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

On this episode of Our American Stories, our next story comes to us from Jeff Bloodworth who is a professor of American history at Gannon University and is a Jack Miller Center fellow.

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Episode Transcript

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 and 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 bloe 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 six
Deforceivil 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 as do politics.

(02:22):
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 people could promote it.

(02:44):
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 nineteen fifty three, however, Gussie Bush,
the Ennheuser Busch magnate, purchased the team, and at his

(03:09):
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 Beard everyone. A decade later,

(03:29):
the Cardinals fielded a bevy of black ball players, including
Bill White, Kurt Flood, Lou 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, Bob Gibson, and
Dick Groat played bridge before every game. They set an example.

(03:53):
The team leaders set a tone, but it was Gibson
and McCarver who defined the team's racial died Amos. Pitcher
and Catcher have a relationship, whether they want to or not.
The African American Gibson was a fireballing rity whose pride
and intensity and will to win came from a hard,
scrabbled childhood field with racial slights. In nineteen sixty four,

(04:18):
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, Tom Macarver. Implicit trust
was necessary. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, harbored his native regions prejudices.

(04:41):
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 I was a kid.
It was a substantial thing to overcome. Early on, Macarry struggled.

(05:01):
At the nineteen fifty nine spring training Gibson boarded the
team bus and noticed the young Southern drinking in orange soda.
Fully aware that Macarver would not want to share a
drink with a black man, Gibson asked, can I have
a swipe? Stunned, Macarver refused and mumbled, I'll save you some.

(05:22):
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 had become best of
friends to be friend. Gibson was no small act, described
by teammates as a Samurai warrior who happened to pitch.

(05:43):
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 manage the famously gruff
and hard driving Gibson. Gibson was the fiercest competitor of
his generation on the mound. He glowered at opponents even

(06:07):
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 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 Mcarver came to admire his

(06:28):
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. The team fed
on Gibson's intensity and dominance, even on days he did
dump pitch. And it was the Gibson Macarver relationship which

(06:50):
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 of credit. It
was the first time I ever saw white man change
before my eyes. Mcarver always believed their team was successful

(07:13):
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 versus
the Midwest power versus speed, an integrated team versus the
basically all white Yankees. The speedy Cardinals stole bases with

(07:37):
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 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,

(08:00):
Gibson pitch hen Heroict Gennings, but it was Mcarver who
won the game with a tenth inning home run. In
the clubhouse, Gibson was photographed embracing and 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

(08:23):
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. With the home run.
It was seven to three.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
In the ninth.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
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 for
someone in the bullpen, but Gibson retired Richardson and the

(08:58):
Cardinals won the game and the series. Macarver leapt 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 twenty three,
Macarver also passed away. In nineteen sixty four, forty eight

(09:22):
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. Black and
white could not only work together, they could love one

(09:44):
another and in doing so, become the best versions of themselves.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
And 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 history a 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