PITTSBURGH • Fifty years ago Monday, Bob Gibson lost 3-1 at San Francisco to drop his record to 3-5 for the 1968 season. This seems hard to believe, considering that Gibson would win 22 games that year, granted that his earned run average on May 28 still was only 1.52.
It was on this Western trip that Gibson thought he should offer some counsel to young Steve Carlton, who was in his second full season as a Cardinals starter.
“I said, ‘Steve, I want to say something to you about your pitching,’” recalled Gibson. “He didn’t buy into it.