1960 Whitey Ford Game 6 Yanks 12 Pitt 0, Game Score 77
1961 Whitey Ford Game 1 Yanks 2 Reds 0 Game Score 88
1962 Ralph Terry Game 7 Yanks 1, Giants 0 Game Score 83
1963 Don Drysdale Game 3 Dodgers 1, Yanks 0 Game Score 89
1964 Bob Gibson Game 5 Cards 5 Yanks 2 (10 innings) Game Score 87
1965 Sandy Koufax Game 7 Dodgers 2, Twins 0 Game Score 88
1966 Wally Bunker Game 3 Orioles 1 Dodgers 0 Game Score 80
1967 Jim Lonborg Game 2 Bost 5 Cards 0 Game Score 88
1968 Bob Gibson Game 1 Cards 4 Tigers 0 Game Score 93
1969 Tom Seaver Game 4 Mets 2 Orioles 1 (10 innings) Game Score 80
For those of you who missed part one, I’m going through every World Series and trying to pick the best pitched game. Then I let the guys from Bill James pick the best pitched World Series game of the decade. Here are comments on the games I selected:
1960 Whitey Ford Game 6 Yanks 12 Pitt 0, It was a choice between Whitey’s two shutouts. In this game he struck out more, but more importantly he threw a shutout in a park that was supposed to be tough on left handers.
1961 Whitey Ford Game 1 Yanks 2 Reds 0 Whitey won on two consecutive World Series starts which is a first. In this one he allowed only 2 hits.
1962 Ralph Terry Game 7 Yanks 1 Giants 0 Jack Sanford had a shutout in game 2 worth one more point. However, Terry had only 1 run of support compared to 2 for Sanford, he pitched the deciding game and gave up zero walks to the Giants power lineup.
1963 Don Drysdale Game 3 Dodgers 1 Koufax had 15 strikeouts in game 1, but Drysdale had the higher game score. Blame it on Tom Tresh. Drysdale did have 9 strikeouts and had less run support in his game than Sandy gave up in game 1.
1964 Bob Gibson Game 5 Cards 5 Yanks 2 (10 innings) Gibson gave up two runs and Jim Bouton only one in game 3. However, Gibson pitched 10 innings. Basically, Bouton struck out 4 and walked 2 while Gibson struck out 13 and walked one.
1965 Sandy Koufax Game 7 Dodgers 2, Twins 0 One of my least favorite games of all time, but you have to give Sandy credit. He struck out 10 on two days’ rest.
1966 Wally Bunker Game 3 Orioles 1 Dodgers 0 Jim Palmer game score 82 and Dave McNally game score 81, with Bunker having a game score of 80. This is very consistent great pitching. I picked Bunker as he had one walk, McNally had two and Palmer had three.
1967 Jim Lonborg Game 2 Bost 5 Cards 0 Lonborg game up 1 hit and 1 walk. He was as dominant as Gibson in his first two starts as Gibson was in his first two starts. However, pitching on short rest after clinching the pennant on the last day of the season was just too much on his arm.
1968 Bob Gibson Game 1 Cards 4 Tigers 0 Another game that was really easy to pick. He struck out 17 with 1 walk and Detroit was a great batting team. If you watched highlights you can just see how he dominated.
1969 Tom Seaver Game 4 Mets 2 Orioles 1 (10 innings) Jerry Koosman’s performance in game 2 was close. Seaver pitched 10 and Koosman was relieved in the 9th.
Bob Gibson won the voting 10-7 over Sandy Koufax’s game 7 victory over the Twins on two days rest. One voter said Gibson’s victory was the greatest world series start ever. He might be right. This was the second World Series I remember. I had a lot better understanding of the whole process than the year before. For example, I knew everyone was talking about Gibson versus McLain. The way they were talking I was thinking that either team would be lucky to score.
In my mind I thought Gibson was better. I don’t remember if it was because of 1967 or ERA which was the only stat I knew besides win loss record. I was only nine. I thought Detroit had a better offense and that is why McLain won more games. They did score more runs than the Cardinals that year.
So naturally with my nine-year brain I couldn’t come up with a way to watch the game, it being on Wednesday. However, I soon heard about the game. My Dad said Gibson made the Tigers look like “chumps”. I wonder how bad he made them look. Then I saw highlights on TV and was amazed. I knew it was highlights, but there sure were a lot of them. I was half right, the Tigers were lucky to get the 5 hits they got.
