65th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series
The
1968 World Series
was the
championship series
of
Major League Baseball
's (MLB)
1968 season
. The 65th edition of the World Series, it was a
best-of-seven playoff
between the
American League
(AL) champion
Detroit Tigers
and the
National League
(NL) champion (and defending World Series champion)
St. Louis Cardinals
. The Tigers won in seven games for their first championship since
1945
, and the third in their history.
The Tigers came back from a three-games-to-one deficit to win three consecutive games, largely on the arm of
Mickey Lolich
, who was named
World Series Most Valuable Player
(MVP); as of 2022
[update]
, he remains the last
pitcher
to earn three
complete-game
victories in a single World Series. In his third appearance in the Series, Lolich had to pitch after only two days' rest in the deciding Game 7, because regular-season 31-game winner
Denny McLain
was moved up to Game 6 ? also on two days' rest. In Game 5, the Tigers' hopes for the title would have been in jeopardy had
Bill Freehan
not tagged out
Lou Brock
in a home plate collision, on a perfect throw from left fielder
Willie Horton
, when Brock elected not to slide and went in standing up.
The 1968 season was tagged "The Year of the Pitcher", and the Series featured dominant performances from Cardinals pitcher
Bob Gibson
, MVP of the
1964
and
1967 World Series
. Gibson came into the World Series with a regular-season
earned run average
(ERA) of just 1.12, a modern era record, and he pitched complete games in Games 1, 4, and 7. He was the winning pitcher in Games 1 and 4. In Game 1, he threw a shutout,
striking out
a Series record 17 batters, besting
Sandy Koufax
's
1963
record by two; it still stands as the World Series record today. In Game 4, a solo
home run
by
Jim Northrup
was the only offense the Tigers were able to muster, as Gibson struck out ten batters. In Game 7, Gibson was defeated by series MVP Lolich, allowing three runs on four straight hits in the seventh inning, although the key play was a Northrup
triple
that was seemingly misplayed by center fielder
Curt Flood
and could have been the third out with no runs scoring.
The World Series saw the Cardinals lose a Game 7 for the first time in their history. This was the sixth World Series of the 1960s to go to a full seven games, the most of any decade. The Tigers were the third team to come back from a three-games-to-one deficit to win a best-of-seven World Series, the first two being the 1925 Pirates and the 1958 Yankees; since then, the 1979 Pirates, the 1985 Royals, and the 2016 Cubs have also accomplished this feat.
Detroit manager
Mayo Smith
received some notoriety for moving outfielder
Mickey Stanley
to shortstop for the 1968 World Series, which has been called one of the gutsiest coaching moves in sports history by multiple sources.
[1]
[2]
Stanley, who replaced the superior fielding but much weaker hitting
Ray Oyler
, would make two errors in the Series, neither of which led to a run.
This was also the final World Series played prior to MLB's
1969 expansion
, which coincided with the introduction of divisional play and the
League Championship Series
. Thus, it was the final World Series that guaranteed the teams with the best records from each league would be playing.
All seven games of NBC's TV coverage were preserved on black-and-white kinescopes by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
, and circulate among collectors. Games 1 and 5 have been commercially released; these broadcasts, and that of Game 7, were frequently shown on CSN (
Classic Sports Network
) and
ESPN Classic
in the 1990s and 2000s.
Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich was named World Series MVP. Lolich compiled a 3-0 record (all three of his starts were complete games), with a 1.67 ERA and 21 strikeouts.
