This one deserves its own thread.
Bob Gibson died on Friday, October 2, 2020 after a fight with pancreatic cancer.
Gibson was probably the best and most dominant righthanded pitcher of the 1960s and into the early 1970s (and as a Dodger fan, it pains me to say that, but Don Drysdale was pretty clearly #2 to Gibson).
His 1968 season was one of the best in modern baseball history. 22-9 record with a 1.12 ERA over more than 300 innings pitched, with 268 strikeouts. His ERA in the 9 games that he lost was 2.43, and 5 of his 9 losses were against other Hall of Fame pitchers In game 1 of the 1968 World Series, Gibson struck out 17 batters (still a World Series record) in a 4-0 complete game shutout against the only guy with a claim to a better season.*
Gibson retired after the 1975 season with 251 wins, a 2.91 career ERA, and 3,117 strikeouts, as well as 2 Cy Young awards and an MVP. He was also the World Series MVP in 1964 and 1967 (against the Yankees and the Red Sox). He stayed active with the Cardinals until the end of his life, including working with Jack Flaherty. When someone commented to Flaherty that he had a sub-1.00 ERA for the second half of the 2019 season, Flaherty responded with, "yeah, but it wasn't 1.12 over 162."
Gibson's last season was the first year I watched baseball closely, so to me, he is a true legend of the game. RIP.
* - Denny McLain finished 1968 with a 31-6 record and a 1.96 ERA. Both Gibson and McLain won the Cy Young and MVP that year.
Topic: RIP Bob Gibson (Read 991 times)
