrumental in obtaining $10 million in research grants and has had almost 200 papers published in medical journals.

Dr. Kirsch currently serves as director of the Neurosurgery Center for Research, Training, and Education at Loma Linda University in California.


Blind alleys

As I began my search, I wondered if Musial might have worn no. 36 for a short period at some point relatively early in his long career. Imagine my excitement when a simple Google search unearthed this baseball card.

Stan Musial “rookie” card, 1948 Bowman

The Bowman card confused me, as it is dated 1948, but has what I know is a spring training 1942 photograph of Musial. Its money shot – or at least I thought it was – was the identification on the back, which says “36 – Stan Musial”.

As I soon learned, this Musial card is considered his “rookie card” by collectors because it was his first. But the “36” is not a reference to his uniform number – it was the sequence of the Musial card in the Bowman 1948 series. Strike one!

I went down another unproductive trail – at least to-date – as I explored whether Musial could have worn no. 36 after no. 19 during his first St. Louis spring training camp, in 1942. In the initial no. 19 search, it took me years to find just one spring 1942 roster. Still, I asked that gentleman if he had another from later in camp. The answer was “no”. I also tried my peer members of SABR among other sources, but again came up empty.

Lowering the odds further was the fact that coach Buzzy Wares wore no. 36 in spring 1942, but sometime afterward moved to no. 26 (which had been assigned to pitcher Howie Krist that spring). It seems almost certainly out of the question that Stan ever wore no. 36 in a regular season game – such as briefly to open the 1942 season. An Opening Day 1942 roster confirming Stan with no. 6 would eliminate this highly unlikely scenario almost completely.

This brings me back to the thought that the uniform was more likely re-numbered for minor league re-use. It would seem to highly reduce the possibility that it had been in Musial’s possession to directly gift to Chalifoux, however.

As noted above, there is no clear tie of the Musial no. 36 uniform to the 1947 Allentown Cardinals. Chalifoux did not play for West Frankfort in 1947 or 1948, but spent three months of that 1948 season as a member of the Lynchburg Cardinals.

1948 Lynchburg Cardinals uniform (The Lynchburg News)

Could he have acquired the Musial uniform while in Virginia? Securing a copy of the 1948 Lynchburg roster with player numbers appears to be the key to unlock that answer.

None of the local or regional historical reference sources in Virginia could verify, nor did online newspaper archives answer the question of whether Chalifoux was assigned no. 36 with Lynchburg – a logical explanation for how the old Musial uniform could have come into his possession.

Professional baseball in Lynchburg continues today with the Cleveland Indians high-A affiliate, the Hillcats. While no office records from the 1940’s still exist, the team historian and recently-retired long-time general manager of the club, Ronnie Roberts, enthusiastically joined my search, canvassing local fans and volunteering his own time to review newspaper microfilm records.

Though Roberts has not yet located a 1948 Cardinals numeric roster, he did find this grainy photo from the April 24. 1948 edition of the Lynchburg News. While the specific player is unidentified, the details of the uniform the team wore that season are clear. They appear to match the style of our mystery Musial no. 36.


What is next?

Roberts continues to canvass local individuals, but seems close to calling off his branch of the search for a 1948 Lynchburg numeric roster. I’ve gone as far as posting a notice on the local Craigslist site, hoping to locate an old scorecard pack rat in the area.

Dr. Kirsch realized that especially with no documentation, professional authentication would be crucial to both verify the uniform’s legitimacy and set its value. He also learned that it would take a $2500 investment up front to have this service performed by a reputable memorabilia firm – a sizeable fee. To be avoided was an auction house that offered to do the authentication at no charge. If it sounds too good to be true…

Instead, Dr. Kirsch and his wife have been discussing the possibility of donating this unique piece of Musial history to a museum where it can be enjoyed by many. I have put in a good word on behalf of a certain entity about which most readers of this article are already familiar!

Watch this space!

Update – October 2020

With the assistance of a professional uniform restoration expert using a light table, the stitching outline of the original number “6” on the center of the backside of the jersey has been verified.

Dr. Kirsch has directed the uniform be returned to its original state.

However, I have still been unable to validate the Chalifoux-Lynchburg number 36 theory, so if you can assist, please contact me!


Acknowledgements

Among the many who have helped me along the way in this journey to date include Don Drooker of rotisserieduck.com (memorabilia advice), Ronnie Roberts of the Lynchburg Hillcats (1948 Lynchburg Cardinals), Jeff Lantz from Minor League Baseball headquarters (Chalifoux player card), Cathy Keen of the Archives Center, National Museum of American History (The Smithsonian) (1947 Allentown Cardinals roster), Ralph Tuttle and Erin Simpson of the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame (Chalifoux Hall of Fame program and photo) and of course, Dr. Wolff Kirsch, who started me down this most interesting, but still winding path, as well as Dr. Roland Chalifoux Jr., who provided the war-time photos of his father.


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