Gibson died today at age 84. He was one of my favorites. Old school. Gibson and Drysdale were two that would never give you the inside of the plate. Gibson had no issue with planting one on your rib cage.
I lived baseball as a kid, and studied the history. I had read about Bob Gibson, and When I heard he was coming to speak at my elementary school, I was so pumped.
Well, Bob was there to apparently scare the schit out of a bunch of 5th and 6th graders. His speech was on the evils of alcohol and drug abuse, and he was absolutely terrifying. I took him off my “baseball heroes” list.
Not sure it's related, but they pulled a body out of the ocean near Miami recently. Poor guy had been shot four times, stabbed a dozen more. It looked like there were some premortem chainsaw cuts at his knees. According to the medical examiner it was the worst case of COVID he had ever seen.
Didn't get much better than watching Gibson, Koufax, Drysdale or Marichal pitching with Pee Wee and Dizzy calling the game on Saturday. Maybe the heydays of baseball.