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#1799999 10/03/20 07:07 AM
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Damn, Bob Gibson was a hellava player.

One of the best I ever saw.

Just a determined competitor.

I remember watching him in the World Series and thinking "this guy will not lose."

He had that air about him that "I will not be beaten."

RIP Mr. Bob Gibson.

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Bob Gibson was a star when I really started getting into baseball in the mid-to-late 60s. I as 11 in 1968 when he when he went 22 and 9 w/an ERA of 1.12. No, that is not a typo. 1.12!!! His career ERA over a 17 year span was 2.91.

I remember his as a rather imposing figure on the mound. You did not crowd the plate on Gibson. He wasn't afraid to throw a little chin music and his stare made everyone back down. He was also an excellent fielding pitcher who possessed a competitive drive that we have rarely seen. Everyone who followed baseball back in those days knew that Bob Gibson was a tough dude and who was one of the better pitchers of all-time.

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Besides being a great pitcher, fielder, and competitor, Bob Gibson could hit. I thought I remembered him being a good hitting pitcher, so I looked up his stats. He had 24 career HR, 144 RBI, and hit .206 - and this was in the pre-expansion, higher pitchers mound era. That's better than 4 starting position players (Santana, Perez, Luplow, Mercado) for the Indians this year, and certainly better than any of our 3 catchers.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gibsobo01.shtml

But the thing I remember most was what an imposing figure he was staring down at hitters. The inside of the plate belonged to him. I remember an announcer - probably Joe Garagiola - saying Bob Gibson would knock down his grandmother if she crowded the plate on him. Such a fierce competitor ...

Rest in peace, sir.

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Dave #1800047 10/03/20 10:35 AM
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Well said and I completely agree.

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RIP. I'll never forget the 1968 World Series. I was an 8yo Tiger fan and was geeked for game 1. Gibson threw 17 strikeouts and I thought the series was over, until my dad told me he wasn't going to pitch every game, lol. He also dominated game 4. He pitched game 7, and an arguably misplayed ball in the outfield led to the Tigers scoring 3 7th inning runs which decided the game. 3 complete games in 1 World Series.


And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.
- John Muir

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Another athlete from my childhood passes. This has been crazy of late. My prayers to his family.

Interesting side note. I had a baseball card of 1970s Reds centerfielder Cesar Geronimo & it stated he was Gibson's 3,000 strikeout victim. Geronlimo was also the 3,000th SO victim of Nolan Ryan. I have to believe he would be the only player who holds that distinction.

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I can name a lot of the Cardinals players from that team but for Detroit, I only remember Al Kaline.


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Prayers for his family ...


John 3:16 Jesus said "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
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Originally Posted By: Tulsa
I can name a lot of the Cardinals players from that team but for Detroit, I only remember Al Kaline.


I remember them all, lol. They're legends around here.


And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.
- John Muir

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Originally Posted By: jfanent
Originally Posted By: Tulsa
I can name a lot of the Cardinals players from that team but for Detroit, I only remember Al Kaline.


I remember them all, lol. They're legends around here.


I remember quite a few of them, probably because they beat my Indians like a drum. Let's see:

C Bill Freehan
1B Norm Cash
2B Dick McAuliffe
SS Eddie Brinkman (? - not sure on this one, maybe Mickey Stanley)
3B Don Wert (?)
LF Willie Horton
CF Jim Northrup
RF Al Kaline
SP Denny McClain, Mickey Lolich, Earl Wilson, Joe Sparma
RP John Hiller

I also remember them having this guy named Gates Brown who was a phenomenal pinch hitter.

It was a great team. I hated them.

Dave #1800137 10/03/20 05:06 PM
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thumbsup Very good. The SS was Ray Oyler, but in a controvertial move, Mayo Smith put outfielder Mickey Stanley at short for the World Series due to Oyler's poor hitting. Brinkman came a little later.


And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.
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I think I only remember Eddie Brinkman because, even though he couldn't hit water from the beach, he murdered Sam McDowell, who threw about 150mph.

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I’ve seen some of his stats and stuff. Probably one of the top 3 pitchers of all time? RIP to a good person/pitcher


"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
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BOB GIBSON (1935-2020)

UNCOMPROMISING


Pitcher Bob Gibson set the standard for excellence in 1968, sparking a change in rules

by Hillel Italie, Associated Press

Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, the dominating St. Louis Cardinals pitcher who won a record seven consecutive World Series starts and set a modern standard for excellence when he finished the 1968 season with a 1.12 ERA, died Friday. He was 84.

The Cardinals confirmed Gibson's death shortly after a 4-0 playoff loss to San Diego ended their season. He had long been ill with pancreatic cancer in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

Gibson's death came on the 52nd anniversary of perhaps his most overpowering performance, when he struck out a World Series record 17 batters in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series against Detroit.

One of baseball's most uncompromising competitors, the two-time Cy Young Award winner spent his entire 17-year career with St. Louis and was the World Series MVP in their 1964 and '67 championship seasons. The Cards came up just short in 1968, but Gibson was voted the National League's MVP and shut down opponents so well that baseball changed the rules for fear it would happen again.

