University of Virginia Library

Gibson Clips Bosox,
Wins Series Opener

A POWERFUL RIGHT ARM and a pair of lightning
legs carried the favored St. Louis Cardinals past
the fabled Boston Red Sox, 2-1, in the opening game
of the 1967 World Series before 34,796 sun-drenched
Bostonians in quaint Fenway Park. The arm was Bob
Gibson's; the legs were Lou Brock's.

The Redbirds' ace fireballer, who recovered from a
mid-season broken leg to pitch the pennant clincher
against the Phils, sent ten of the Bosox back to the
dugout on strikes. Perhaps Gibson's greatest accomplishment
was silencing the torrid bat of Bean Town's Mr.
Everything, Carl Yastrzemski, who failed to reach first
base safely in four trips to the plate.

OFFENSIVELY, LOU BROCK LITERALLY stole
the show. The St. Louis left fielder, who gained fame
this season when he out polled Willie Mays in the National
League All-Star balloting, collected four hits and
a walk, two stolen bases, and crossed the plate with
both Cardinal runs.

Brock led off the third inning with a sharp single
to center; he advanced to third on center fielder Curt
Flood's double into the left field corner. On a grounder
to Boston's George Scott, Brock raced home to score.
The situation in the seventh inning was remarkably
similar. Brock again led off the inning with a single,
and then stole second. He moved to third on another
grounder and then sped home with the go-ahead run
on a Roger Maris drive speared spectacularly by keystone-sacker
Jerry Adair who was only able to make
a play to first.

BOSTON FANS, INCLUDING the brothers Kennedy,
saw the typical go-go Redbird attack which turned this
year's Senior Circuit pennant race into a cake walk.
Only once in the nine innings did the Cardinals go down
in order. Red Sox hurler Jose Santiago was in trouble
from the start and had his back to the wall, emerging
largely unscathed in the early innings through the great
defensive efforts of Dalton Jones and Carl Yastrzemski.

If Yastrzemski was less than successful at the plate,
he gave his worshipping fans a great deal to cheer
about in the field. In the fourth when Boston momentum
was starting to be felt after the Sox had tied the score
in the third, Yastrzemski, who all but erased the memory
of Ted Williams in left field this year, charged an outfield
grounder and threw out Julian Javier at the plate
with a perfect strike. In the fifth, Yastrzemski robbed
Curt Flood of an extra-base hit with a perfectly-timed
Nureyev leap. They say he's been doing it that way
all year.

THE LONE BOSTON RUN CAME on a homer
over the Green Monster by pitcher Santiago with one
out in the third. Only other member of the Bosox
to hit Gibson solidly was muscular George Scott, who
managed a single and a double. In going the distance,
Gibson was able to scatter the six Bosox hits so that
not one inning saw two.

Today at 1:00, Red Sox 22-game sensation Jim Lonborg,
who pitched brilliantly against Minnesota in the
pennant-deciding game Sunday, will take to the hill
to oppose the Cardinal's 29-year-old rookie right hander,
Dick Hughes. The game will be televised over NBC.