How Good was Bob Gibson?

Pitcher Bob Gibson was one of the greatest African-American pitchers to play in the Majors. His childhood was not easy and he had his struggles, but his career numbers and how he affected and inspired Black pitchers changed the game forever. (Credit: Sports Illustrated)

In a time when African-Americans were not getting the recognition they do now in the sport of baseball, everyone points to Jackie Robinson for breaking the barriers of race, and rightfully so. What he was able to do impacted not just the world of sports, but the world socially. We have to give him his flowers, but there have been many great African-American players that have paved the way for many brothers in the sport today. One of these played in the NL Central against my Cubs. Today, we are going to talk about Bob Gibson and what made him so good.

Nicknamed “Hoot”, Gibson was born on November 9, 1935 in Omaha, Nebraska in a family with seven children. Unfortunately, Gibson never really got to know his father as he died of tuberculosis three months before he was born. Funny things to know was that he was given the nickname Pack Robert Gibson. He hated it and later on legally dropped it from his official name. Gibson did not have the best of childhood. Due to rickets, which is a condition that makes the legs curve outwards, he also struggled with health as he was diagnosed with respiratory disease. Yet, he still loved sports which included basketball and baseball. He also did track in high school. While majoring in sociology at Creighton, he also had a basketball scholarship and averaged 22.0 points per game in his junior year, which led the Harlem Globetrotters to be interested in him, but so too…