Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
Mickey Mantle and Bob Gibson.
It’s unfortunate for me, based on being a 1960 birth, that I never saw either player at their professional peak.
But those two Major League Baseball players, as much as any two athletes in any sport I can think of, are almost Shakspearean characters to me in terms of what they said, how they were depicted and what was said about them when they played, and for decades after.
The Yankee legend Mickey Mantle has been deceased for a quarter of a century.
Bob Gibson, the legendary St Louis Cardinals pitcher, passed away last week at age 84.
Among the quotes attributed to Bob Gibson;
“I owe the public just one thing – a good performance.”
“The two most important things in life: good friends and a strong bullpen.”
“Why do I have to be an example for your kid ? You be an example for your own kid.”
And my favorite, when Cardinal Manager Johnny Keane sent Catcher Tim McCarver to the mound one time, Gibson snorted, ” What are you doing here? Just give me the ball. The only thing you know about pitching is that it is hard to hit.”
Among the quotes about Bob Gibson, McCarver said, ” Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher in baseball. He is always pitching when the other team doesn’t score any runs.”
Vin Scully said, “Bob Gibson pitches as though he’s double parked.”
And umpire Doug Harvey said, ” Bob Gibson couldn’t pitch today because they wouldn’t let him. The way he’d throw inside, he’d be kicked out of the game in the first inning,
The first thing I did when I heard Bob Gibson died was order a copy of ” October 1964 ” by David Halberstam, a compelling comparison of the Cardinals and Yankees in the 1964 Major League season and World Series.
The cover has an artistic image of Bob Gibson pitching to Mickey Mantle……Or put another way, an image of Bob Gibson, who was black, pitching to Mickey Mantle, who was white, which was an underlying theme throughout the book.
Somewhere in time, Bob Gibson once was quoted as stating, “In a world filled with hate, prejudice, and protest, I find that I too am filled with hate, prejudice, and protest.”
Forty five years after his last pitch, the great Bob Gibson remains honest and admirable whether we’re talking about baseball or the world we lived in, or the world we live in now.
I’m Fred Wallace