#130 -- Bob Gibson

Bob Gibson

Bob Gibson and Lou Brock were my first favorite players. As such I still have a soft spot in my heart for Gibby. In fact, I'm currently passing time on my treadmill (no, not as I write this, but during this time period) watching Game 1 of the 1968 World Series. Gibby doesn't really look as intimidating as I remember, but I don't see a lot of Tigers getting good swings, either.

Gibson went to college at Creighton in his native Omaha, playing basketball and baseball. I have no doubt that he would have been top of the line in football, volleyball, lacrosse or any other sport he chose to master. When he was a kid, no one would have imagined a career as an intimidating Hall of Fame pitcher, college basketball player and Harlem Globetrotter. Gibson was sickly. He had ricketts, asthma, pneumonia and a heart murmur. Still, he was as dominating in high school and college as he would be in the National League.

His Wikipedia page said he was one of the stars of the late 50's Globetrotters. I don't know how correct that is, but it says he could hammer down backhanded dunks. I do believe the line that says he left the Globies because he got tired of the clowning. Gibby is a competitor and there's no competition in beating the Washington Generals night after night while running tricks.

When initially called up, he butted heads with Cardinal manager Solly Hemus, but Gibson made the starting rotation and stayed there for the duration of his career. I was surprised to see that he only has 251 career victories. He had several years where he just didn't get the wins commensurate with his level of pitching. For example, he was having a good 1967 going into July 15 game against the Pirates. He was 10-6, 3.52 with 119 strikeouts in 138 innings. Roberto Clemente led off the 4th inning with a smash back to the box. It hit Gibson in the lower leg and Clemente got a single out of it. He then walked Willie Stargell, got Bill Mazeroski on a fly ball and walked Donn Clendenon before they figured out Clemente's liner had broken his freaking leg! I guess Gibby was human with a broken tibia. He came back in early September and went 3-1, 0.96 in 5 starts where he allowed 2 runs once. He then went 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA and a home run against the Red Sox in the Series. Wow.

However, his stretch from 1968 (actually you could have begun it after the July 15, 1967 game against the Pirates....he was 6-1, and an ERA under 1 in 8 starts) through 1970 is similar to what Sandy Koufax had done a few years earlier and what Greg Maddux did in the mid-90's. He was 65-29, 2.13 ERA and 811 strikeouts in 913 innings in 103 starts those 9 years. That means he averaged 8.86 innings per start in a 3 year period. He had 20 shutouts in those 103 starts and 79 complete games.

In 1968 he had a stretch where he completed 19 out of 20 games. The game he didn't complete, he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the 11th inning of a 13 inning loss. I know. You've got to be thinking, "What a wuss. Suck it up and give a little of yourself." I'd say Red Schoendienst had a lot of guts to pull him. In that stretch of 20 starts, he had 12 shutouts (5 in a row) and gave up 17 earned runs in 182 innings. His 1968 season was absolutely stupid and part of the reason now we have lowered mounds, juiced ballparks, juiced balls and juiced bats.

I'll put my respect and admiration for Gibson this way: The first National League game I ever got to see was Sunday, September 26 against the Expos. A fellow in my small town would take charter buses to St. Louis or Kansas City for a baseball game for about $15/head. My dad took me on a lot of those. This one was a big deal because it was my first Cardinal game and Bob Gibson was going to pitch. I was really hyped up. When we got to the Stadium, they announced the starting pitcher would be Darryl Patterson. Who? Dad, why isn't Bob Gibson pitching? Something about the Cardinals being out of the race. I was so PO'd about not getting to see Bob Gibson pitch that when I got home I found Darryl Patterson's 1971 card and promptly wadded it up. I'll have to look to see if I still have it and post a scan. I guess I had a little bit of Gibby's temperment as a 7 year old.

1972 Feature

July 13, 1972 was a Thursday and a light night on the schedule. In 6 games there were 4 shutouts. Gibson didn't pitch for the Cardinals, but Reggie Cleveland threw a 2-hitter at the Braves and won 2-0.

The Game of the Day was division leaders Pittsburgh (with Steve Blass coming in at 10-2) going against 12-2 Gary Nolan and the West division leading Reds. Cesar Geronimo got the Reds' first run with a 5th inning homer. Pittsburgh hadn't done much to that point, but they started getting with it. They loaded the bases, but Nolan struck out Richie Hebner to strand 3 in the 6th. Nolan then struck out Stargell and Hebner in the 8th to leave a couple on base. Bobby Tolan got a sacrifice fly in the 8th to give Nolan a little bit of breathing room. Clay Carroll pitched around a 9th inning single to close it out.

#67 -- Red Schoendienst

Red Schoendienst

I have this card autographed and it's one of my favorites. Partly because Red is hit and miss through the mail and this was my one and only attempt. But it's partly because he looks a lot like one of my grandfathers. My grandpa was a redheaded of Irish and German ancestry and he was a ballplayer growing up in the 20's and 30's. He told of going to a Cardinal tryout camp on a damp and cold day and doing well. The scout told him there'd be a place for him if he'd come back the next day. Unfortunately, his knee had gone out and he couldn't make it. The only other time his knee ever went out was at his World War II draft physical, so that knee kept him out of the minor leagues and out of the Pacific Theater.

Red became the Cardinal manager when some internal wranglings led ownership to dump Johnny Keane, who had just won the World Series in 1964. This was a tough spot to step into because of the expectations, the Cards were just in their second year in the post-Stan Musial era and they played .500 ball the first couple of years. However, Red persevered and led the Cards to a World Series title in 1967 and within a flyball misjudged by the usually sterling Curt Flood of winning the Series in 1968.

The Cards stayed competitive through the early 70's, but when Bob Gibson started fading, the rest of the team followed. By the mid-70's, Red and Lou Brock were not enough to keep the team at the top of the league and they fell into the second division. Finally, management made a change and brought in Vern Rapp for the 1977 season. The team fell further.

Most of the time when a manager is let go, they move on to other organizations. There are exceptions. Billy Martin kept coming back to the Yankees. Danny Murtaugh had 3 separate stints with the Pirates in the 60's and 70's. Cito Gaston and Bobby Cox are both currently working on their second stints with their teams. Whitey Herzog kept Red close to the action when he was brought in. Whitey was hired in 1980 and given free rein by Gussie Busch. After running the team a few weeks, he stepped aside as manager and turned it over to Red for the rest of the year so he could concentrate on evaluating the team. When Whitey decided to step down in 1990, Red was named the interim manager. Even now, Tony LaRussa keeps Red around and values his input. This link is to a video of Red helping out at Cardinal Spring Training in 2008. Here he is this Spring with the owner and GM.

Red was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the old Veterans' Committee as a second baseman. No matter how much of a Red Schoendienst fan I might be, I have to admit that he wasn't a Hall of Fame player. His OPS+ for his career was 93. That was brought down a lot by his latter years. He does have 2 World Series rings as a player (1946 and 1957) and was a 10-time All-Star. There weren't many tougher than Red, who came back from a bout with tuberculosis to resume his career. TB killed people back then and everyone thought Red was done. Red proved he wasn't done.

Red still ain't done.