I was able to sneak in another Baseball Seasons episode this weekend; the year was 1968. The title of the episode was The Year of the Pitcher. I knew I’d like this one; I love pitching. Then I remembered who the dominant pitcher of the time was, and the team he played for…
Yep, it was Bob Gibson; man, he was good. Remember the year Jake Arrieta was dominant? His numbers were being compared to Bob Gibson. Well, the year in question was 1968. Gibson finished the year at 22-9, which doesn’t sound THAT impressive. Yet, a peek at his ERA will tell you why that season was one of the best ever turned in by a pitcher. 1.12! Yeah, really. That’s just nuts. Imagine the 9 losses… what were they? 1-0, 2-0 losses? Gibson owned the 60s pretty much. He lead the Cardinals to a World Series title in 1964, winning Game 7. He lead the Cardinals to a World Series title in 1967, winning Game 7. He would lead the Cardinals to another World Series in 1968 AND pitch in another Game 7. Gibson won the NL Cy Young AND the NL MVP during the year.
On the other side of things, in the AL, you had another guy dominating. Denny McClain had 31 wins for the Tigers. He too, won both the Cy Young and MVP awards, further proving the title of this episode. He would lead the Tigers to the World Series facing off against Gibson in Game 1 of the Series. What a dream matchup for pitching lovers. They weren’t the only ones though. You had Luis Tiant and Don Drysdale; you had some rookie named Nolan Ryan. You had a perfect game, 4 no-hitters, 13 one-hitters, and 48 two-hitters. Insane! It was after this year that MLB had to lower the mound, to help the offense score runs and make the game more “exciting”. I don’t know about you… I love offense, sure, but nothing tops seeing a great pitcher’s duel. Plenty of them this year…
But in time of purchasing the medicine from online you have to register your name and address online with phone numbers, the medicine will reach you in few days across the globe. cialis tadalafil online look at here now viagra samples More so, there are plenty of experienced and highly qualified doctors and nurses. Interestingly, a http://seanamic.com/qhse/ viagra 50 mg majority of impotence issues are completely unable to get a perfect penile erection even after being sexually aroused. These medications order cheap viagra straight from the source are primarily used for treatment of candida/ thrush are safe) Where can I keep my medicine? Keep out of reach of children.I thought the Cards were going to repeat, especially going up in the series 3-1. At the time, only 2 teams had came back from that deficit; we know of another team that did this in 2016… Yes, Gibson absolutely dominated the Tigers in the first game, shutting them out, setting a World Series record with 17 strikeouts. In Game 4, he was off his game a bit, giving up 1 run… haha, but still getting another win. For the Tigers, it was another pitcher, not McClain, who would end up being the hero. Left hander Mickey Lolich who won Game 2 would be asked to win Game 5 to keep the Tigers hopes alive. The Tigers trailed late, but would prevail, closing the gap to 3-2. After losing to Gibson in Games 1 & 4, McClain would finally get a win in Game 6; easy to pitch with a 13 run lead. The Tigers clobbered them, setting up the final game.
It would be Gibson, who won this deciding game in the 1964 & 1967 Series, against Mickey Lolich who had won 2 games in this series. The game didn’t disappoint. The first six innings were scoreless, as the pitcher’s duel lived up to its billing. Then in the 7th, the Tigers finally broke through. They scored 3 runs off Gibson. The big blow was a catchable flyball that was missed in center field after Curt Flood stumbled and got a bad jump. Yep, the Tigers did it; they came back from 3-1… they beat Gibson… they beat the Cardinals to win the Series. I was happily surprised with the outcome. I know I won’t be as excited for the next episode focusing on 1969…
I think it’s safe to say we’ll never see another year like 1968. Yes, the mound was lowered for one, but starting pitchers aren’t the same, at least they’re not treated the same. There was no bullpen… there was no pitch counts. These guys would go the whole way, short rest, whatever. They were warriors on the mound; I love it. Now, we have to worry about that 100 pitch count, or the 6 inning quality start before the cavalcade of bullpen pitchers. I would much rather prefer starter vs starter, for better or worse; well, maybe not this year for the Cubs… Yeah, the game has changed, and that’s OK, but man… to be alive to watch these guys throw the ball for 9 innings game in game out; that would have been cool. OK, there was something else going on this weekend… hmm, what could it have been?
Leave a Reply