Summary
[
edit
]
AL
Detroit Tigers
(4) vs. NL
St. Louis Cardinals
(3)
Game
|
Date
|
Score
|
Location
|
Time
|
Attendance
|
1
|
October 2
|
Detroit Tigers ? 0,
St. Louis Cardinals
? 4
|
Busch Memorial Stadium
|
2:29
|
54,692
[3]
|
2
|
October 3
|
Detroit Tigers
? 8, St. Louis Cardinals ? 1
|
Busch Memorial Stadium
|
2:41
|
54,692
[4]
|
3
|
October 5
|
St. Louis Cardinals
? 7, Detroit Tigers ? 3
|
Tiger Stadium
|
3:17
|
53,634
[5]
|
4
|
October 6
|
St. Louis Cardinals
? 10, Detroit Tigers ? 1
|
Tiger Stadium
|
2:34
|
53,634
[6]
|
5
|
October 7
|
St. Louis Cardinals ? 3,
Detroit Tigers
? 5
|
Tiger Stadium
|
2:43
|
53,634
[7]
|
6
|
October 9
|
Detroit Tigers
? 13, St. Louis Cardinals ? 1
|
Busch Memorial Stadium
|
2:26
|
54,692
[8]
|
7
|
October 10
|
Detroit Tigers
? 4, St. Louis Cardinals ? 1
|
Busch Memorial Stadium
|
2:07
|
54,692
[9]
|
Matchups
[
edit
]
Game 1
[
edit
]
The Tigers roared into Game 1 by setting a then-team record with 103 victories on the season and were appearing in their first World Series in 23 years. The Tigers led the American League with 185 home runs. Their team batting average was .235, fourth best in the league; the team stole only 26 bases on the year.
[10]
The Cardinals, on the other hand, stole 110 bases, led the NL with 48 triples, and had a team batting average of .249, but hit only 73 home runs.
[11]
Pitching was about even as both teams set their rotations for Game 1 with solid starters and adequate relievers.
Fans overflowed Busch Stadium for Game 1 to watch the highly anticipated match-up of the Major League's top two pitchers?the Cardinals'
Bob Gibson
(22?9, 1.12 ERA) and the Tigers'
Denny McLain
(31?6, 1.96 ERA). Gibson was looking to become the first National League pitcher to win six World Series games while McLain was pitching in his first World Series game. The Cardinals had far more World Series experience than the Tigers with most of the Cardinal lineup (including all nine Game 1 starters) having played in a prior World Series. Both pitchers were highly competitive, fast workers, sporting overpowering fastballs coupled with excellent control.
Gibson's performance in Game 1 was phenomenal. The menacing right-handed
pitcher
shut out the Tigers on just five hits, and he struck out a World Series-record 17 Detroit Tigers batters.
The Cardinals broke through with three in the fourth off McLain. After McLain
walked
Roger Maris
and
Tim McCarver
, Cardinal
third baseman
Mike Shannon
singled in Maris and went to second base when Tiger left fielder
Willie Horton
misplayed the ball. McCarver pulled in at third. Cardinal
second baseman
Julian Javier
followed this by singling in both baserunners to make the score 3?0.
Outfielder
Lou Brock
added a
home run
in the seventh inning to complete the scoring.
Gibson finished the game in the ninth inning with his 15th, 16th, and 17th strikeouts to pass
Sandy Koufax
's previous record of 15, set in the
1963 World Series
.
Game 2
[
edit
]
The Tigers'
starting pitcher
Mickey Lolich
earned a complete-game victory and the Tigers tied the Series.
Tiger outfielder
Willie Horton
hit a home run in the second inning; Lolich also helped his own cause with a homer in the third inning off the Cardinals' starter,
Nelson Briles
, scoring the eventual game-winning run. This was the only home run that Lolich hit during his entire professional career. The Tigers broke the game open in the sixth inning when first baseman
Norm Cash
led off with another homer, and second baseman
Dick McAuliffe
later provided a two-run single.
Cardinal first baseman
Orlando Cepeda
gave St. Louis a run with an RBI single in the sixth, but that was all they scored.
Al Kaline
scored in the seventh inning when
Jim Northrup
hit into a double play, and the Tigers scored their final two runs in the ninth inning with bases-loaded walks to
Don Wert
and Lolich.
Game 3
[
edit
]
In the first of three games at Detroit's Tiger Stadium,
Al Kaline
started the scoring with a two-run homer in the third inning, but the Cardinals came back in the fifth inning on an RBI double by center fielder
Curt Flood
off starter
Earl Wilson
. After Wilson put another batter on base,
catcher
Tim McCarver
launched a three-run home run for the eventual game-winning runs off relief pitcher
Pat Dobson
. The Tigers cut the deficit to just one run on a home run by
Dick McAuliffe
. But
Orlando Cepeda
put the game out of reach in the seventh inning by smacking a three-run home run.
