1967 World Series

Background

This was the sixth meeting between teams from Boston and St. Louis for a major professional sports championship. The Red Sox, known as the "Impossible Dream" team, were led by triple crown winner Carl Yastrzemski, who won the MVP award, and Cy Young Award winner Jim Lonborg. Boston reached the World Series after a dramatic four-team pennant race that went down to the final week, with the Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, and Chicago White Sox all within one game of each other.

The White Sox lost their last five games, and Boston swept the Twins in the final two games while needing the Angels to split a doubleheader with Detroit to claim their first pennant since 1946. The Cardinals won 101 games en route to the National League pennant, featuring All-Stars Orlando Cepeda (the N.L. MVP), Lou Brock, Tim McCarver, Bob Gibson, Roger Maris, and Curt Flood. Twenty-two-year-old Steve Carlton won 14 games in his first full season.

The Cardinals overcame the absence of Bob Gibson, who missed nearly one-third of the season with a broken leg suffered when hit by a ball off Roberto Clemente's bat. Nelson Briles filled in brilliantly, winning nine consecutive games as St. Louis led the N.L. comfortably and finished 10 1/2 games ahead of the San Francisco Giants.

Summary

Pitching dominated the series. Bob Gibson allowed only three total runs over three complete games. Jim Lonborg pitched complete-game wins in Games 2 and 5, allowing only one run total. In Game 1, facing José Santiago, Gibson and St. Louis won 2–1; Maris knocked in both runs with grounders, and Santiago homered off Gibson.

In Game 2, Yastrzemski hit two homers, but Lonborg retired the first 19 Cardinals, lost a no-hitter on a Julián Javier double in the eighth, and settled for a one-hit shutout. In St. Louis, the Cardinals took Games 3 and 4: Briles pitched a 5–2 victory with a two-run homer by Mike Shannon, and Gibson tossed a 6–0 shutout with two RBIs each by Maris and McCarver. Lonborg kept Boston alive with a 3–1 win in Game 5, pitching two-hit shutout ball until Maris homered in the ninth.

In Game 6 at Fenway, Dick Hughes gave up a record three homers in one inning—Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith, and Rico Petrocelli—and Brock tied the game with a two-run homer in the seventh, but Boston scored four in the bottom of the inning to win 8–4, tying the series. The Cardinals set a World Series record by using eight pitchers in Game 6.

Matchups

Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, both Massachusetts natives, attended Game 1. Bob Gibson (13–7, 2.98), who missed July and August with a broken leg, started for the Cardinals; 21-year-old José Santiago (12–4, 3.59) started for Boston because Jim Lonborg had pitched the final day of the regular season. Santiago had won seven straight second-half games. In Game 1, the Cardinals scored in the third on a Lou Brock single, Curt Flood double, and a Roger Maris groundout.

Boston tied it in the bottom of the third when Santiago homered to left center. Gibson was masterful the rest of the way, finishing with ten strikeouts, six hits, and one walk. In the seventh, Brock singled, stole second, and scored on groundouts by Flood and Maris for a 2–1 Cardinal win. Lonborg, who won the Cy Young Award with an A.L.-best 22 wins, 246 strikeouts, and a 3.16 ERA, started Game 2.

He retired the first 19 Cardinals until a seventh-inning walk to Flood. After two groundouts in the eighth, Javier doubled down the left-field line to break up the no-hitter. Lonborg retired the side in order in the ninth, giving up one hit and one walk with four strikeouts.

Aftermath

This was the first non-exhibition meeting between MLB teams from St. Louis and Boston since the departures of the Boston Braves and St. Louis Browns after the 1952 and 1953 seasons. It was also the last time a St. Louis-based team defeated a Boston-based team in a professional sports championship until the St. Louis Blues beat the Boston Bruins in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final. The series was the Cardinals' first not played in Sportsman's Park, which closed in 1966; it was the first of six World Series played in Busch Memorial Stadium (Busch Stadium II), which opened that year.

The Cardinals returned to the World Series in 1968, blowing a 3–1 lead and losing to the Detroit Tigers in seven games. They next won a championship in 1982 over the Milwaukee Brewers. The Red Sox returned to the World Series in 1975 and 1986, losing both in seven games.

Did You Know?

• Ken Brett, older brother of George Brett, became the youngest pitcher in World Series history at age 19 years, 20 days, pitching in Games 4 and 7 without allowing a hit or run.