Gibson died less than a month after the death of a longtime teammate, Hall of Fame outfielder Lou Brock. Another pitching great from his era, Tom Seaver, died in late August.

''I just heard the news about losing Bob Gibson and it's kind of hard losing a legend. You can lose a game, but when you lose a guy like Bob Gibson, just hard,'' Cardinals star catcher Yadier Molina said. ''Bob was funny, smart, he brought a lot of energy. When he talked, you listened. It was good to have him around every year. We lose a game, we lose a series, but the tough thing is we lost one great man.''

At his peak, Gibson may have been the most talented all-around starter in history, a nine-time Gold Glove winner who roamed wide to snatch up grounders despite a fierce, sweeping delivery that drove him to the first base side of the mound; and a strong hitter who twice hit five home runs in a single season and batted .303 in 1970, when he also won his second Cy Young.

Baseball wasn't his only sport, either. He also starred in basketball at Creighton and spent a year with the Harlem Globetrotters before totally turning his attention to the diamond.

Averaging 19 wins a year from 1963 to 1972, he finished 251-174 with a 2.91 ERA, and was only the second pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts. He didn't throw as hard as Sandy Koufax, or from as many angles as Juan Marichal, but batters never forgot how he glared at them as if settling an ancient score.

Gibson snubbed opposing players and sometimes teammates who dared speak to him on a day he was pitching, and he didn't even spare his own family.

''I've played a couple of hundred games of tic-tac-toe with my little daughter and she hasn't beaten me yet,'' he once told The New Yorker's Roger Angell. ''I've always had to win. I've got to win.''

Equally disciplined and impatient, Gibson worked so quickly that broadcaster Vin Scully joked that he pitched as if his car was double-parked. Ball in hand, he was no nonsense on the hill. And he had no use for advice, scowling whenever catcher Tim McCarver or anyone else thought of visiting the mound.

''The only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it,'' Gibson was known to say.

His concentration was such that he seemed unaware he was on his way to a World Series single game strikeout record (surpassing Sandy Koufax's 15) in 1968 until McCarver convinced him to look at the scoreboard.

During the regular season, Gibson struck out more than 200 batters nine times and led the National League in shutouts four times, finishing with 56 in his career. In 1968, thirteen of his 22 wins were shutouts, leading McCarver to call Gibson ''the luckiest pitcher I ever saw. He always pitches when the other team doesn't score any runs.''

He was even greater in the postseason, finishing 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 81 innings. Despite dominating the Tigers in the 1968 Series opener, that year ended with a Game 7 loss and a rewriting of the rules that he would long resent.

Gibson's 1.12 ERA in the regular season was the third-lowest for any starting pitcher since 1900 and by far the best for any starter in the post-dead-ball era, which began in the 1920s.

His 1968 performance left officials worried that fans had bored of so many 1-0 games. They lowered the mound from 15 to 10 inches in 1969 and shrank the strike zone.

''I was pissed,'' Gibson later remarked, although he remained a top pitcher for several years and in 1971 threw his only no-hitter, against Pittsburgh.

Gibson had a long major league career even though he was a relatively late bloomer and was in his early 30s in 1968. Signed by the Cards in 1957, he had early trouble with his control, a problem solved by developing one of baseball's greatest sliders, along with a curve to go with his hard fastball. He knew how to throw strikes and how to aim elsewhere when batters stood too close to the plate.

Hank Aaron once counseled Atlanta Braves teammate Dusty Baker about Gibson.

''Don't dig in against Bob Gibson; he'll knock you down,'' Aaron said, according to the Boston Globe. ''He'd knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don't stare at him, don't smile at him, don't talk to him. He doesn't like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don't run too slow, don't run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don't charge the mound, because he's a Gold Glove boxer.''

Dave #1800203 10/04/20 09:03 AM
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Basketball, Boxing and Baseball. Dude was just a pure athlete.


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This line cracked me up:

Quote:
And he had no use for advice, scowling whenever catcher Tim McCarver or anyone else thought of visiting the mound.

''The only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it,'' Gibson was known to say.

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Originally Posted By: Tulsa
Basketball, Boxing and Baseball. Dude was just a pure athlete.


You could add "Badass" to that "B" list.

Dave #1800226 10/04/20 11:07 AM
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Originally Posted By: Dave
This line cracked me up:

Quote:
And he had no use for advice, scowling whenever catcher Tim McCarver or anyone else thought of visiting the mound.

''The only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it,'' Gibson was known to say.

haha thats great


"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
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Except that it was Bob Uecker and not McCarver who first put that line out there, in Uecker’s book Catcher in the Wry.

Small point, but I hate false old news. smile


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Dave #1801657 10/05/20 08:30 AM
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RIP.

Bob was a great one.

Bob having a 1.12 ERA and Denny McClain winning 31 games in the AL prompted baseball to lower the mounds. Too bad. That took a lot of good shorter pitchers out of the mix.


If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.

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Big cardinals fan here since 1967. Growing up Bob Gibson and Lou Brock were my heroes. Both great ball players and Halll of Famers lost within one month of each other. They will always be remembered. Rest in peace and God bless.

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