The Cardinals' reliever
Joe Hoerner
entered the game in the sixth in relief of
Ray Washburn
(who got the win) and earned a save. Hoerner also collected a single batting in the eighth and became the first
[
citation needed
]
major leaguer to get a hit in the World Series after going hitless for the entire season.
Game 4
[
edit
]
Tiger manager Mayo Smith, needing another left-handed bat in the lineup, made a major change by inserting veteran
Eddie Mathews
at third base. Mathews, recovering from a spinal operation that nearly ended his career, had one hit in the last game of his major league career. After a 35-minute rain delay, hard-hitting
Hall-of-Famer
Hank Greenberg
threw out the first pitch.
McLain had trouble warming up amidst the rainfall, and was throwing with less velocity from the outset. A 31-game winner during the regular season, he struggled for the second time in this World Series, as this one-sided pitching match-up with Bob Gibson showed. Lou Brock led the game off with a home run, and Mike Shannon added an RBI single later in the first inning. Two more Cardinals runs were knocked in during the third inning on Tim McCarver's
triple
and Mike Shannon's
double
. McLain's troubles continued, and after a walk to Julian Javier, the umpires stopped the game due to rain with two out in the third inning. McLain did not return when play resumed after a one-hour and 15-minute rain delay. Bob Gibson did return after the delay, and helped his own cause by hitting a home run off Joe Sparma in the fourth inning. Next, Lou Brock knocked a triple and scored on a ground-out by Roger Maris.
The Cardinals' final runs came in the eighth inning when Gibson
walked
with the bases loaded, forcing in one run, and then Lou Brock drove in three more runs with a double. Brock was just a
single
short of hitting for the cycle in this game.
The Tigers' only run came in the fourth inning when Jim Northrup hit a home run. Other than that, Gibson was a nearly perfect pitcher, tossing his second complete game in this World Series while striking out ten batters. The Cards now had a commanding 3?1 series lead.
Game 5
[
edit
]
With the World Series on the line, the Tigers used their winner of Game 2, Mickey Lolich, as their starting pitcher. Lolich's first inning in this game was not too promising, as he allowed an RBI single by Curt Flood and a two-run home run to Orlando Cepeda. However, Lolich soon settled down, striking out eight Cardinal batters and allowing no more runs.
Tigers'
first baseman
Norm Cash
began the team comeback with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, plating
Mickey Stanley
who had tripled. This was followed by a
Willie Horton
triple and Jim Northrup's RBI single, making it a 3?2 game. In the fifth inning, the Cardinals had a chance to go up by two runs after Lou Brock hit a one-out double. Cardinal
second baseman
Julian Javier
followed with a base hit to left. Outfielder Willie Horton fielded the ball off the ground and then fired the ball towards
home plate
. Instead of sliding into home plate, Brock tried to bowl over Tiger catcher
Bill Freehan
. However, Freehan caught and held onto the ball while blocking the corner of the plate with his foot, and Brock was called out. This was the last time that the Cardinals threatened to score in the game.
The Cardinals'
starting pitcher
Nelson Briles was taken out of the game in the seventh inning with one runner on base, and was replaced by
reliever
Joe Hoerner
. After Hoerner loaded the bases, the Tigers began a game-winning rally, with
Al Kaline
hitting a two-run single to give his team a 4?3 lead. Norm Cash then knocked in an insurance run with a single.
Jose Feliciano
's unconventional pre-game singing of "
The Star-Spangled Banner
" aroused considerable controversy, with the Tigers and NBC receiving thousands of angry letters and telephone calls about the performance.
[12]
Lolich also blamed Feliciano's unusually long rendition for causing him to get cold after his warm-ups and thus give up three early runs.
[13]
Game 6
[
edit
]
Now needing two wins in St. Louis to win the World Series, Tiger manager
Mayo Smith
chose Denny McLain again as his starting pitcher, even though he had only two days' rest and had not been very successful in his two prior Series starts. Cardinals' manager
Red Schoendienst
stayed with his normal three-starter rotation, selecting
Ray Washburn
, who had won Game 3. The choice of McLain paid off for the Tigers, as he pitched a complete game in a 13?1 rout of the Cardinals.
