Don't ask Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson for a detailed analysis of the major-league baseball playoffs in either league.
"I only watch Cardinals games," said the former St. Louis right-hander -- a 251-game winner with 3,117 strikeouts -- to whom the nickname "Mr. October" applied until it became attached to slugger Reggie Jackson a decade later.
Gibson was in town Saturday to attend a ceremony honoring former Cardinal greats Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean and Paul "Daffy" Dean, both deceased, who are profiled on the latest plaque along the Hot Springs Baseball Trail. Gibson later attended the world premiere of Larry Foley's "The First Boys of Spring," about the Spa City's rich history as a major-league training site, at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.
Forty years after throwing his last pitch for the Cardinals, Gibson is weeks away from his 80th birthday and says "I feel pretty good." A menacing figure on the mound for 17 seasons, Gibson later served as a pitching coach on Atlanta and St. Louis teams managed by former teammate Joe Torre.
Gibson still lives in Omaha, Neb., his hometown, where he attended Creighton University on a basketball scholarship. Although receiving a $3,000 bonus to sign with the Cardinals, Gibson delayed his baseball career for a year to play basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters, then at the height of their popularity.
Gibson joined the Cardinals in 1959 but beat around the minors for his first two seasons and did not feel comfortable in St. Louis until Johnny Keane, his former manager on the Omaha minor-league team, replaced Solly Hemus as the parent club's skipper in 1961. Placed in the Cardinal starting rotation for good, Gibson went 11-6 the rest of the season and finished with a 3.24 earned-run average.
Gibson starred along with fellow black teammates Lou Brock and Bill White (later president of the National League) on the first integrated Cardinal pennant winner and world-championship team in 1964. Gibson lost his first World Series start to New York's Mel Stottlemyre in Game 2, but won Game 5 in Yankee Stadium and the deciding Game 7 at old Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
Gibson tired late in the finale, the last Series game played by Mickey Mantle, but recorded the final out. Although he had Ray Sadecki warming up in the bullpen, Keane let Gibson finish what he started, saying "I had a commitment to his heart."
Gibson might also have finished a 1967 start against the Pittsburgh Pirates had not fate intervened. On July 15, he was struck by a line drive hit by Roberto Clemente, breaking his right leg. He faced Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski later in the fourth inning before his right fibula bone snapped above the ankle with Donn Clendenon up.
"I had a three-and-two pitch to Clendenon and wanted to put something extra on it because I knew he would be expecting a fast ball," Gibson said, "when the leg cramped."
Gibson was back to pitch the Sept. 18 pennant clincher against Philadelphia, a three-hitter with four strikeouts for his 13th victory of the season. Interviewed later on the Cardinal radio network, Gibson said, "The main thing is that I wanted to pitch all nine innings," which he did.
Gibson went on to dominate the Boston Red Sox in a memorable seven-game World Series dominated offensively by Brock of the Cardinals and American League MVP Carl Yastrzemski in his Triple Crown season. Gibson hit his first of two Series homers off AL Cy Young winner Jim Lonborg in Game 7, a 7-2 Cardinal victory at Fenway Park that made St. Louis, then managed by Red Schoendienst, world champion for the second time in four years.
Gibson reached the pinnacle of his career in 1968, remembered as the "Year of the Pitcher." Although Don Drysdale (Dodgers) pitched a then-record 58 2-3 scoreless innings and Juan Marichal (Giants) recorded numbers comparable to the Cardinal star, Gibson became the driving force for rules changes in 1969 that included lowering the pitcher's mound.
Gibson's dominance extended beyond his 22-9 record in a year of pitchers' duels (the All-Star game ending 1-0). He established a live-ball ERA record of 1.12, lowest in the majors since 1914, and threw 13 shutouts, three fewer than fellow Nebraskan Grover Cleveland Alexander's 1916 major-league record of 16. He was 12-0 in June and July alone, pitching a complete game every time and with eight shutouts.
That was mere prelude to Gibson's signature performance in Game 1 of the '68 World Series. On an October afternoon in St. Louis, Gibson struck out 17 Detroit Tigers, breaking Sandy Koufax' World Series record of 15 set against the Dodgers in 1963. That was the game that prompted the incredibly confident Gibson to remark, in answer to a question, "I'm never surprised at anything I do."
Gibson homered in the Cardinals' Game 4 victory in Detroit, his seventh straight in the Fall Classic, but took the Game 7 loss, 4-1, in a duel with Mickey Lolich. It would be the last postseason game of Gibson's career and for the Cardinals until 1982.
Gibson was named Cy Young Award winner (he would repeat in 1970) and NL Most Valuable Player after the '68 season. Incredibly, Gibson was not removed from the mound for another pitcher that year, completing 28 of the 34 games he started and pinch-hit for in the games he didn't complete.
As a last-minute replacement for Brock, Gibson came to Hot Springs with talk abuzz about Game 1 of the first Cardinals-Cubs postseason series. The previous night, Cardinal manager Mike Matheny pulled starter John Lackey with one out in the eighth after 7 1-3 innings of two-hit baseball and a 1-0 lead. The bullpen preserved the Cardinals' 4-0 victory, two St. Louis rookies homering in the bottom of the eighth.
"They don't play the game the same way today," Gibson said. "They don't expect you to go nine innings any longer. Now if you get into trouble in the seventh, the manager looks to the bullpen for the set-up man who can get you to the closer in the ninth."
Whether he approves of the changes or not, Gibson didn't say. But with the Cardinals winning 100 games this season, they must work. And as a Cardinal fan, he's happy.
Sports on 10/13/2015