SOUTH GRAND - Up on Wisconsin Avenue, near the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., is the highest point of the nation’s capital and former gathering spot for Cardinals’ fans to perch their cars.

It’s where they could easily pick up KMOX.

Frank Mankiewicz, an aide to George McGovern and former NPR head, said he would drive up there, park and spot other cars pulling up each night, just about game time. “Must be Cardinals fans,” he said. He met a writer for The New York Times who became a friend just by seeing the reporter’s car up there regularly and figuring he too must be a Cardinals’ fan. Those are the informal roots of a club that has come to be called The Stan Musial Society, the story of which was trimmed from the recent Stan Musial story but is something I wanted to write about here, on an off day.

The Cardinals’ fan club took inspiration to formally organize.

Naturally, it came from the Cubs.

Word of a Cubs Fan Club in the beltway  – nicknamed sarcastically for light-hitting infielder Emil Verban  – spurred Mankiewicz to link arms with his political opposite Vic Gold, a former Barry Goldwater and George H. W.  Bush aide, to establish one for the Cardinals.

Proves the Cardinals can bridge any divide.

Or, baseball begets strange bedfellows.

The name to choose for the group was obvious.

“We kept reading about the Cubs group and George Will and (possible founding member) Dick Cheney, so we thought we should stick together as Cardinals fans,” Mankiewicz told me a few weeks ago. “Word got around and we had 100 calls from interested members within a couple days. We better have a real club then. We named name it after Musial $$ the Stan Musial Society $$ because, unlike the Cubs’ fans, we didn’t want any of that irony.”

(Aside: According to The Chicago Tribune, The Emil Verban Society was founded in 1975, occasionally gives out a “Brock-for-Broglio  Judgment Award”  and has 700 members, including Donald Rumsfeld and Sen. Hillary  Clinton,  who are “nominated” for membership and meet every two years. But you want irony? How about this: The namesake of Washington’s Cubs  fan club was actually a Cardinal first. Yep, and Verban was an All-Star second baseman as a Cardinal. He even spent more time as a Cardinal than a Cub …)

On March 23, a few weeks ago, about 100 people, including 40 charter members of the 19-year-old Stan Musial Society, gathered at a downtown Washington hotel for the first meeting of The Stan Musial Society in a few years. Mankiewicz said he planned to wear his Cardinals bow tie. Dick Gebhardt as attended in the past. Marty Hendin attended this year to talk about the champs, and sports broadcaster George Michael - a St. Louis native and retiring host of “George Michael’s Sports Machine” - was the honored guest.

Mankiewicz grew up in Los Angeles, the son of a screenwriter (who is credited with Citizen Kane) and a fan of the ball club closest to him, the Cardinals. That fondness grew as he did and didn’t leave him when he plunged into the stream of Washington’s pacesetters.

He said the Society has few rules … few rules on purpose. There is no newsletter, adamantly so. There are no fees, no networking, no “nominations” for membership. Nothing Beltway about it. The group, he said, is decidedly un-D.C. Invitations go out to the Society’s luncheon and everybody pays the same fee for a plate. Musial has attended a few times, playing his harmonica and answering questions.

Back in 1961, Mankiewicz was on his way to South America with the Peace Corps when he was attending a dinner or a function that Musial attended. He recalls “officers, generals, politicians of all types” scurrying over to the ball player “like they were kids just to get close to meet him.” They took whatever paper they could over to him for an autograph.

Napkins.

Business cards.

Matchbooks.

His wife asked if Musial would sign hers, “To Frank”.

“How old is your little boy?” Musial asked.

“He’s 37,” Mankiewicz’s wife said.

That’s one reason why the Society bears The Man’s name.

“It’s just a name we picked,” Mankiewicz said. “We all admire him. It’s about the Cardinals. It could have been the Ken Boyer Society. But it’s Stan Musial. Musial is a legend. And it fits.”

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