The Tigers went up 2?0 in the second inning on RBI hits by
Willie Horton
and
Bill Freehan
. In the third, the Tigers sent 15 batters to the plate and scored 10 runs off of three Cardinals pitchers. Jim Northrup's
grand slam
highlighted the inning.
Al Kaline
added a home run in the fifth inning. The Cardinals' lone run came off an RBI single by
Julian Javier
with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but that was all they could do against McLain.
Game 7
[
edit
]
Thursday, October 10, 1968 1:00 pm (CT) at
Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri
Team
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
R
|
H
|
E
|
Detroit
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
4
|
8
|
1
|
St. Louis
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
0
|
WP
:
Mickey Lolich
(3?0)
LP
:
Bob Gibson
(2?1)
Home runs
:
DET: None
STL:
Mike Shannon
(1)
|
In a fitting end to this Series (and the final game of Roger Maris' career) the two teams' hottest pitchers,
Mickey Lolich
and
Bob Gibson
, squared off in a classic duel, until an infamous hit over the head of
Curt Flood
. Like McLain in Game 6, Lolich was starting on only two days' rest.
Lolich and Gibson matched zeroes for six innings, but in the top of the seventh, Gibson surrendered two-out singles to
Norm Cash
and
Willie Horton
.
Jim Northrup
then hit a hard smash to deep center;
Curt Flood
, who won numerous
Gold Glove
awards in his career, misjudged it and briefly started in on the ball before turning around to go back. The ball one-hopped the warning track, two runs scored, Northrup wound up with a triple, and Lolich had all the runs he needed. Flood has been criticized by some who believe he would have caught the ball had his first steps been back instead of in.
Jim Northrup
said, "[Flood] slipped a little, but the ball was 40 feet over his head. He never had a chance to catch it."
[14]
However, his teammate
Denny McLain
claimed in his 1975 book that "Flood blew it." Orlando Cepeda, in his 1998 autobiography
Baby Bull
, asserts that Flood would have caught the ball, had he not misjudged it. In the October 29, 1968, issue of
The Sporting News
, both Flood and manager
Red Schoendienst
indicated they would have expected the normally sure-handed outfielder to catch such a ball. By starting in, Flood had to both reverse direction and then regain his acceleration. He then slipped on the wet grass before recovering his speed, and by that time the ball was well beyond him.
[a]
Bill Freehan
then doubled in Northrup, and in the top of the ninth,
Don Wert
added an RBI single.
The Cardinals got a run in the ninth on a
Mike Shannon
homer, but that was all as Lolich pitched his third complete game. The final out of the series was recorded when Bill Freehan caught a pop foul off the very next batter,
Tim McCarver
. Gibson struck out eight in the losing cause, giving him a record 35 strikeouts by one pitcher in a World Series, but Lolich was named
World Series MVP
. This is the last World Series game to date to feature complete games from both starting pitchers.
Cardinals shortstop
Dal Maxvill
went hitless in 22 World Series at-bats, a record.
Composite box
[
edit
]
1968 World Series
(4?3):
Detroit Tigers
(A.L.)
over
St. Louis Cardinals
(N.L.)
Team
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
R
|
H
|
E
|
Detroit Tigers
|
0
|
3
|
13
|
3
|
2
|
3
|
7
|
0
|
3
|
34
|
56
|
11
|
St. Louis Cardinals
|
5
|
0
|
2
|
5
|
4
|
1
|
4
|
4
|
2
|
27
|
61
|
2
|
Total attendance:
379,670
Average attendance:
54,239
Winning player's share:
$10,937
Losing player's share:
$7,079
[16]
|
Quotes
[
edit
]
He got him! Struck him out! A new World Series record of 17 strikeouts in one game.
McCarver
pops up. Here's
Freehan
. Detroit's the new world champions!
?
