Many numbers in baseball have a special meaning, 61, 715, .406, 56, 2,130. Most baseball fans will know what each of these numbers represents. One of my favorite baseball stats is 1.12, that was Bob Gibson’s earned run average during the 1968 season. In 1968, the pitchers were the stars of the game. Denny McLain won 31 games and won the AL Cy Young and MVP awards. Don Drysdale pitched 58 consecutive scoreless innings a record that would stand for twenty years. Then there was Bob Gibson, he won both the Cy Young and MVP awards in the National League, he won 22 games and somehow lost 9, he threw 13 shutouts, completed 28 of his games and had the record setting 1.12 ERA. What amazes me is the shutouts and the complete games, in today’s game of pitch counts and relief pitchers it may take a pitcher an entire career to reach 28 complete games and 13 shutouts. Gibson was extremely intimidating on the mound, there is a great quote by Henry Aaron about Gibson:
“Don’t dig in against Bob Gibson, he’ll knock you down. 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.”
Gibson and the Cardinals would face McLain and the Tigers in the World Series that year. Gibson had beat “The Impossible Dream” Red Sox in the ‘67 World Series by winning and completing Games 1, 4, and 7. The 1968 Series was supposed to be the battle of the MVPs, McLain and Gibson. But Gibson dominated McLain in their meetings in Games 1 and 4. In the 7th game of the Series Gibson dueled against Mickey Lolich who had won his previous two starts and was also pitching on 2 days rest. Lolich and the Tigers prevailed and gave the city of Detroit a reason to celebrate after a summer of riots. Game 7 was Gibson’s last time pitching in the World Series, he finished his World Series career with 9 starts, 8 complete games, 7 wins, a 1.82 ERA and 92 strikeouts. His accomplishments on the biggest stage are legendary and still talked about more than 40 years later.
Because of the dominant pitchers during the ‘68 season Major League Baseball made a big rule change for the 1969 season. They lowered the mound 5 inches hoping to give batters a better chance. The change did not affect Gibson much because he had another outstanding season but other pitchers were and there has never been another season for pitchers like 1968. When I read about Gibson’s ‘68 season or the Big Red Machine of the mid-’70 or Ted Williams, I sometimes wish I had been around to witness some of their great moments.
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