If there was ever a time during Major League Baseball’s long and storied history that a player seemed super-human for one season, it was Bob Gibson. The year was 1968.
The St. Louis Cardinals were the defending World Series Champions and Gibson was the hero who single-handily took down the Boston Red Sox. He started three games and completed all of them, including a Game 7 gem in which he struck out ten batters.
The 1968 Cardinals were the preseason favorites to repeat as champions and the baseball world was curious what Gibson had in store for an encore. Nobody would be disappointed.
When the Cardinals arrived in Philadelphia on Sunday night, August 18, they were already running away with the National League pennant – 13 1/2 clear of the second place Cincinnati Reds. The Phillies, meanwhile, were wallowing in mediocrity.
Looming for the Phillies in the first game of the series was none other than Bob Gibson. When the clubs took the field at Connie Mack Stadium on this warm, humid night, the untouchable Gibson had other-worldly numbers. He had won 14 consecutive decisions, had nine shutouts, and was 17-5 with a 1.04 ERA. The Phillies had a hill to climb most nights, but this was Mount Everest!
The Cardinals broke through in the top of the second inning. With one out, Phillies left-hander Woodie Fryman walked Mike Shannon. Tim McCarver followed with a single to right, moving Shannon to second base. Ron Davis, filling in for an ailing Curt Flood, promptly followed with a single through the hole on the left side of the infield, scoring Shannon and giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. It would be all Gibby needed.
Once Gibson got his run, it was ‘game over.’ As the innings rolled on and the strikeouts piled up, a buzz could be heard among the 12,278 patrons at the venerable ballpark – the Phillies don’t have a hit yet.
The Phillies came to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning searching for their first hit of the game. Catcher Clay Dalrymple led off by bouncing a come-backer to Gibson for the first out. Next up was relief pitcher John Boozer, a .162 career hitter. (Boozer pitched six innings in relief of Fryman who was removed after the second inning with a sore shoulder.) Boozer grounded a ball up the middle that evaded the reach of shortstop Dal Maxvill and second baseman Julian Javier. Gibby was peeved, “I did something I try not to do…I just laid the ball in there.”
The Cardinals pushed across another run in the top of the eighth inning when Davis singled to center field, scoring pinch runner Bobby Tolan for his second RBI of the game. Phillies outfielder Johnny Callison, pinch hitting for Boozer, singled to right in the top of the eighth inning. Tony Taylor came up next, representing the tying run. Gibson got him to loft a fly ball to Davis in center field for the final out of the inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, Gibson retired Cookie Rojas, John Briggs, and Dick Allen to complete his masterpiece in a tidy 2 hours and 19 minutes. Of the final out of the game, a strikeout of Allen, Gibson said that the slider he threw must have, “broke at least a foot.” He threw nothing but fastballs and sliders. Gibson’s historic season continued – he was now 18-5, 0.996 (1.00) ERA, ten shutouts, with 21 complete games in 26 starts. It was his 15th consecutive victory – he had not lost since May 28 against Gaylord Perry and the San Francisco Giants.
The middle of the Phillies batting order – John Briggs, Dick Allen, and Bill White – combined to go 0-10 with 8 strikeouts. (Gibson finished the game with 11 strikeouts.) He made quick work of Allen and White. Allen struck out four consecutive times on just 14 pitches and White struck out three times on 11 pitches. Gibson faced just four batters over the minimum and only one Phillies base runner reached second base.
As the scribes descended upon both clubhouses for post-game interviews, one word was used to describe what had just transpired, “overpowering!” Unbeatable, untouchable, unhittable, would also work. Anybody who witnessed this gem in person knew they had just witnessed greatness.
– Alex Cheremeteff