Harry Caray calling the final out of game 7 on NBC-TV
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
The misplay would have consequences beyond the field. After the season, Flood, who had long enjoyed a close personal friendship with
Gussie Busch
, chief executive officer of team owner
Anheuser-Busch
and president of the team, was upset when Busch offered him a smaller raise than Flood felt he deserved, given his stellar performance during
that year's regular season
; he believed that was punishment for the misplay that cost the team a chance to win a second straight Series. While he eventually did get the $90,000 salary he had wanted, he was also one of the players who led a
boycott
of
spring training
before the
1969 Major League Baseball season
that forced the owners to expand their pension-fund contributions. After the boycott ended, Busch held a team meeting with the media present in which he angrily reminded players to stay focused on pleasing the fans; while Busch didn't mention any player specifically, Flood believed that the remarks were directed at him.
At the end of
that season
, in which the Cardinals finished fourth in the newly created NL East division and thus did not return to the postseason, Flood was among several players traded to the
Philadelphia Phillies
. He learned of the trade not from Busch as he might have expected, but from a low-ranking team official. Instead of reporting to Philadelphia, he filed
a lawsuit
seeking to have the
reserve clause
in his (and every other baseball player's) contract invalidated as an
antitrust
violation, telling
Howard Cosell
that even though he was paid $90,000 a year, "a well-paid slave is still a slave." The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately held against him, and Flood's playing career effectively ended, but agitation for
free agency
continued; by the mid-1970s, players attained it.
[15]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Bob Ryan (August 10, 2009).
"Talk about being put in tough position"
.
Boston Globe
.
- ^
Jeff Merron.
"The List: Gutsiest calls in sports"
.
ESPN.com
.
- ^
"1968 World Series Game 1 ? Detroit Tigers vs. St. Louis Cardinals"
. Retrosheet
. Retrieved
September 13,
2009
.
- ^
"1968 World Series Game 2 ? Detroit Tigers vs. St. Louis Cardinals"
. Retrosheet
. Retrieved
September 13,
2009
.
- ^
"1968 World Series Game 3 ? St. Louis Cardinals vs. Detroit Tigers"
. Retrosheet
. Retrieved
September 13,
2009
.
- ^
"1968 World Series Game 4 ? St. Louis Cardinals vs. Detroit Tigers"
. Retrosheet
. Retrieved
September 13,
2009
.
- ^
"1968 World Series Game 5 ? St. Louis Cardinals vs. Detroit Tigers"
. Retrosheet
. Retrieved
September 13,
2009
.
- ^
"1968 World Series Game 6 ? Detroit Tigers vs. St. Louis Cardinals"
. Retrosheet
. Retrieved
September 13,
2009
.
- ^
"1968 World Series Game 7 ? Detroit Tigers vs. St. Louis Cardinals"
. Retrosheet
. Retrieved
September 13,
2009
.
- ^
1968 Detroit Tigers Batting, Pitching, & Fielding Statistics
- ^
1968 St. Louis Cardinals Batting, Pitching, & Fielding Statistics
- ^
Zang, Dave. "Feliciano ignited a star-spangled controversy." Article in
The Sporting News
on October 25, 1993.
- ^
Chass, Murray. "When the Pitchers Needed Less Rest In the Postseason." Article in
The New York Times
on October 22, 2006.
[1]
- ^
Mott, Geoff (October 14, 2006) "
10 Questions with Jim Northrup
," Saginaw News
- ^
Knoedelseder, William
(2012).
Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser?Busch and America's Kings of Beer
. HarperCollins. pp. 109?113.
ISBN
9780062009272
.
- ^
"World Series Gate Receipts and Player Shares"
. Baseball Almanac.
Archived
from the original on May 2, 2009
. Retrieved
June 14,
2009
.
See also
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Cantor, George (1997).
The Tigers of '68: Baseball's Last Real Champions
. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing.
ISBN
0-87833-928-0
.
- Cohen, Richard M.; Neft, David S. (1990).
The World Series: Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903?1989
. New York: St. Martin's Press.
ISBN
0-312-03960-3
.
- Reichler, Joseph (1982).
The Baseball Encyclopedia
(5th ed.). Macmillan Publishing. p. 2176.
ISBN
0-02-579010-2
.
- Forman, Sean L.
"1968 World Series"
.
Baseball-Reference.com ? Major League Statistics and Information
.
Archived
from the original on November 29, 2007
. Retrieved
December 9,
2007
.
External links
[
edit
]
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