Hall of Famer dominated era
ST. LOUIS — By almost any account, Stan Musial was considered the greatest Cardinals player. By the same accounts, Bob Gibson, who died at age 84 Friday night in Omaha, Neb., under hospice care after fighting pancreatic cancer for more than a year, was considered the franchise’s greatest pitcher.
Gibson was the Cardinals’ second Hall of Famer to die in the past month. His longtime teammate, Lou Brock, died at age 81 on Sept. 6. Gibson’s death came on the 52nd anniversary of perhaps his greatest game, a record 17-strikeout performance in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series.
Gibson, like Musial a rarity who played his entire career (1959-75) with the Cardinals, set club records for games won at 251 and complete games at a staggering 255, let alone a franchise-best 56 shutouts, strikeouts (3,117) and innings pitched at 3,884.
Gibson had five 20-win seasons, two with 19 victories and another of 18. He was so good in 1968 that baseball had to change its rules.
Gibson compiled a modern-day best earned run average of 1.12 while winning 22 games and throwing 13 shutouts to lead a parade of pitching domi
nance in baseball and, for 1969, the height of the mound was lowered by 33 percent, from 15 inches to 10.
This didn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference, though to the hardthrowing righthander, who was 20-13 with a 2.18 ERA in 1969 while pitching 314 innings, nine more than his previous season and striking out 269 hitters, one more than he had in 1968.
But, he had leapt to the national forefront in 1964 when he worked five times, 40 innings’ worth, in a 14-day span, four of them starts, as he helped the Cardinals win the National League pennant by one game and then starred as the Cardinals beat the New York Yankees four games to three in the World Series, the Cardinals’ first Series crown since 1946.