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RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

G-Fafif Oct 02 2020 08:57 PM

Another Hall of Famer passes. Bob Gibson — MVP, Cy Young, personification of stubborn competitor and, of course, Mets assistant pitching coach in 1981 — is gone at 84.

Edgy MD Oct 02 2020 09:06 PM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Terrible. Gibson was part of the private dinner Seaver would throw every year at the Hall of Fame weekend, with Sandy Koufax, Gaylord Perry, and Warren Spahn. To hear him tell it, when folks came up to him at card shows to tell him how cool his reputed fierce and violent competition temperament was, and he had no idea what they were talking about.

Frayed Knot Oct 03 2020 04:07 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Another Seaver/Gibson Cooperstown story which managed to both illustrate how much they all loved that weekend but also Seaver's love of rough humor: GTS told the story of sitting around on Cooperstown weekend with a bunch of other pitchers and when Gibson walked by they refused to let him sit down because everyone at the table at that moment was a 300-game winner and Gibson wasn't so he (at least temporarily) was shunned.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 03 2020 04:45 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Trying to guess who might've been at that 300 table. There are 24 total 300 game winners-- many long gone. Five 300 game winners were Seaver's contemporaries: Carlton, Ryan, Niekro, Perry and Sutton. Seaver, Ryan and Koosman - do they hold the record for most lifetime wins by three teammates? I'm guessing no - because otherwise, I'd hear about it all the time.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 03 2020 05:04 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Don't know if I got the top # - but here are some winning trios: Seaver/Koosman/Ryan -------- 857 wins Gibson/Carlton/Reuss --------- 800 wins Ryan/Sutton/J. Niekro --------- 869 wins Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz ------- 873 wins Kaat/Blyleven/Tiant ------------799 wins

Fman99 Oct 03 2020 05:31 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Tough year for Keith, to lose Seaver and Brock and Gibson all in the last few months.

MFS62 Oct 03 2020 05:54 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Another Hall of Famer passes. Bob Gibson — MVP, Cy Young, personification of stubborn competitor and, of course, Mets assistant pitching coach in 1981 — is gone at 84. Very sad. I would change "stubborn" to "fierce". The look in his eyes when he pitched said it all. Later

batmagadanleadoff Oct 03 2020 06:33 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Gibson and Brock were both Harlem Globetrotters.

Benjamin Grimm Oct 03 2020 06:52 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

If these things happen in threes, then Seaver/Brock/Gibson is certainly an example of that. But you can look at this as two sets of two: Seaver and Gibson and Brock and Gibson. In that case, Steve Carlton has to be doubly worried as he would complete two trios.

Johnny Lunchbucket Oct 03 2020 07:20 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1980/09/22/distance This is a great GREAT baseball article

MFS62 Oct 03 2020 07:32 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1980/09/22/distance This is a great GREAT baseball article By a great writer, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday. Thanks. Later

G-Fafif Oct 03 2020 08:04 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Gibson fiercely hit, too. https://retrosimba.com/2016/03/22/bob-gibson-and-his-mighty-home-run-seasons/

dinosaur jesus Oct 03 2020 08:06 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Respect to Gibson. I must have seen him pitch on TV, but somehow it didn't register. I'm sorry about that, because he was incredible. =batmagadanleadoff post_id=47918 time=1601721933 user_id=68] Trying to guess who might've been at that 300 table. There are 24 total 300 game winners-- many long gone. Five 300 game winners were Seaver's contemporaries: Carlton, Ryan, Niekro, Perry and Sutton. Seaver, Ryan and Koosman - do they hold the record for most lifetime wins by three teammates? I'm guessing no - because otherwise, I'd hear about it all the time.

Perry, Spahn, and Marichal were on the 1965 Giants. They had 920 wins. But it's going to be hard to beat the 1894 Cleveland Spiders, who had Cy Young, John Clarkson, and Tony Mullane. That's 1123 wins.

Edgy MD Oct 03 2020 08:57 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Gibson and Brock were both Harlem Globetrotters. Are you sure about Brock? I know Ferguson Jenkins was a Trotter. In fact, after hearing the bad news about Gibson, this card sprung to mind. [fimg=400]https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0903/7868/products/20161123_121434_1024x1024.jpg?v=1527169760[/fimg] Seaver's joke about his Hall of Fame pitcher's weekend was that Gibson and Koufax were called the #4 and #5 pitchers at the table because they were the only two without 300 wins. I don't know if that's conflated with the story above where he didn't let Gibson sit down, or if Seaver really liked to repeatedly bust Gibson's balls on the same subject.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 03 2020 09:04 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Edgy MD wrote: Gibson and Brock were both Harlem Globetrotters. Are you sure about Brock? I know Ferguson Jenkins was a Trotter. Positive. El Dorado-native Lou Brock, former professional baseball player and member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, played a few games with the Globetrotters after winning a World Series title in 1967 with the St. Louis Cardinals. https://www.eldoradonews.com/news/2020/feb/11/harlem-globetrotters-return-el-dorado-next-week/ Also, I have a picture of Brock in a Trotter satin jacket and, I think, spinning a basketball on his finger. I'll look for it later.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 03 2020 09:12 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Edgy MD wrote: Gibson and Brock were both Harlem Globetrotters. Are you sure about Brock? I know Ferguson Jenkins was a Trotter. In fact, after hearing the bad news about Gibson, this card sprung to mind. [fimg=400]https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0903/7868/products/20161123_121434_1024x1024.jpg?v=1527169760[/fimg] Seaver was a Trotter? Are you sure?

