#150 - Bob Gibson

Card fact: This is the final card of Bob Gibson during his career. Of course, through the magic of the hobby's never-ending retro craze, there are many, many new cards of Gibson long after his retirement.

What I thought about this card then: Never saw it. Even though he appears on one of those MVP subset cards that I saw when I was a kid, Gibson the player never registered when I was youth. Legendary baseball writer Roger Angell introduced me to Gibson many years later.

What I think about this card now: I acquired this card early in my quest to complete the set about six years ago. A person at work traded it to me. It's in surprisingly good shape and I didn't give up much to get it. I was quite pleased with the deal, which also brought me the '75 Lou Brock card.

Also, what a great color combo to use with Gibson! It works perfectly.

Other stuff: If I was forced to come up with my favorite pitcher of all-time who was not a Dodger, I think I'd pick Gibson. I absolutely admire his domination and his refusal to back down to the hitter. I love his no-nonsense attitude and his unwillingness to compromise. The game was survival to him. He wasn't making a conscious effort to be intimidating. He was doing what he thought he had to do to succeed. But, make no mistake about it, "Hoot" was mean to opponents and surly to teammates.

Gibson's final season was in 1975. He went 3-10 with an ERA over 5 and he announced that he would retire at the end of the season. In his final appearance, he came on in relief in a 6-6 game and surrendered a grand slam to Pete LaCock that won the game for the Cubs. According to his wikipedia page, Gibson said, "When I gave up a grand slam to Pete LaCock, I knew it was time to quit."

Classic.

(Edit: Bob Gibson died at age 84 on Oct. 2, 2020).

Back facts: Not too many losing seasons in there. Between 1960 and 1974, he won more games than he lost every year.

Other blog stuff: The No. 1 song in the country on this date in 1975 was "My Eyes Adored You," by Frankie Valli. More sappiness from the mid-70s.

#3 - '74 Highlights, Bob Gibson

Is there anything better than listening to "Disco Inferno" when posting on the '75 Topps blog? I mean, I know there are better songs, but I'm talking about feelin' tha funk, ya dig?

Card fact: Bob Gibson is the third player featured here who has two cards in the set. I can't say that about the subject of the next post.

What I thought about this card then: Never saw it. Gibson was one of those players who retired immediately before I started paying attention to baseball. I'm sure I didn't know who he was until I was a teenager.

What I think about this card now: Gibson is one of my favorite pitchers of all-time. I wrote about him once before here. He is everything that I want a pitcher to be. As for the photo, it's OK. I do like it when pitchers color coordinate their gloves.

Other stuff: We continue with the mind-blowing achievements. Three thousand strikeouts may not seem a terribly big deal now, but back then Gibson was just the SECOND player to ever reach 3,000 strikeouts. And the first person since Walter Johnson retired almost 50 years prior.

These days, we're debating whether someone with 3,000 strikeouts -- Curt Schilling -- deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Schilling has exactly one less career strikeout than Gibson.

Back facts: For the first time, no errors to be found. Cesar Geronimo was the 3,000th strikeout victim of both Gibson and Nolan Ryan. Take that, Big Red Machine.

Other blog stuff: Nothing new today. I'm kicking around something to do with the cartoons on the back -- maybe a list of my favorites.