The Black Pitcher and White Catcher That Made the 1964 World Series Unforgettable

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Our next story
comes to us from Jeff Bloodworth, who's a professor of
American history at Gannon University. He's also a Jack Miller
Center fellow. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Change historians obsess over it. We haggle, debate, and argue
over who and what causes social transformation. In lectures and books,
historians most always focus upon elite actors, but we also
understand that change comes from average folks. America's civil rights

(00:48):
narrative exemplifies this. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, John Lewis,
and Diane Nash our household names, and rightfully so. But
change also comes from below, and in terms of civil rights,
two twenty something kids, Bob Gibson and Tim McCarver demonstrate
that social transformations are also made by those from below. Today,

(01:14):
Gibson and macarver are well known. Both played Major League
Baseball for the Saint Louis Cardinals, but in October nineteen
sixty four, the duo was anything but famous. The celebrities
were in the other duckout. They played for the New
York Yankees. Yogi Barra was the manager. The likes of

(01:34):
Mickey Mannel and Roger Marris were Yankees who were the
greatest dynasty in American sports history. In the previous eighteen years,
they had won fifteen American League Pennants and ten World Series.
Beyond baseball, nineteen sixty four was a significant year. That
year witnessed lbj's landslide victory over Barry Goldwater, the americanization

(01:57):
of the Vietnam War, and, of course, the nineteen sixteen
for Civil Rights Act. The legislation forbade racial and gender
discrimination in jobs and public accommodations. In effect, it ended
Jim Crow racial segregation and legal discrimination based on race
and gender. This law created modern America. Laws matter greatly

(02:19):
as do politics. The nineteen sixty four Civil Rights Ack
transformed America. MLK marched for it, Congress passed it, and
LBJ signed it into law. But in the nineteen sixty
four World Series, Bob Gibson and Tim McCarver revealed that
integration was already underway in forces beyond the law. The

(02:41):
people could promote it. The Saint Louis Cardinals were a
most unlikely source of this change. Southern style Jim Crow
segregation was practiced in the city Historically, the Cardinals were
the team of the South. For generations, Southerners had listened
to Cardinals games on the radio throughout the region. In

(03:01):
nineteen fifty three, however, Gussie Bush, the Ennheuser Bush magnate,
purchased the team, and at his first spring training he asked,
where are the black players? Told that Saint Louis didn't
field African Americans, Bush replied, how can it be the
great American game if blacks don't play? Heck we sell

(03:26):
Beard everyone. A decade later, the Cardinals fielded a bevy
of black ball players, including Bill White, Kurt flood, Low Brock,
and Bob Gibson. But these players were more than stars
in the field. They were leaders in the clubhouse. During
the season, an interracial mix of players Bill White, Ken Boyer,

(03:46):
Bob Gibson, and Dick Groat played bridge before every game.
They set an example. The team leaders set a tone,
but it was Gibson and McCarver who defined the team's
racial dynam Pitcher and catcher have a relationship, whether they
want to or not. The African American Gibson was a

(04:07):
fireballing rity whose pride and intensity and will to win
came from a hard scrabbled childhood field with racial slights.
In nineteen sixty four, the twenty nine year old had
yet to fully channel his passion and skill. To do so,
he depended upon his twenty three year old teammate, Tim macarver.

(04:32):
Implicit trust was necessary. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, harbored his
native regions prejudices. Years later, he said, when I was
signed by the Cardinals in the late fifties, I had
never played against a black man, much less with one.
I heard prejudice spoken around me all the time when

(04:52):
I was a kid. It was a substantial thing to overcome.
Early on, McCarver struggled. At the nineteen fifty nine spring
training Gibson boarded the team bus and noticed the young
Southern drinking orange soda. Fully aware that macarver would not
want to share a drink with a black man, Gibson asked,

(05:14):
can I have a swipe? Stunned, Macarver refused and mumbled,
I'll save you some. Gibson was testing his teammate. By
nineteen sixty four, the catcher had earned Gibson's professional respect,
but the two which surely surprised themselves more than anyone

