In a display of strength and versatility that would be unimaginable today, Bob Gibson in 1965 pitched 13 innings in a start vs. the Giants on July 7, pitched four innings of relief against the Cubs on July 11 and, two days later, earned a save with two innings of relief in the All-Star Game.
Well aware of Gibson’s workload, the Phillies’ Gene Mauch, National League manager, never hesitated to call on the Cardinals ace to protect a 6-5 lead over the final two innings of the 1965 All-Star Game in Minnesota.
“Bob Gibson thinks he can get anybody in the world _ and I do, too,” Mauch told the Associated Press.
Grateful for Gibson’s save, the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax, who got the win in that All-Star Game, good-naturedly said to Gibson, “Why don’t you quit starting? There’s a heck of a future in relieving for you.”
NL fireballers
The National League unleashed an array of hard throwers on the American League. Juan Marichal of the Giants started and was followed by the Reds’ Jim Maloney, Dodgers teammates Don Drysdale and Koufax and the Astros’ Turk Farrell before Gibson entered in the eighth. The AL scored all of its runs off Maloney.
Gibson, the Cardinals’ lone all-star representative in 1965, retired the first two batters he faced, striking out the Tigers’ Willie Horton and getting the Yankees’ Bobby Richardson on a groundout. Then he walked the Twins’ Zoilo Versalles. Bill Freehan of the Tigers followed with a single to center. When the throw from Willie Mays went to third, Freehan took second, putting two runners in scoring position for the next batter, the Twins’ Jimmie Hall.
A left-handed batter who would have his third consecutive season of 20 or more home runs in 1965, Hall hit a shot to center. Mays started for the ball, slipped and then barely recovered in time to make a leaping, backhanded catch, ending the inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Twins’ Tony Oliva led off with a double. Attempting a bunt, the Indians’ Max Alvis popped out to Gibson for the first out.
Gibby vs. Killer
That brought to the plate Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew. The partisan crowd at Metropolitan Stadium was abuzz at the prospect of their favorite player and prodigious home run hitter driving in his Twins teammate Oliva from second with the tying run. No doubt, many among the 46,706 hoped _ or even anticipated _ that the player nicknamed “Killer” might connect off Gibson with a walkoff, game-winning home run.
Instead, Killebrew struck out.
Killebrew told United Press International that Gibson had “a lot of mustard” on his fastball. “The ball just seemed to drop under my bat,” Killebrew said.
To the Associated Press, Killebrew added, “For a guy who said he couldn’t pitch because he worked (two days before), that Gibson fired pretty good. I missed a slider and then he just threw a fastball past me for the strikeout.”
Al Lopez, the AL manager, sent a left-handed pinch-hitter, the Yankees’ Joe Pepitone, to bat next.
Gibson struck him out, sealing the win. Boxscore
Throwing heat
In describing to the Associated Press how he pitched Pepitone, Gibson said, “The first two sliders were up and in. They aren’t going to do a darn thing with it if it goes in there. If it doesn’t get in there, that’s a different story. The last pitch was a fastball. That was in there.”
Said an impressed Lopez: “Gibson really fired the ball.”
In the clubhouse, NL catcher Joe Torre of the Braves soaked his left hand in warm water to ease the soreness from having so many fastballs slam into his mitt.
“I had some real hummers coming out of the bullpen,” Torre told The Sporting News. “The hand really hurts.”
Said Gibson: “I got to admit he was catching some sizzlers.”
Previously: As all-stars, only two hit Bob Gibson more than once
Previously: Battle of wills: Bob Gibson, Gene Mauch play hardball
Previously: Stan Musial, Harmon Killebrew visit Vietnam
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