hearing the legendary stories. Losing him and Lou B in such proximity are monumental blows to Cardinal Nation. RIP Gibby
Pennant Race. Gibson skipped his turn to pitch against the Mets so he could pitch against the Cubs. He hated Leo Durocher and Ron Santo that much. The Mets won the division by eight games.
many reasons we loved Bob Gibson. One 'helluva' great pitcher and a fierce competitor. Sad to lose two Cardinal greats in such a short period of time. God Bless Bob Gibson & Lou Brock. Rest in Peace Gentlemen, and, of course, as always, f*** the cubbies (although I loved the 'fire' in Durocher, and actually liked or respected some of that era's cubbie 'greats' [Banks, Williams, Beckert, Kessinger, Hundley, Jenkins, Holtzman] but could not stand Santo).
In one of the final games of Bob Gibson's career, Cub Pete LaCock(the son of Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall) hit a grand slam home run.
Reportedly, Gibson later said 'When I gave up a grand slam to Pete LaCock, I knew it was time to quit.'
Fast forward to an Oldtimers day some 10 years later.....Pete LaCock comes to bat with Bob Gibson on the mound....Gibson drilled LaCock with the first pitch
RIP Mr Gibson
Good gosh, Bob, now you can let it go.
keep a pitch count on him? Did he pitch any complete games? What a terrific competitor Gibson was. Try taking the ball out of his hand to remove him from the game and do it at your own risk.
Maxwell. I think he hit 5 home runs one season.
According to Baseball Reference, Gibson started 482 major league games and was in the 9 hole for everyone of them.
Now, he may have pinch hit for Maxwell a few times, I'd buy that.
He hit 5 homers in a season twice, in 1965 and 1972, and hit a total of 24 over his career (plus one each in the 1967 and 1968 World Series).
Tom Seaver had a 1.76 ERA in 1971
And Maddox in 95 was probably better too
faced in which he gave up 0 earned runs. In that span Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Billy Williams, Johnny Bench and Felipe Alou hit a combined 4/27 against him. He pitched 3 complete games in the '68 Series, with a series ERA under 2. No pitcher since 1920 with at least 150 innings pitched has had an ERA under 1.5, other than Gibson in '68, at 1.12.
Bob deserved better.
Again compare to rest of the league. 68 was a horrible hitting year for all of MLB. Due to raised mound, large strike zone and just weak hitting overall. Yaz led the league batting .301. Lowest slugging avg in AL since 1915. White Sox were shut out 23 times that year, a record. In 2000 7 guys hit over .340, 10 teams hit over 200 HRs and it was a record for most HR until 2017. Obviously we know steroids was rampant as well. 2000 was one of the best hitting years ever and Pedro dominated.
Which adjusts for ballpark and league. Gibson had an ERA+ of 258 in 1968, while Pedro's was 291 in 2000,best in the modern era.
Look at the two guys this year. Obviously only a third of a season, but still impressive.
And the Yankees took care of Bieber in the playoffs, just like Pedro
I had awesome seats from someone's job to watch Clemens start and the Yankees beat Pedro 2-1. Rivera closed it. Clemens left after 1 with some minor injury and everyone thought they were screwed.
I just had to look up the date but that's one of those awesome games from back then I'm thankful I had the opportunity to get to.
Martinez had a fantastic season and especially when comparing other pitchers’ ERA that year. Maddox as well although he didn’t pitch particularly well in the playoffs. Maddox only pitched about 200 innings. I had the privilege of watching Seaver throughout the 1971 season as I lived on Long Island growing up. The impressive thing about Seaver and Gibson is the amount of innings pitched and complete games l. They were pitching the 8th and
9th innings while today’s pitchers are on the bench. I saw them all and Gibson’s 1968 season
was for the ages.
Were unreal, especially Pedro. And as a Yankee fan, that’s hard to admit. Second best era in 2000 was Clemens at 3.7. 2 runs a game worse. That’s insane. Second best era in Gibson’s 68 was 1.99 for reference,
Gibson had raised mound, bigger strike zone and 68 was arguably the worst hitting year of the live ball era.
Nothing against Gibson, it’s a top 5 year, but Maddux and Pedro were better IMO.
Pitching in 1968 was phenomenal and led to rules changes the next year. I think Yaz was the only player in the American League to hit over .300 and then only at .301. Maddox and Martinez did what they did in the era of steroids and specialization. I guess my memories are affected by sentimentality and foggy ruins of time. Gibson was intimidating and scary good. I got to see him in person in 1971 at Shea where he shut out the Mets and had a no-hitter going into the 7th inning. Comparing the ages is difficult but fun. It is one of the beauties of baseball. I think Clemens had the second best ERA to Martinez that year and it was almost double his. Martinez holds the record for greatest disparity between first and second place. Clemens ERA was 3.70. How about Dazzy Vance with a discrepancy of 1.2 runs in 1930. Just edited my post
He was a great one.
The 5 years after the mound was lowered:
1969
Starts: 35
IP: 251
W-L: 20-13
CG: 28
SO: 4
K: 269
BB: 95
ERA: 2.18
WHIP: 1.102
1970
Starts: 34
IP: 262
W-L: 23-7
CG: 23
SO: 3
K: 274
BB: 88
ERA: 3.12
WHIP: 1.190
1971
Starts: 31
IP: 245.2
W-L: 16-13
CG: 20
SO: 5
K: 185
BB: 76
ERA: 3.04
WHIP: 1.185
1972
Starts: 34
IP: 278
W-L: 19-11
CG: 23
SO: 4
K: 208
BB: 88
ERA: 2.46
WHIP: 1.129
1973
Starts: 25
IP: 195
W-L: 12-10
CG: 13
SO: 1
K: 142
BB: 57
ERA: 2.77
WHIP: 1.108
He would throw hard throughout the game; but when there was a game situation in the 8th or 9th inning, out would come a fastball like nothing he had thrown all game long
In 1971. I was 12 years old. He took a no-hitter into the seventh. Overpowering. He hit Tommie Agee in the head in opening inning of spring training in 1968. Agee hit .217 with 5 Homer’s and 17 RBIs as a result. Fortunately, he bounced back the next year and was instrumental in leading the Mets to the Championship. Gibson and Drysdale were easily the most intimidating pitchers of their era
Today's ballplayers would wet their pants digging in against him.
“He did not permit bunts—bunts, that is, by players who wanted a base hit and were afraid to swing away at him. A bunt to advance a runner was permissible; a bunt for a hit was not. He reciprocated by throwing at the player the next time he came up.”
That is just one part of David Halberstam’s long description of what Bob Gibson did not permit, from October 1964.
Bob Gibson hit like a second baseman, fielded like a shortstop, and pitched like a linebacker. They’d better not allow him near the switch that controls lightning strikes.
fitting tribute. It capture just how amazing Bob Gibson and his 1968 season were.
If you haven't seen this two part video series before, it is worth your time. The only part better than the Bob Gibson part is the Bob Beamon story that starts in Part 2.
Jeff Franceour(sp?) is great, as is the Georgia Tech 220-0 game. You can go from there.
I’d offer RIP, but he’d probably bean me for doing so if still alive. Was one of the very few sports gods for me. Damn.