(05:34):
had become best of friends to be friend. Gibson was
no small act, described by teammates as a Samurai warrior
who happened to pitch. Gibson chose his friends not based
on their ability on the ball field, but their soul.
And Macarver and Gibson's estimation had proven himself. He not
only easily socialized with black teammates, he learned how to

(05:56):
manage the famously gruff and hard driving Gibson. Gibson was
the fiercest competitor of his generation on the mound. He
glowered at opponents even when he dominated, which he often did.
Gibson was in a bad mood in one game. Macarver
went to the mound to confer with Gibson and recalled

(06:17):
Gibson told me to get back behind the plate where
I belonged, and that the only thing I knew about
pitching was that I couldn't hit it. But McCarver came
to admire his friend's passion. When the manager pressed macarver
for a mound visit, he would take one look at
his glowering teammate and best friend and walked halfway to
the mound and an attempt to appease both manager and pitcher.

(06:41):
The team fed on Gibson's intensity and dominance, even on
days he did not pitch, and it was the Gibson
Macarver relationship which enabled to start a Shine and the
clubhouse to hum. Gibson said of his teammate, McCarver ultimately
did one hundred and eighty turnabout in his racial attitude.
I have to give him a heck of a lot

(07:03):
of credit. It was the first time I ever saw
white man change before my eyes. Mcarver always believed their
team was successful because it came together years before they won.
The nineteen sixty four World Series was a clash of opposites.
The Yankees versus Cardinals was a contest between East Coast

(07:26):
versus the Midwest power versus speed, an integrated team versus
the basically all white Yankees. The speedy Cardinals stole bases
with their legs and hits with their gloves. They played
with verve and daring. It was a new, faster game
defined by black and white. The Yankees were what they

(07:47):
had been for half a century, sluggers who sought to
pound their opponents into submission. The clash of opposites did
not disappoint. The teams traded wins back and forth. In
pivotal Game five, Gibson pitch hen heroic geninnings, but it
was Mcarver who won the game with a tenh thinning
home run. In the clubhouse, Gibson was photographed embracing and

(08:09):
kissing Macarver on the cheek, flashing a rare smile. He
told Macarver in earshot of reporters, I love you. Two
days later, Gibson pitched the penultimate Game seven. The Cardinals
jumped out to a six to nothing lead. Pitching on
short rest, Gibson grunted with every pitch from the seventh
inning on Mantle cut the lead to six to three

(08:32):
with the home run. It was seven to three. In
the ninth. Gibson promptly gave up two homers to cut
the lead seven to five. Bobby Richardson stepped to the plate.
The Yankee second baseman had already set a series record
with thirteen base hits. The Cardinals did not remove Gibson

(08:52):
for someone in the bullpen, but Gibson retired Richardson and
the Cardinals won the game and the series. Macarver leaped
into Gibson's arms. The two embraced in a sense they
never let go. Lifelong confidants, Macarver and Gibson remained incredibly
close until Gibson's death in twenty twenty. In February twenty

(09:16):
twenty three, Macarver also passed away. In nineteen sixty four,
forty eight percent of Americans named baseball their favorite sport.
Nearly one third of all Americans watched the nineteen sixty
four World Series on television or listened via radio. They
saw and heard what was possible in an integrated America.

(09:40):
Black and white could not only work together, they could
love one another and in doing so, become the best
versions of themselves.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Had a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to
Jeff Bludworth, who's a professor of American in history at
Cannon University and he is also a Jack Miller Center Fellow.
And The Jack Miller Center is a nationwide network of
scholars and teachers dedicated to educating the next generation about
America's founding principles and history. To learn more, visit Jackmillercenter

(10:16):
dot org and what a Scene One third of Americans
saw in nineteen sixty four the Civil Rights Act was
just taking effect, leading the charge before it. Tim McCarver
and Bob Gibson, by their example, third of Americans watched
that nineteen sixty four World Series and watch this black
man and this white man work together, play together, and

(10:39):
love each other. The story of Bob Gibson and Tim McCarver,
The story of the nineteen sixty four World Series. Here
on our American Stories