(Updated April 7, 2020)
At 39, his knees aching and his arm suspected of lacking its familiar zip, Bob Gibson made what he knew was his last Opening Day start for the Cardinals and delivered a performance in which he overpowered and fooled batters barely more than half his age.
On April 7, 1975, Gibson made the last of 11 consecutive Opening Day starts for the Cardinals. He struck out 12 Expos in eight innings, but took the loss in Montreal’s 8-4 victory at St. Louis.
Before the season began, Gibson had said 1975 would be his last year as a player.
In spring training at St. Petersburg, Fla., he told the Newspaper Enterprise Association, “I’d be a fool if I said I’m as good as I’ve ever been. But I wasn’t all that bad last season. I’ve been playing ball for something like 30 years _ 30 years! _ and I’m tired … Last season, I had my knee drained 22 times before almost every start and that’s tiring.”
Gibson had been the Cardinals’ Opening Day starting pitcher every year since 1965. (In the 1966 opener, Gibson started against the Phillies and pitched a perfect inning before the game was called off because of rain.)
In the zone
The 1975 opener matched Gibson against an Expos club that started seven players ages 24 or younger: shortstop Tim Foli (24), catcher Barry Foote (23), left fielder Tony Scott (23), second baseman Pete Mackanin (23), center fielder Pepe Mangual (22), third baseman Larry Parrish (21) and Gary Carter, a catching prospect who got the start in right field the night before his 21st birthday.
After seven innings, the Cardinals led, 4-3. Gibson struck out at least one batter in each of those innings. He struck out the side in the second.
In the eighth, Carter grounded out and Mackanin struck out, giving Gibson a dozen strikeouts in a game for the first time since he compiled 14 versus the Giants on Aug. 30, 1972.
With two outs and none on, Parrish singled to center. Larry Biittner, pinch-hitting for pitcher Dave McNally, singled to left.
Scott, a switch-hitter who would play for the Cardinals from 1977-81, was up next. He was 0-for-3 in his first game against Gibson.
Batting left-handed, Scott fell behind in the count 0-and-2. Gibson was a strike away from escaping the jam and preserving the lead.
His next pitch was high and Scott slashed at it, driving the ball down the line and into the left-field corner for a two-run double, putting the Expos ahead, 5-4.
“That was the first time I’d faced Gibson,” Scott told The Sporting News. “The only time I’d seen him was on TV. I like to hit off him because he’s always around the plate. He works so fast it seems like he doesn’t even take the sign.”
Gallant effort
Gibson was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the eighth. In the ninth, Carter hit a three-run home run off Elias Sosa, making his Cardinals debut after being acquired from the Giants.
Gibson’s line: 8 innings, 9 hits, 5 runs, 5 walks, 12 strikeouts.
It was the 72nd and final time Gibson achieved double-digit strikeouts in a game.
“That’s as great as I’ve seen him pitch since ’73,” Expos manager Gene Mauch said to the Associated Press. “He mixed his pitches beautifully and threw the ball hard when he had to.”
Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “It compares to nothing I’ve seen from him for a while.”
Said Carter, who was 5 years old when Gibson made his big-league debut in 1959: “Bob Gibson had good stuff out there. He’s a fantastic pitcher.”
Gibson threw 151 pitches.
“I guess my stuff was all right,” Gibson said to Steve Porter of the Alton (Ill.) Telegraph, “but I don’t care what I’ve done unless we win the game.” Boxscore
RetroSimba 
That was the only Cardinals’ season opener that I ever attended. I remember Carter wearing a batting helmet while playing right field. Elias Sosa and Ed Brinkman were that year’s pennant-winning solutions. They-along with Ray Sadecki-would be long gone before the late August and September collapse. Gibson was done by Labor Day, and McNally was also finished early.
Very cool that you attended that game. Several prominent names on the way out (Bob Gibson, Dave McNally, Ray Sadecki) and on the way up (Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez, among others). Thanks for commenting about it.