One of the greatest pitchers of all time Bob Gibson turns 77 today.  Bob Gibson pitched his entire career with the St.Louis Cardinals from 1959-75. His win-loss record was 251-174 with a 2.91 ERA. He was a 2 time Cy Young Award winner, a 9 time All-Star, a 2 time World Series MVP[1964 and 67} and was a key member of two World Championship St. Louis Cardinal teams.He pitched a no-hitter in 1971 against that seasons champion Pittsburgh Pirates. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility 1981.

Bob Gibson was a pitcher you wanted to hand the ball in a big game. He was outstnading in the big games {the two MVP Awards in World Series tell it all} He was also one of the most intimidating pitchers ever. If you dug in against Gibson you were going down. He owned the plate. They say at All-Star games he was never friendly with the players from the other team. They may be on this team that day but the next day they would once again be the enemy. Of all the pitchers I’ve seen he would be my pick as the best pitcher I’ve ever seen.

Bob Gibson’s 1968 season is obscene. His ERA was a record 1.12 He started 34 games and completed 28 of those games. He led the league in strikeouts with 268. He pitched 13 shutouts. His record was 22-9. How in the world did he lose 9 games??? In the 9 games he lost his ERA was 2.14. His losses for the most part were because of poor run support and shabby defense behind him. Had the Cardinals scored 4 runs in each of this games he would have gone 30-2. In June and July he pitched 99 innings and gave up 2 runs.

below is an analysis of Bob Gibson’s 1968

http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2005/06/gibson_was_grea_1.php