Rick Hummel interviews Bob Gibson as the 50th anniversary of the Cardinals 1967 World Championship approaches. You get a very good picture of how the pitcher handled the game:
Shannon drove in 77 runs, second on the club that season, and adapted well enough to third base, with a little help from Gibson. Chuckling as he told the story, Gibson related that Shannon had said, “Hey, big boy, you need to help me as to where do you want me to play.”
“I said, ‘You just stay there. You’re not going to get a ball until there’s a double play situation.’ He said, ‘What are you talking about? I said, ‘You’ll see.’
“It was really funny. We got into a double-play situation and the ball came to him. He went to second and back to first. Double play. He came into the dugout and sat next to me and said, ‘How do you know when that ball’s going to be hit to me?’
“I said, ‘Because I’m smart.’ I went for two weeks before I told him. I don’t like to throw righthanded hitters inside but when there’s a double-play situation, I do and hope he hits the ball to you or the shortstop.’ He said, ‘Ooooh.’”
Gibson was pretty good at removing runners via the double play during his career. He posted a career .297 OBP against. With 293 GDPs induced, that number looks even better. It was difficult to drive in runs against Gibson because batters did not find themselves in situations with men on base very often.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2jmMyFh
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