Gibson, who always worked quickly, pitched at an even faster pace in Game 7 so that the Yankees wouldn't notice his fatigue. His teammates said they could hear Gibson grunting with every pitch from the seventh inning on.
“Don’t be cute and don’t go for the corners,” Keane told Gibson before the final inning. “Just get it over. They’re not going to hit four home runs off you.”
Gibson struck out Yankees outfielder Tom Tresh to start the inning before third baseman Clete Boyer launched a homer to left field. With two outs, shortstop Phil Linz homered again to make the score 7-5.
Gibson appeared to be out of gas when Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson stepped to the plate. Richardson had already set a Fall Classic record with 13 base hits in the series, but Gibson induced him to fly out to second, sealing the championship for the Cardinals.
When asked why he left Gibson on the mound in the top of the ninth, Keane tearfully replied, “I had a commitment to his heart.”
The 1964 World Series would be the last for the Yankees celebrated dynasty. The pinstripes fell to last place in the American League by 1966, and would not reach the Fall Classic again until 1976.
Gibson meanwhile, would go on to lead the Cardinals to two more NL pennants and another World Series title in 1967. In 1968, Gibson captured his first Cy Young Award with the lowest ERA (1.12) in baseball’s modern era, and struck out 17 Detroit Tigers batters in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series. His sterling resume on the mound earned him enshrinement to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.
Matt Kelly is a freelance writer from Brooklyn, N.Y.