Happy Mothers’ Day from all of us at Baseball History Comes Alive!

We can’t let an occasion like Mothers Day pass without finding a connection to old-time baseball! So here’s my little contribution to the day, a salute to…

“Baseball Mothers!”

In the featured photo, we see the great Hall of Famer, Yogi Berra with his parents, Piietro and Paolina.  Looks like she has a pretty Mothers Day courage.  In reading about her in the Stan Musial SABR biography by Jan Finkel, I learned that Stan’s mother,  Mary Lancos, was the daughter of Czech immigrants from the Austro-Hungry empire. Mary was born in New York and one of ten children:

Born into an America that more than one President described as a “nation of immigrants,” Yogi Berra was a first-generation Italian-American who grew up in a St. Louis neighborhood called “The Hill,” where he was surrounded by recent immigrants and raised with a sense of community informed by Italian traditions. Yogi’s father, Pietro, had come to the United States alone in 1909 from Malvaglio, a northern Italian town close to Milan. Temporarily leaving his wife, Paolina, and two firstborn children in Italy, Pietro arrived through Ellis Island alongside thousands of other immigrants from across Europe. After a brief stay in New York City, Pietro settled in St. Louis, his wife and children following him there soon after. Once settled, Pietro and Paolina had three more children, Yogi second among them.

Pietro left behind Paolina Lingori, a young girl whom he planned to marry after earning enough money to pay her way to the United States. Paolina Longoni (subsequently, Paulina) arrived on March 10, 1912, aged eighteen. Peter and Paulina married nine days later and settled in a largely Italian section of St. Louis called “The Hill.”

Lawdie.

“She was close to six feet tall, big-boned, and although untrained, probably athletic. Not unusual for the time and place, she had become a housekeeper when she was eight.”

Mary married Polish immigrant Lukasz Musial on April 14, 1913.  At the time she was 16 and he was 23, although the marriage certificate said she was 21, suggesting, according to Jan Finkel that “she likely hadn’t received her parents’ permission to marry, as was the law in Pennsylvania for people under 21.”  The couple had four daughters (Ida, Victoria, Helen, and Rose) in six years, and then came a son, Stanley Francis, nicknamed “Stash,” who we came to know as Stan Musial. 

Click on any photo in the gallery to see a photo tribute to other baseball mothers. So far I’ve found the mothers of Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig, Paul and Lloyd Waner, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Birdie Tebbetts.

As we look at Lou Gehrig helping his mother Christina with the dinner dishes, let’s remember to do our part so that our wives and mothers can all have a special day!