Dominance

 I found it interesting that a trade envelope that I was waiting for arrived on Saturday, with the first 10 cards of the '85 All-Star insert set from this years Series 2 flagship.   One of the 10 cards of the trade inside is a gentleman that passed away on Friday, Bob Gibson.

Since it's an All Star card, I'll focus on the 8 seasons that Bob was an All-Star.

1962--Just his second full season as a starter, he went 15-13 with a 2.85 ERA

He missed the team in 63-64, and then went on a 6 season run between 1965-70 which featured...

• 119-60 record
• Combined 2.44 ERA over those seasons
• Started 198 games, and completed 128 of them!!  That's just under 65% 
• 7.8K/9 innings, 2.5BB/9 innings
• 17 K's in a world series game, which still stands as the most by a pitcher in a WS game.
• 2 Cy Young awards
• 6 Gold Gloves
• 1968 MVP

That 1968 season, where his dominance likely changed the game forever as his 1.12 ERA helped the MLB braintrust come up with the idea of lowering the mound in order to level the playing field between hitter and pitcher.  

Some more fun stats about his dominance in 1968.  Everybody asks, how did he lose 9 times in 1968 with a 1.12 ERA?

• Some of the names he lost games to.  Drysdale.  Jenkins,  Gaylord Perry (twice, including a no hitter), Sutton, Fyman, Dierker
• His ERA in those 9 losses was 2.50.
• He lost one game in the 10th inning, 1-0
• He actually gave up 6 runs to the Pirates, in a complete game.  Take away this game and his other 8 losses he had a 2.09 ERA
• In those 9 losses, the Cardinals managed 12 runs total, including 4 in the 6-4 loss to the Pirates.

1972--His final AS Game at age 36, was the 10th season out of 11 where he won 15+ games.  He went 19-11 with a 2.46 ERA and finished ninth in Cy Young voting

Fantastic stuff to look up.  His was an arm like no other.  The tributes on TV and social media have been endless.  Mr. Gibson certainly earned them.

RIP Bob

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert