BOB GIBSON, The Baseball Legend

Video: Bob Gibson RECORD SETTING 17K.

A 15-game winner by 1962, Gibson began to take flight soon after. He won 18 games in 1963, and 19 in the Cardinals’ pennant winning season of 1964, when he went 9-2 down the stretch to lead the Redbirds. In the World Series against the Yankees, he went 2-1, winning Game Five at Yankee Stadium and then Game Seven at home on two days rest. He was named World Series MVP.

He was a 20-game winner in 1965 and ’66, winning the first of nine consecutive gold gloves in ’65. A broken ankle in July of 1967 slowed him down to a 13-7 record, including three wins late in the season to help the Cards clinch another pennant. He went 3-0 with an e.r.a of 1.00 in the Cardinals victory over the Red Sox, winning games 1, 4, and 7, and picking up his second World Series MVP award in two tries.

1968 has come to be known as “The Year of the Pitcher,” and Bob Gibson was certainly the pitcher of the year. He went 22-9 with a sparkling ERA of 1.12, to go along with 268 strikeouts, 13 shutouts, 15 consecutive wins and a stretch of 92 innings in which he gave up just two runs. He was again 2-1 in the World Series, beating the Tigers in Games One and Four before going the distance in a Game Seven loss.

Gibson brought home both the 1968 Cy Young Award and the NL Most Valuable Player Awards, and, in the ultimate compliment, baseball actually lowered the mound the following season, because pitchers, led by Gibson, were dominating hitters and games were historically low-scoring.

Gibson bagged a second Cy Young Award in 1970, and pitched a no-hitter against the Pirates in 1971. Injuries were beginning to take their toll, however, and Gibson wound down with double figure victory totals in 1973 and ’74, before retiring in 1975. Gibson’s 17 years with the Cardinals netted 251 victories, 3,117 strikeouts, 56 shutouts, and an ERA of 2.91. He has served as a pitching coach for the Mets, Braves, and Cardinals. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981, and the MLB All-Century Team in 1999.

Joe Torre, Gibson’s teammate from 1969-’75 and a sometime battery mate, said “Pride, intensity, talent, respect, dedication. You need them all to describe Bob Gibson.”