As we all know, the Cardinals are steeped in tradition. From the 11 World Series championships (second only to the New York Yankees) to the countless Hall of Famers who have worn the birds on the bat logo, the Cardinals have a lot to talk about. With the history that follows such an organization come the stories. Enter the session.
Last Saturday night a session took place. There was a Meet the Cardinals program at the Sheldon. It featured Hall of Famers Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, Cardinal legend and now broadcaster Mike Shannon, and current Cardinal manager Mike Matheny. They would be on stage and share with a sold-out audience their experiences as a Cardinal.
It went on for about two hours, but the real fun took place two hours before that in the Green Room. These gentlemen sat in their elegant attire with a couple of security people, Dick Zitzman (who handles many of their public appearances), and me. While I have been part of these sacred moments before where the stories are real and in many cases colorful, this one was special as manager Matheny had never been in an environment like this and did not know what to expect.
For the participants, they are guarded about who is in the room, as the potential of embellishment and getting the story wrong or embarrassing someone is on their minds. So they seldom have a moment like this, which made this night special as they knew who the players were before they started to talk, and talk they did.
Brock, Gibson and Shannon have known each other for over 50 years. They played with each other for the Cardinals in the glory decade of the sixties. They won, they won a lot and more importantly they had fun doing it. Even at age 77 Gibson still looks as elegant and intimidating as he did when he was in uniform. When you look at his stats, you just shake your head when it comes to him – truly great.
Last season there were just 14 complete games pitched in the National League … 14! In the career of Bob Gibson, he had a total of 255 complete games. In the record-setting season of 1968, when he set the earned run average record of 1.12, he had 34 complete games.
Although he has mellowed, Bob Gibson has the wit and sense of humor of Bill Cosby. He has a great memory about the great years he pitched, and don’t let him tell you otherwise. He has after all these years acknowledged the fact that everyone he hit was hit for a reason and none of those pitches ever got away by mistake. When it came to protecting his teammates, no one knew the role better than Bob Gibson.
Mike Shannon tells the story that one night the Cardinals were playing in San Diego and the Padres thought it was a good idea to throw at Cardinal batters. Bad idea, because Gibson was pitching that night.
“When it was our turn to go to the field, Bob comes out of the dugout on his way to the mound and was met at the third base line by home plate umpire Lee Wyer, who said to Gibson, ‘Bob, if you start throwing at guys, it will cost you $50,’” Shannon says.
Shannon, who was playing third base that night, overheard Gibson say without breaking stride, “Well, get ready, I have a lot of bleeping fifties I am about to spend.” Gibson went on to plunk the first two batters. The third hitter tried to make a deal before stepping into the batter’s box by saying he had $50 not to get hit.
At this point, Matheny is nearly in tears, as is the rest of the room, and Gibson leans back in his chair and says, “Damn right, and we won the game, too.”
As for Shannon, Gibson was always in awe of two things: how well he hit against Dodger legend Sandy Koufax and the fact that Shannon predicted there would be a man walking on the moon some day. “After hearing him say that, I paid closer attention to what he said from that day on,” Gibson says of Shannon.
He also makes a pointed note that there were few teammates who were about the team and would back it up in any way the situation called for. To this day, Shannon and Gibson are the closest living teammates from that era. “Brothers” would be selling the description short on how close they are.
Then there was Lou Brock, the catalyst for the Cardinals offense of that era. Brock still holds the team stolen base record with 938, second all-time to Ricky Henderson. Brock stole 118 bases at the age of 35. The stolen base leaders from both the National and American leagues combined did not add up to 118 this past season. Shannon always talks about how tough of a player Brock was, as he played the last six weeks of one season with a broken shoulder.
The stories went on and on in that room, as Matheny continued to absorb what was being said with great reverence. Nights of this ilk are not guaranteed. The history, knowledge and style of these three – Brock being the youngest at age 73 – will be hard to match, as they have a 50-year head start on the rest of the world.
I have had the privilege and honor to attend a session featuring these gentlemen, and for that I am grateful. These guys have gone through a lot in their baseball careers. They also went through a lot during the sixties off the field, and yet they learned how to get along, respect each other, win and most important love each other to this day. We should all be thankful for their being part of what is known as Cardinal Nation.
