Bob Gibson

Baseball Player

• Born: November 9, 1935
• Birthplace: Omaha, Nebraska
• Died: October 2, 2020
• Place of death: Omaha, Nebraska

Baseball player

Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Gibson was one of the most successful and feared pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent his entire Hall of Fame career with the St. Louis Cardinals, leading the team to three National League pennants and two World Series championships. His 1.12 earned run average in 1968 set a major-league record, and when Gibson retired he held the National League record for most strikeouts in a career.

Areas of achievement: Sports: baseball; Sports: basketball

Early Life

The youngest of seven children, Pack Robert Gibson and his family lived in a series of rat-infested, decrepit houses in Omaha, Nebraska, before moving into a housing project in 1942. Gibson’s widowed mother worked in a laundry and hospitals. As a child, Gibson overcame pneumonia and rickets. Playing basketball and baseball against white teams in high school, he frequently encountered racism from officials and fans. With the help of older brother Josh, Gibson received a scholarship and became the first black basketball and baseball player at Creighton University. He graduated in 1957 and accepted two offers to turn professional—one from the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team and the other from the Harlem Globetrotters, the famous touring basketball team. From each team Gibson got four thousand dollars. In his first professional baseball season, Gibson pitched for Cardinals farm clubs in Omaha and Columbus, Georgia. After Gibson toured with the Globetrotters, Cardinals general manager Bing Devine paid him a four-thousand-dollar bonus to quit basketball.

From 1958 to 1961, Gibson shuttled between the Cardinals’ minor league clubs in Omaha, Rochester, and St. Louis. Omaha manager Johnny Keane gave him encouragement, while Cardinals manager Solly Hemus berated him after every mistake and suggested Gibson return to basketball. Gibson believed that Hemus was biased, while Hemus contended that humiliation was good for all players.

Life’s Work

In July of 1961, Keane replaced Hemus as manager of the Cardinals, significantly reducing tensions in the clubhouse. From that point on, Gibson flourished. He went 11–6 the rest of the season, and while he led the National League in walks, over the next several years he increasingly honed his control. In 1962, Gibson was selected for his first of eight All-Star games.

Gibson was a fierce competitor. He intimidated batters with his glare, his fastball, and his willingness to pitch inside. He refused to speak to any opposing players on or off the field, and he warned his teammates to do the same. From 1962 to 1972, Gibson struck out more than two hundred hitters each year except 1967, when he was injured, and 1971. He led the National League in strikeouts in 1968. Gibson won twenty or more games five times, and his 23–7 record in 1970 was the best in the National League. Gibson received National League Cy Young Awards for best pitcher in 1968 and 1970. An all-around athlete, Gibson also won the Gold Glove for best fielding pitcher nine times (1965–1973).

In postseason competition, Gibson was dominant. Against the New York Yankees in the 1964 World Series, Gibson won two starts including the deciding game seven. He struck out 31 Yankees over the course of the series. On July 15, 1967, Roberto Clemente fractured Gibson’s leg with a line drive, but Gibson missed only seven weeks. He returned to lead the Cardinals to the World Series against the Boston Red Sox. In the series Gibson won three games, including a five-hit shutout and a three-hitter in the decisive seventh game. In the 1968 World Series, Gibson defeated the Detroit Tigers in his first two appearances, setting a record for most consecutive wins in the World Series (seven). He struck out 17 in game one and 35 Tigers for the entire series, both records.

The 1968 season was probably Gibson’s finest. He threw thirteen shutouts, won twenty-two games, and led the majors with a stunning 1.12 earned run average (ERA). Over one eight-week span, Gibson yielded only two earned runs. After the 1968 season, Major League Baseball lowered pitching mounds five inches to give batters a better chance following the dominance of Gibson and other overpowering pitchers of the era.

Gibson pitched his only no-hitter on August 14, 1971, against the Pittsburgh Pirates. His aggressive stride toward the plate took its toll on his knees, however, and in September 1975 he retired. He briefly worked in broadcasting and tried a few different business ventures around Omaha, including involvement in an advertising firm that he claimed failed due to racist reactions to a company run by African Americans. He also opened a successful restaurant that operated for ten years. In the early 1980s he became a pitching coach for the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves under manager Joe Torre, who was his former teammate and a friend. After Torre and his staff were fired by the Braves following the 1984 season Gibson sought other coaching positions to no avail. He would later claim in his autobiography, Stranger to the Game (1994), that his vocal and sometimes intimidating personality may have made it difficult for him to find a job.

Torre would become the Cardinals manager in 1990 and once again hired Gibson as a pitching coach for the 1995 season. This only lasted one season, however, as Torre was fired once more. Gibson returned to the Cardinals organization in 1996 as a special instructor rather than an on-field coach. His later ventures included a position on the board of directors of an organization aimed at helping elderly former baseball players, known as the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT). He remains a legendary figure among St. Louis baseball fans.

Significance

Gibson retired with a 251–174 record, and his 2.91 ERA places him among the elite pitchers in Major League Baseball history. His 3,117 strikeouts upon retirement led all National League pitchers and were the second-most in all of baseball to Walter Johnson. He was an eight-time All-Star and had pitched 255 complete games, with fifty-six shutouts. In 1981 Gibson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In 1999 he was named to the MLB All-Century team in further recognition of his standing as one of the greatest pitchers of all time.

During his career Gibson vigorously resisted any sort of second-class treatment related to his race. The interracial camaraderie among the Cardinals of the turbulent 1960s was a model for other teams as baseball came to embrace diversity.

Bibliography

"Bob Gibson." National Baseball Hall of Fame. National Baseball Hall of Fame, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.

Feldman, Doug. El Birdos: The 1967 and 1968 St. Louis Cardinals. Jefferson: McFarland, 2007. Print.

Gibson, Bob, and Lonnie Wheeler. Stranger to the Game: The Autobiography of Bob Gibson. New York: Penguin, 1994. Print.

Golenbock, Peter. The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. Print.

Halberstam, David. October 1964. New York: Villard, 1994. Print.

Peterson, Richard, ed. The St. Louis Baseball Reader. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2006. Print.

Sloope, Terry. "Bob Gibson." Society for American Baseball Research. SABR, 2016. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.