Bob Gibson: 1935-2020

 

Some of my Bob Gibson baseball cards. Note the one on the bottom left, where Gibson is wearing a left-handed glove. I've read that he tried to prank the Topps photographers by posing as a left-handed pitcher, but someone caught the mistake.

Signed photo from the first time I met Bob Gibson. Those black Cardinals hats were pretty cool.

Signed photo from the second time I met Bob Gibson. I love his delivery, and how he almost fell off the mound after every pitch.

Signed photo from the third time I met Bob Gibson. As a batter, I would not look forward to facing that guy.

Bob Gibson was one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball. Gibson died on October 2^nd, adding to the list of great players we’ve lost in 2020. Gibson’s list of accolades speaks for itself: 9-time All-Star, 5-time 20 game winner, 2-time World Series MVP, 9 Gold Gloves, 2 Cy Young awards, and 1 NL MVP.

Bob Gibson pitched for only one franchise during his career: the St. Louis Cardinals. Gibson was such a good athlete that he played for the Harlem Globetrotters for an off-season during his minor league career. Gibson wasn’t exactly a late bloomer, but he didn’t get an early start, either. By the time he turned 25 in November of 1960, he had only won 6 major league games. In contrast, Tom Seaver had won 57 games by his 25^th birthday, Steve Carlton had won 47 games, and Jim Palmer had won 59. In 1962 Gibson suddenly blossomed, winning 15 games, throwing 5 shutouts with an ERA of 2.85.

Gibson was known for being one of the most intimidating competitors on the baseball diamond. He didn’t talk to opposing players, ever. He wasn’t afraid to brush hitters back or knock them down to assert himself on the mound. Despite this being such a large part of Gibson’s reputation, he never led the league in either hit by pitch or wild pitches. In fact, his total of 102 hit by pitches, tied for 85^th all-time, is well below the totals of other 1960’s star hurlers like Don Drysdale at 154, and Jim Bunning at 160. It’s also well below more modern-day control experts like Pedro Martinez (141) and Greg Maddux (137).

Gibson wasn’t a mean guy off the mound, though, and it was clear that his animosity was reserved strictly for opposing batters. From what I know about Gibson’s career, and his relationship with the press, it doesn’t seem as though he was portrayed as an “angry Black man,” but merely to be a Black athlete who took his business as seriously as Gibson did during the 1960’s meant that white people often saw you as a threat to the status quo.

The 1964 World Series was when Bob Gibson exploded onto a national stage. The 1964 World Series was the last gasp of the New York Yankees’ dynasty of the 1950’s. Key cogs Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford were still there, but Yogi Berra was now the manager of the team, instead of being behind the plate.

Gibson started three games in the 1964 World Series. He went 8 innings in a Game 2 loss. Of Gibson’s 9 World Series starts, this was the only time when he didn’t pitch a complete game. He won Game 5, pitching 10 innings, and striking out 13 batters. Gibson started Game 7 on just two days’ rest. He won the game 7-5, despite giving up two solo home runs in the top of the 9^th inning. When Cardinals manager Johnny Keane was asked why he kept Gibson in the game, he replied, “He didn’t pitch with only his arm. He pitched with his heart. He’s got lots of heart…I went all the way with him because I was committed to this fellow’s heart.” I think that’s a wonderfully poetic quote. Gibson was named the MVP of the 1964 World Series and was the first Black player to be named a World Series MVP. (The award began in 1955.)

Gibson became a 20-game winner for the first time in 1965, and he repeated the feat the following season. Gibson didn’t win 20 games during the Cardinals’ pennant-winning season of 1967, partly because he missed nearly two months of the season thanks to a fractured leg from a Roberto Clemente line drive. Fun fact: Gibson actually stayed in that game and faced three more batters before leaving! Fortunately for the Cardinals, Gibson was back in top form for the 1967 World Series. Gibson pitched three complete games against the Red Sox, winning them all. This time, Gibson pitched a complete game to win Game 7 on three days’ rest. He was again named World Series MVP.

And then came 1968, the year in which Bob Gibson would have one of the most dominant seasons by a pitcher ever. Looking at Gibson’s won-loss record of 22-9, his dominance is not immediately apparent. But then look at his ERA: 1.12. That’s like a figure from the dead ball era, 50 years previous. When you look at Gibson’s ERA, the question immediately becomes not “How did he win 22 games?” but rather, “How on earth did he lose 9 games?” 8 of his 9 losses were by one or two runs. After throwing a 10-inning shutout against the Reds on September 2^nd, Gibson’s ERA was 0.99. Gibson threw 28 complete games in 1968. 13 of those complete games were shutouts. Gibson led the league with 268 strikeouts, and had a mind-boggling ERA+ of 258, meaning he was 2 ½ times better than the average pitcher in 1968. Gibson deservedly won both the Cy Young Award and the MVP award.

