Bob Gibson

Baseball career

Gibson began his professional career with the Omaha Cardinals of the American Association, a Triple-A affiliate, but struggled with a 4.29 ERA in his first ten games. He was reassigned to the Columbus Foxes of the South Atlantic League, where his ERA improved to 3.77 in eight starts. The next season, he was assigned to the Rochester Red Wings of the International League, posting a 2.45 ERA in twenty games with eleven starts and seven complete games.

After a return to Omaha, he recorded a 3.31 ERA in eleven starts and earned his first professional shutout. Gibson made his Major League debut on April 15, 1959, pitching two innings of relief against the Los Angeles Dodgers and allowing a home run to the first batter he faced, Jim Baxes.

He was soon reassigned to Omaha but returned on July 30 to make his first career start, earning a shutout victory over the Cincinnati Reds. In 1960, he pitched only nine innings for the Cardinals before shuffling between the majors and Rochester until mid-June, finishing with a 3–6 record and a 5.61 ERA. He then played winter baseball in Venezuela and later in Puerto Rico for the Cangrejeros de Santurce.

Career overall

From 1963 to 1970, Gibson posted a 156–81 record for a .658 winning percentage, winning nine Gold Glove Awards, the National League Cy Young Award in 1968 and 1970, and the National League MVP Award in 1968. His 1.12 ERA and 13 shutouts in 1968 are records in the live-ball era. For his career, he had a 251–174 record with a 2.91 ERA, 56 shutouts, 255 complete games, and 3,117 strikeouts in 3,884 1/3 innings across 482 starts. He holds Cardinals franchise pitching records for wins, games started, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched, and strikeouts.

As a hitter, he batted .206 with 24 home runs and 144 RBIs, and in 1970 he hit .303 in 109 at-bats. In three World Series and nine starts, he went 7–2 with a 1.89 ERA and 92 strikeouts, becoming the second player after Sandy Koufax to win two World Series MVP awards (1964 and 1967). He set a World Series record for most strikeouts in a seven-game series with 31, then broke it with 35, including a record 17 in Game 1. He is one of two pitchers to hit two home runs in World Series play.

Gibson worked quickly with an explosive delivery, relying on a slider and two- and four-seam fastballs, and was known for throwing brushback pitches but rarely hit batters deliberately.

Post-playing career

After the 1975 season, Cardinals general manager Bing Devine offered Gibson an undefined job contingent on approval from higher officials, but Gibson declined and was never offered another position by the Cardinals. He traveled the western United States in a motor home given as a retirement gift, then returned to Omaha to serve as chairman of the board for Community National Bank, a local bank serving the African-American community. He became principal investor in radio station KOWH and opened Gibson's Spirits and Sustenance restaurant, sometimes working 12-hour days.

He briefly worked as a television color commentator for the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association. In 1981, he accepted a coaching job from New York Mets manager Joe Torre, a former teammate, who called him an "attitude coach"; both were let go at season's end. Torre hired Gibson as pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves in 1982, and Gibson remained until 1984. He hosted a pre- and postgame show for Cardinals games on KMOX from 1985 to 1989, and served as a color commentator for ESPN in 1990 but declined to continue due to family time.

In 1995, he again served as pitching coach on a Torre-led staff with the Cardinals. With sportswriter Lonnie Wheeler, he co-wrote Sixty Feet, Six Inches with Reggie Jackson in 2009 and Pitch by Pitch in 2015, the latter describing Game 1 of the 1968 World Series.

Personal life

During his teenage years, his eyesight deteriorated severely, requiring eyeglasses, but he never wore them while pitching; catcher Tim McCarver would paint his fingernails so Gibson could see signs. He continued to live in Omaha due to discriminatory housing policies in St. Louis during his playing career. He hosted the Bob Gibson All-Star Classic golf tournament in Omaha for 12 years, raising millions for charities, and sat on the Board of Directors of the Baseball Assistance Team.

In 2002, he was involved in a road rage incident with Miguel Sanchez, and both were cited for third-degree assault after a fistfight at a gas station. In July 2019, it was announced that Gibson had pancreatic cancer; he died on October 2, 2020, at age 84 under hospice care. His funeral was private in Omaha, and his body was interred at Evergreen Memorial Park.

Did You Know?

• Gibson's father died of tuberculosis three months before his birth, and he was named Pack Robert Gibson in his honor; he later legally dropped the name Pack.
• As a child, Gibson had rickets and respiratory disease but was active in sports through teams coached by his brother Josh.
• Gibson was named one of the thirteen "Black Aces", African-American pitchers with a 20-win MLB season, by Mudcat Grant.