Hall of Fame Thursday - Bob Gibson

1970 Topps #530 Bob Gibson

This week Philadelphia Phan Favorite Jamie Moyer tied the immortal Bob Gibson for career wins at 251. Of course it took Moyer 6 seasons and roughly 120 more games to accomplish the feat. Still it is an impressive accomplishment.

Bob Gibson played 17 seasons with the St Louis Cardinals. In addition to his 251 wins, 3117 strikeouts, 2 Cy Young awards, and an NL MVP in 1968 (22-9, 1.12 ERA) Gibson was a tremendous Post Season pitcher. He was the Ace for three of the Cards World Series teams (1964, 67, 68) two of which won defeating the New York Yankees in 1964 and the Boston Red Sox in 1968. His career World Series record was 7-2 with an ERA of 1.89 over 81 innings pitched. He completed 8 of his 9 World Series Starts.

In addition to being a great pitcher Gibson was also a good fielder who collected nine Gold Gloves and competent hitter with 2 World Series Homers on his resume.

For The Collector:

There are a variety of Bob Gibson Autos out there with the 94 Nabisco All-Star Legends Card going for $9.51 in a recent auction. The 94 Nabisco cards are an unliscensed product thus Gibson is not identified as a Cardinal. If you're interested in Hall of Fame autos for cheap the 94 Nabisco's are a good way to go with lots of the entire set occaisionally popping up on eBay. Other autos that are liscensed include the 1997 Donruss Significant Signature (12.88), 99 Fleer SI Greats of the Game (13.50) and the rather sharp 2008 Sweet Spot ($25.50)

The Bob Gibson Rookie Card is the much coveted 1959 Topps #514. The Gibson rookie is among the High Series of 1959 cards thus it is scarcer then the other cards in the set. Recent auctions of the card (ungraded) have gone as low as $61 with a few selling in the low $70s. Graded Cards (BGS 7 Very Good+) have sold for as low as $140. The high end for the card (PSA 8 NM) was $924.88.

1970 Bob Gibson cards in crap condition like the one above can likely be had for less than a dollar. I don't recall but I am fairly sure this one was in that range.

Price quotes above are from ebay completed auctions and include shipping. Any links to cards are strictly to show an example of the card and are not a site endorsement.