Gibson repeated his pattern of being amazing in the post-season, throwing 3 complete games against the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. In Game 1, Gibson hurled one of the greatest World Series games ever, shutting out the Tigers and allowing just 5 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 17. Gibson’s 17 strikeouts set a record for a World Series game, breaking Sandy Koufax’s record of 15, set in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series. In all likelihood, Gibson’s World Series record for strikeouts will never be broken, as there’s little chance of a starting pitcher being allowed to face enough batters to get within reach of the record. Since Gibson’s record was established, the closest anyone has come is 12 strikeouts, with Tom Seaver of the Mets fanning 12 Oakland A’s in Game 3 of the 1973 World Series, and Orlando Hernandez of the Yankees striking out 12 Mets in Game 3 of the 2000 World Series. Ironically enough, both Seaver’s Mets and Hernandez’s Yankees lost those games.

However, Gibson and the Cardinals lost Game 7, as Mickey Lolich, pitching on 2 days’ rest, allowed only one run for his 3^rd win of the Series. That would be Gibson’s last postseason appearance, and the Cardinals wouldn’t make it back to the playoffs until 1982.

But Gibson still had plenty of gas left in the tank, as he led all NL players in WAR for 3 years in a row: 1968, 1969, and 1970. Gibson led the NL in wins with 23 in 1970 and captured his 2^nd Cy Young Award. Gibson still had excellent seasons in 1972, when he went 19-11 with a 2.46 ERA, and 1973, when he went 12-10 with a 2.77 ERA.

1974 wasn’t the best year for Gibson, his record was 11-13, with a 3.83 ERA and an ERA+ of 94. It was the first time since 1960 when Gibson had finished with an ERA+ below 105. However, Gibson did achieve an important milestone that season. On July 17, 1974, he fanned Cesar Geronimo for the 3,000^th strikeout of his career. Gibson was only the second pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters, after Walter Johnson, who recorded his 3,000^th strikeout in 1923. That gives you some idea of Walter Johnson’s dominance, the fact that it took 50 years for another pitcher to get within 500 strikeouts of his record. (To be fair, Bob Feller would have blown past 3,000 strikeouts if he hadn’t lost almost 4 seasons to WWII service.) Fun fact: Cesar Geronimo was also Nolan Ryan’s 3,000^th strikeout victim in 1980. Ryan was the 4^th pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts, which meant that Geronimo had accounted for 50% of the 3,000^th strikeouts ever.

1975 was Gibson’s last season, and as is so often the case, it wasn’t a great one. Gibby’s ERA ballooned to 5.04, his won-loss record was just 3-10, and in July he was demoted to the bullpen. But he did win his 250^th game on June 27^th.

Gibson was an easy choice for the BBWAA writers, and in 1981 he became a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Gibson was the Cardinals’ star pitcher by the time my favorite baseball player, Steve Carlton, came up from the minor leagues in 1965. Gibson and Carlton pitched together on the Cardinals from 1965 until Carlton was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies during spring training in 1972. I haven’t found a lot of references where one pitcher spoke about the other, but I suspect that Gibson’s focus and demeanor on the mound influenced the young Carlton. Carlton did say during a telecast of a Cardinals game in 2017, “If you can’t learn something from Gibson as a pitcher, then you ain’t paying attention.” Carlton spoke a little more about Gibson’s influence on him during a 2018 Cardinals telecast: “He was a teacher by his presentation on the field…I had to teach myself to be that intense.” Carlton had a similar demeanor as Gibson on the mound: no nonsense, all-business. Gibson and Carlton didn’t focus on the opposing batters. To Gibson, they were enemies; to Carlton, they simply didn’t exist.

I met Bob Gibson three times: when I was a kid, probably around 1990 or so, then again in 2012 and 2017. All three times were at baseball card memorabilia shows. I also saw Gibson pitch in an Old-Timer’s Game at the Metrodome, probably around the same time I met him when I was a kid.

I don’t remember a lot about the first time I met Gibson. I know it was at a card show at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, and Gibson was there with Lou Brock. I know I didn’t say anything to Bob Gibson, because I knew what an intimidating competitor he was, and I was definitely in awe of him.

When I met Bob Gibson in 2012, I actually spoke to him. I told him that I saw him pitch at an Old-Timer’s Game at the Metrodome. Bob said, “No, you didn’t.” I said, “I’m pretty sure I did.” “No, you didn’t.” In my head I was like, “Oh crap, I didn’t talk to Bob Gibson when I was a kid because I was scared of him, and now I’m talking to him and he’s disagreeing with me!” Gibson then clarified what he was saying: “You did not see me pitch in an Old-Timer’s Game, you saw me pitch in a Former Big-League Player’s Game.” There’s no arguing with that. He smiled and shook hands with me. It was clear from the way Gibson interacted with people that he was a friendly guy.

I met Gibson again at a show in 2017. Even though I had already met him twice, I figured it was worth the money to meet a legend one more time. I brought along my almost 3-year-old son Miles, who is a big baseball fan. We got to the show near the end of Gibson’s signing time, and he wasn’t at the table, so one of the guys working there took us behind a curtain to where Gibson was sitting. I told Gibson that I had met him twice before, and I mentioned that I had seen him play in a “Retired Professionals Game.” He gave me a look when I said that—I can’t quite describe it, not quizzical, but perhaps he regarded my phrasing as somewhat eccentric. I explained that when I had met him before I had mistakenly called it an “Old-Timer’s Game.” He said he liked that I had the correct phrasing. I was glad that I had pleased Bob Gibson.