On July 15, 1967 at Busch Stadium II, Bob Gibson took a Roberto Clemente smash off his right leg in the fourth inning of the Cardinals-Pittsburgh Pirates game. Typical of Gibson, the righthander stayed in to face three more hitters, unusually walking two of them, before coming out of the game. But there might have been a reason for his control lapse. His leg was found to be broken.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to come back (that year),” said Gibson. “They thought it would be at least 10 weeks, or something like that.”
But, again typically Gibson, he started throwing on the side a little more than a month after being hurt — with his cast still on — with former outfielder Johnny Lewis as his catcher.