Gibby and Lou Brock were my childhood heroes. It's been a difficult month losing both of them but I have known their health has been failing for a few years. I'm glad they are not suffering.
Back in the 60's I started to follow the Cardinals because of my dad but I stayed because of the great teams and men like Gibson. His fiery temperament amazed me. He wouldn't let his son win when they played checkers. He had to win at everything. He was on the Globetrotters but quit after one year because he wanted to win and they wanted to put on a show. When ever they passed the ball to him he went straight to the basket and shot.
He wrote (or had someone write for him) a book called "From Ghetto to Glory". It was in my grade school's library. I read it a couple of times. It taught me a lot.
He explained how he would sign an autograph for anyone who asked my not to be rude about it. If he's eating dinner wait until he was finished. People often times asked him how much money he made. When he wouldn't say many replied it was too much money. He spoke of living in the ghetto in Tulsa. I was amazed. I thought ghettos were only in large cities. He told of the time he was bitten by a rat. I could not imagine having rats in our home. I first learned of racism from the pages of his book. It was fascinating to me as I had never experienced it. He talked about going to Spring Training in Florida in the 50's and 60's and not being able to stay at the same hotel with the rest of the team or eat in the same restaurants. He resisted but did so with dignity. I guess that is one of the reasons I am troubled by the racial troubles of today. Men like Gibson and King accomplished more with little or no violence.
I have thought about his book a great deal over the years. About 10 years ago I was delighted to find it on the bookshelf at a local library and when I flipped through the pages I was stunned to discover it was a book written for children. I never noticed it when I first read it. What a great idea.
Rick Hummel is a long time writer for the St Louis Post Dispatch. He has a lot of the comments KRK mentioned already but
here's a little more: (In the 1964 World Series)
Gibson pitched 27 innings in three Series games. One of the starts went eight innings but his second went 10 as he won Game Five, 5-2. Then he came back on two days’ rest and worked a complete-game 7-5 win in Game Seven.
“That last game ... I was tired,” admitted Gibson.
With that putout (in 1964), Gibson had started a string of pitching nine-inning complete games in the World Series. In 1967 and 1968, he pitched six times, with all of them complete games.
Because of Gibson I thought every teams best pitcher was supposed to pitch games 1,5 and 7. Well that was before the playoffs were expanded and you needed him to pitch in the earlier series too so things changed.
It wasn't until years later I learned some of the great stories about Bob.
When a catcher, even longtime batterymate Tim McCarver would come to the mound, to ask a question, or, dare to offer a suggestion, Gibson was said to have snarled, “The only thing you know about pitching is that it’s hard to hit.”
After outfielder Mike Shannon was switched to third base, Shannon came to the mound on Opening Day to ask Gibson where to play a certain hitter. Gibson said, “Don’t worry about it.”
Shannon replied, “What do you mean?”
Replied Gibson, “I won’t let them hit the ball to you.” And, basically, he didn’t. Shannon rarely had a chance when Gibson was pitching, other than when Gibson needed a double play against a righthanded pull hitter.
There are hundreds of other stories.
I was sad that he stayed too long in the game. When I look at Favre clinging to the game it reminded me of Gibson. They have such a fire it's hard for them to turn it off.
His career ERA was 2.91. His last full season as a starter was 1974. He was 38 and his ERA was 3.83. His WHIP 1.417. His career average was 1.188. Clearly he had lost it and yet he came back one more year. After a few starts they put him in the bullpen. That was a slap in his face from his perspective but his ERA 5.04 and WHIP 1.670. He retired mid season.
One more thing I remember was laying on the floor listening to the radio and he frequently would strike out all 3 batters on just 9 pitches. I thought that was typical. Ah the ignorance of youth.