Edgy MD Oct 03 2020 11:28 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

No, the card just flashed into my head and I got worried and checked to make sure Jenkins is healthy. Bill James did a short essay about Gibson and Jenkins being with the Globetrotters at different times. Jenkins' tenure was more of a gimmick, but Gibson, unsurprisingly, could really play. It seems odd that he missed that there was a third MLB Hall-of-Famer with a Globetrotting background.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 04 2020 12:32 AM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If these things happen in threes, then Seaver/Brock/Gibson is certainly an example of that. But you can look at this as two sets of two: Seaver and Gibson and Brock and Gibson. In that case, Steve Carlton has to be doubly worried as he would complete two trios. Hall of Famer Joe Torre, too. Teammate of Brock and Gibson on the Cards and teammate of Seaver and Gibson on the Mets. In fact, it was Torre who offered Gibson the coaching gig on the Mets.

G-Fafif Oct 04 2020 04:56 PM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

If you had Steve Zabriskie in the Met connection to Bob Gibson pool, this article's for you. As we celebrate the life and remarkable baseball career of Gibson, the Hall of Fame pitcher who died Friday night at 84 after battling cancer, one chapter of Gibson's story that is mostly forgotten is his sports broadcasting career. He and Zabriskie worked together in 1990 calling games for ESPN. It was Gibson's second foray into sports broadcasting. Fourteen years earlier, Gibson worked as an analyst for ABC's “Monday Night Baseball” as part of a backup team with Al Michaels and Norm Cash. Of Gibson the rookie TV broadcaster, Sports Illustrated media writer William Leggett wrote in May 1976 that he “is a rarity among broadcasters in that he does not talk unless he has something worth saying.” Gibson's year with ESPN coincided with the company's first as a national baseball rights holder. The $400 million deal gave ESPN the right to televise as many as 175 games a season, including spring training. The network needed on-air talent, and Gibson and Zabriskie were assigned to call the Wednesday night games. (The other ESPN announcers that year included game-callers Chris Berman, Bob Carpenter, Sean McDonough, Jon Miller, Steve Physioc and Gary Thorne and analysts Dave Campbell, Norm Hitzges, Tommy Hutton, Mike Lupica, Ray Knight, Joe Morgan, Jim Palmer and Bill Robinson.) Zabriskie said Gibson approached broadcasting very much from a pitching perspective. “That's where he lived, and it was apparent from time to time that he was not a fan of hitters,” Zabriskie said, laughing. “He sometimes tried to downplay that a little bit, but it was obvious that there was still a competitive fire that burned in him. It would still bubble to the surface a bit when he would have some issue with a hitter. But he was always fair. He was always objective. He didn't have any dog in a fight. He called it like it was. I think that the best analysts are people who really love the game and allow that to come through. I think that's one reason why Timmy (McCarver) was so successful because it was apparent that he loved the game. And Bob had a lot of that, too. He was true to himself. I think what makes a really good analyst is whether you agree with what they come up with regarding the game or the circumstances or the philosophy or the strategy, you have to admire the fact that they are committed to it and they stick to their guns. That was the kind of analyst Bob was.” Zabriskie said he first met Gibson in the 1980s during a road trip to St. Louis when Zabriskie was the television voice of the New York Mets. Zabriskie and McCarver worked together on the Mets broadcasts, and as many baseball fans know, McCarver played for years with Gibson in St. Louis and was a close friend of the Hall of Fame pitcher. McCarver invited Zabriskie to go to dinner one night with him and Gibson — and Zabriskie and Gibson hit it off. “I think the fact that Tim was such a good friend of his and because they were so tight, I was accepted by Bob,” Zabriskie said. “But he and I hit it off right away.” https://theathletic.com/2112826/2020/10/03/steve-zabriskie-bob-gibson-was-always-true-to-himself-as-a-baseball-analyst/

Edgy MD Oct 04 2020 06:35 PM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

Gibson, Zabriskie, Gary Thorne, Mike Loop, Ray Knight, and Bill Robinson. Having the Mets on your résumé must have shone pretty nicely during a December 1989 hiring spree.

Frayed Knot Oct 04 2020 07:01 PM Re: RIP Bob Gibson, 1935-2020

And of course, most of the best and most numerous Bob Gibson stories came via McCarver. The one I most remember was one where McCarver talks about an early meeting between the two. Gibson is nearly six years older but they debuted in the bigs the very same year (1959) McCarver, as a "bonus baby", was up by age 17 and had been signed for a lot more money than Gibson, the college man with less leverage (except maybe for his Globetrotters option). As a way to tweak McCarver, Gibson asked for a sip of the soda Timmy was drinking one day on a team bus. McCarver, the son of a cop (or was it fireman?) from then still very segregated Memphis, said he could only look at the large black lips on Gibson and think about what he was taught as a kid about the (lack of) cleanliness of negroes and what diseases they might carry. So he hemmed and hawed for a moment before settling on ... well, I'll save you a bit when I got towards the end as a way of sharing without risking getting the can back afterward. Gibson's sly 'I got you' grin at that reaction showed it was exactly the reaction he was searching for, and in front of an audience no less. They'd go on to become good friends of course and good on McCarver to tell that story on himself years after the fact rather than attempt to re-write not just his own history and upbringing but also that of many kids of his era and background.