I was talking the other day with a friend about modern pitchers compared to the old school pitchers and we saying Rand with how tall he is would have terrified anyone, even more than he already did. But, I remember seeing an article a few years back that compared Gibby and the other pitchers of the same era to Maddux in terms of ERA relative to the average and mean of the league they were in and Maddux was in some great company during the great run he had in the '90s, but take nothing away from Gibby he was great. Consider this: "In his first 10 starts that season, Gibson was 3-5 despite a 1.52 ERA, mainly because opposing starting pitchers had a 1.34 ERA against the Cardinals." That is amazing. Another WOW stat: "A few starts after facing Drysdale, Gibson began what's considered a feat that eclipses the longest consecutive scoreless streaks. He allowed two earned runs over 99 innings, a span that included five consecutive shutouts and produced an ERA of 0.18. One run scored on a wild pitch. "Well, it wasn't a wild pitch," Gibson said. "It was called a wild pitch. ... It was a passed ball." The other came on a bloop double." Those kind of feats are rarely seen in a sport driven by numbers. Even Hershiser's scoreless streak, to me, didn't mean as much because he pitched against expanded rosters. Long live old school baseball.
posted by kookykrazee at 11:59 AM on March 27, 2008
Gibby’s 1.12 ERA: 40 years later.
I was talking the other day with a friend about modern pitchers compared to the old school pitchers and we saying Rand with how tall he is would have terrified anyone, even more than he already did. But, I remember seeing an article a few years back that compared Gibby and the other pitchers of the same era to Maddux in terms of ERA relative to the average and mean of the league they were in and Maddux was in some great company during the great run he had in the '90s, but take nothing away from Gibby he was great. Consider this: "In his first 10 starts that season, Gibson was 3-5 despite a 1.52 ERA, mainly because opposing starting pitchers had a 1.34 ERA against the Cardinals." That is amazing. Another WOW stat: "A few starts after facing Drysdale, Gibson began what's considered a feat that eclipses the longest consecutive scoreless streaks. He allowed two earned runs over 99 innings, a span that included five consecutive shutouts and produced an ERA of 0.18. One run scored on a wild pitch. "Well, it wasn't a wild pitch," Gibson said. "It was called a wild pitch. ... It was a passed ball." The other came on a bloop double." Those kind of feats are rarely seen in a sport driven by numbers. Even Hershiser's scoreless streak, to me, didn't mean as much because he pitched against expanded rosters. Long live old school baseball.