Spahn and Musial were the ultimate competitors who had respect for each other. Here’s a quote from Musial:
“I don’t think (Warren) Spahn will ever get into the Hall of Fame. He’ll never stop pitching.”
1950s baseball was incredible. I watched Spahn pitch when I was a little kid against players like Mantle, Dusty Rhodes, Musial and Ted Williams.
It was a great time to be a baseball fan.
As for your recollection with Musial hitting Spahn in the gut, why not? I love the story.
Yes, baseball was much better for the average fan in the 1950s. Two leagues, eight teams in each, and nowhere near the number of players moving from one team to another or from one league to another as you have today. Much easier for the fan to know all about the players because there were much fewer of them and they generally stayed with their teams for longer periods of time. Also, fans could identify more readily with the players in general because they were 90+% Americans and more accessable to the general public.
Stan Musial was the epitome of that: 23 years with the same team!
But Warren Spahn never pitched to Ted Williams in any game that counted because Spahn was in the National League and Williams in the American. He did face Mantle, but only in two World Series.
I read many baseball biographies when I was a kid. Spahn was a demolition Sgt in WW II. He stepped off a bridge just before it collapsed and killed many comrades. He literally came within seconds or minutes of us never knowing who he was.