This has been a banner year for baseball biographies. Willie Mays has been profiled, along with Phil Rizzuto and Al Kaline. An absorbing biography of Henry Aaron is due out next week.

So a biography of Stan Musial is not only appropriate, but also long overdue.

A Hall of Fame player for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963, Musial had one of baseball’s most unusual stances. He would “peek” over his shoulder at the pitcher before uncoiling out of his corkscrew stance to drill line drives or slap pitches to the opposite field.

As a player, he seems underappreciated now, even though he collected 3,630 hits, 475 homers, 1,951 RBIs and had a lifetime batting average of .331. The numbers are awesome, but Musial also was known as one of baseball’s truly nice guys.

Author Wayne Stewart, a native of Musial’s hometown of Donora, Pa., presents an upbeat and charming biography in “Stan The Man: The Life and Times of Stan Musial,” (Triumph Books, $24.95).

The book cover shows Musial connecting during a spring training game. It’s a fabulous shot, a Getty Images photo taken in 1955. I’d like to say it was taken at St. Petersburg’s Al Lang Stadium, where the Cardinals trained for so many seasons. Can’t confirm that, though — perhaps some longtime Pinellas County baseball fan can help me out.

Stewart is presented with some big challenges in this book. The biggest is that since Musial is approaching 90, finding his contemporaries is difficult. Stewart is forced in several cases to cite the memories of the children of people who would have been great primary sources. This could have been disastrous, but Stewart manages to weave a good narrative.

Two contemporaries Stewart does rely upon, Carl Erskine and Henry Aaron, are helpful sources. I never realized how much Aaron admired Musial until Stewart interviewed him for his book.

The one issue I hoped Stewart could answer definitively was Musial’s role (or lack of it) in the Cardinals’ proposed boycott of Jackie Robinson in 1947.

Stewart covered all the theories, but I am not sure we are any closer to knowing what really happened. And perhaps we never will. But Stewart’s research on the subject leaves no stone uncovered. He writes, “Musial mainly skirted racial matters but got along well with players of all colors and backgrounds.”

What really comes out in this book is Musial’s humility, his love of the game and his business acumen. A family man, he has been married more than 70 years. And the Cardinals have paid tribute to his years in St. Louis with a statue of “The Man” outside their stadium.

Stewart’s book adds more luster to Musial’s legacy.