Blast From the Past: 1968 World Series Case Study

The 1968 World Series was only the 4'th World Series to enter my consciousness, but it is still one of my favorite ones to this day. The series featured the defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals against the Detroit Tigers, a team that hadn't been in the World Series, let alone win it, for a long time. It was the Year of the Pitcher. Bob Gibson had his 1.12 ERA. Don Drysdale had his scoreless inning streak. Juan Marichal had what might have been the best season of his Hall of Fame career. On the AL side, Denny McLain of the Tigers became the first pitcher since Dizzy Dean, and maybe the last pitcher in baseball history, to win 30 games in one season.

I can still remember that Cardinals lineup like it was yesterday, exactly the same every day for 2 straight seasons:

LF Lou Brock
CF Curt Flood
RF Roger Maris
1B Orlando Cepeda
C Tim McCarver
3B Mike Shannon
2B Julian Javier
SS Dal Maxvill

My memories of the Tigers lineup are less clear. As a Giants fan, pretty much all of the games I listened to on the radio during the season were NL games, so I don't know much about the AL players. The Tigers offense was led by a couple of aging vets, Al Kaline and Norm Cash plus Willie Horton(no, not THAT Willie Horton!)

Game 1 was much anticipated as it featured Gibson, coming off one of the most dominant seasons a pitcher has ever had and winning 3 WS games against the Red Sox the year before. Of course, the Tigers had Denny McLain the 30 game winner. The game was no contest. McLain wasn't a bad pitcher, but his 30 wins were due as much to great run support as pitching brilliance. Gibson, on the other hand, had been truly dominant all year and Gibby always seemed to be at his best in the World Series. The WS games were all played in the daytime back then. I remember our teacher turning on the TV in the classroom for the 9'th inning as Bob Gibson finished off a World Series record 17 strikeouts for a complete game 4-0 shutout. Wow! Knowing that Gibson would be pitching 2 more games in the series, and knowing what he had done to the Red Sox the year before, things certainly looked bleak for the Tigers.

The Tigers, though, had an ace-in-the-hole, another pretty good starting pitcher named Mickey Lolich, a lefthander, who had won 17 games in the regular season. Lolich was a fat tub of lard, especially around the middle part of his body, and was fond of making jokes of it, trying to appeal to Joe Sixpack who was watching the games on TV. I didn't think too much of his 8-1 victory in game 2 featuring his only HR of his career.

I don't remember the pitchers for game 3, but Lou Brock continued to run wild on the bases stealing 3 and the Cards won 7-3. The series seemed to be all but over when the Cards embarrassed Denny McLain in Game 4 while Gibson continued his dominance while winning 10-1. It was Gibson's 7'th consecutive World Series win dating back to 1964.

When the Cards opened game 5 with a 3 run first inning off Mickey Lolich, any reasonable person would have thought that was it. Lolich hung in there, though. He pitched 8 more innings of shutout ball. Lou Brock got a bit careless and was thrown out by LF Willie Horton at home plate trying to score standing up from 2B on a single to LF. The Tigers fought their way back and ended up winning 5-3. The Tigers still trailed the series 3 games to 2 with 2 left to play in St Louis and Bob Gibson slated to pitch the final game. In desperation, the Tigers sent Denny McLain out on 2 days rest, I think more to get him away from having to face Gibson than anything, but it seemed like a reasonable move since McLain had come out in the 3'rd inning of game 4. Jim Northrup hit a grand slam HR and McLain had this strongest start of the series as the Tigers cruised to a 13-1 win.

Now Game 7 loomed as the deciding game. The mighty Gibson was on his normal 3 days of rest while the Fat Tub of Lard, Lolich, was coming off just 2 days of rest after pitching two complete game victories already. It didn't seem possible that this obviously out of shape pitcher nobody had heard of before could do anything to stop the inevitable Gibson domination. Lolich, though, matched Gibby pitch for pitch, out for out, for 6 innings of a scoreless game. I was in school and the game had started at 11:00 PDT. The teacher turned on the TV at lunch time, I think it was around the 5'th inning or so, and then let us stay in from recess to watch the game. In the top of the 7'th, Gibson, amazingly, was the first to crack. With 2 outs, Norm Cash and Willie Horton both singled. Jim Northrup then hit a towering drive to dead center field that the Gold Glover Flood misjudged and allowed to sail over his head for a two run triple. Catcher Bill Freehan then doubled to drive in Northrup and the score was suddenly 3-0 Tigers. It was, and still is, one of the darndest things I've ever witnessed as a baseball fan. Lolich hung on for a complete game, 5 hit, 4-1 win and the Tigers were the World Champions!

So, what lessons can we learn from this tale? I have several thoughts that might become applicable as the Giants head into a 7 game series in which they are the clear underdogs:

1. Don't panic if you lose the first game. 7 games is actually a long series and there is opportunity for comeback.

2. Don't panic if your ace gets blown out by their ace. Again, it's a 7 game series with opportunity for redemption.

3. Keep competing for every inning of every game. You never know what the turning point of the series will be or when it might happen.

4. There is time to make adjustments. If something isn't working in the first 3- 4 games, try something different!

5. Most important, in a low scoring pitcher's duel, ANYTHING can happen in the late innings. It was true in game 7 of the 1968 series and we saw it repeatedly in the NLDS.

Go Timmy!! Go Giants!!!