This is an iHeart Podcast. 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.
Change. Historians obsess over it. We haggle, debate, and argue over who and what causes social transformation. In lectures and books, historians must always focus upon elite actors. But we also understand that change comes from average folks.
Uh America's civil rights narrative exemplifies this. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Diane Nash. are household names, and rightfully so. Uh 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 Gibson and McCarver are well known. Both played Major League Baseball for the Saint Louis Cardinals. But in October 1964, the duo was anything but famous.
The celebrities were in the other duck out. They played for the New York Yankees. Yogi Bera was the manager. The likes of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were Yankees. who were the greatest dynasty in American sports history.
In the previous 18 years, they had won 15 American League pennants and 10 World Series. Beyond baseball, 1964 was a significant year. That year witnessed LBJ's landslide victory over Barry Goldwater. The Americanization of the Vietnam War, and of course, the 1964 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. as do politics. The 1964 Civil Rights Act transformed America.
MLK marched for it. Congress passed it. and LBJ signed it into law. But in the 1964 World Series, Bob Gibson and Tim McCarver revealed that integration. was already underway.
enforces beyond the law. The people could promote it. The St. 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 1953, however, Gussie Bush, the Anheuser-Busch magnate. Purchase the team.
And at his first spring trading he asked, Where are the black players? Told that St. Louis didn't field African Americans, Bush replied. How can it be the great American game if blacks still play? Heck.
We sell beer to everyone. A decade later, 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. the team leaders set a tone.
But it was Gibson and McCarver who defined the team's racial dynamics. Pitcher and catcher have a relationship whether they want to or not. The African-American Gibson was a fireballing ridey whose pride and intensity and will to win. Came from a hard-scrabbled childhood filled with racial slights. In 1964, 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 McCarver. Implicit trust was necessary. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, McCarver harbored his native region's prejudices. Years later, he said, When I was signed by the Cardinals in the late 50s, 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, LeCarver struggled. At the 1959 spring training, Gibson boarded the team bus and noticed the young Southerner drinking Norn soda. Fully aware that McCarver would not want to share a drink with a black man, Gibson asks. Can I have a swig?
Stunned, McCarver refused and mumbled. I'll save you some. Gibson was testing his teammate. By 1964, the catcher had earned Gibson's professional respect. But the two, which surely surprised themselves more than anyone, had become best of friends.
To befriend 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 they're sold. and McCarver, in 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 when he dominated, which he often did. Gibson was in a bad mood. In one game, McCarver 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 McCarver came to admire his friend's passion. When the manager pressed McCarver for a mound visit, He would take one look at his glowering teammate and best friend and walk halfway to the mound. in an attempt to appease both manager and pitcher. The team fed on Gibson's intensity and dominance.
even on days he did not pitch. and it was the Gibson-McCarver relationship which enabled the star to shine. and the clubhouse to hum. Gibson said of his teammate, McCarver ultimately did a 180 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 a white man change before my eyes. McCarver always believed their team was successful. because it came together years before they won. The 1964 World Series was a clash of opposites.
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 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, Gibson pitched 10 heroic innings. But it was McCarver who won the game with a 10th inning home run. In the clubhouse, Gibson was photographed embracing and kissing McCarver 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 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 a home run.
It was seven to three in the night. 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 13 base hits. The Cardinals did not remove Gibson for someone in the bullpen.
But Gibson retired Richardson. and the Cardinals won the game. and the series. McCarver leaped into Gibson's arms. The two embraced.
and a sense they never let go. Lifelong confidants, McCarver and Gibson remained incredibly close until Gibson's death in 2020. In February 2023, McCarver also passed away. In 1964, 48% of Americans named baseball their favorite sport. Nearly one-third of all Americans watched the 1964 World Series on television.
or listen via radio. They saw and heard what was possible in an integrated America. Black and white can not only work together, They could love one another. and in doing so become the best versions of themselves. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Kengler.
And a special thanks to Jeff Bloodworth, who's a professor of American 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 in history. To learn more, visit jackmillercenter.org. And what a scene one-third of Americans saw in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was just taking effect.
leading the charge before it. Tim McCarver and Bob Gibson buy their example. One third of Americans watched that 1964 World Series and watched this black man and this white man work together, play together, and love each other. The Story of Bob Gibson and Tim McCarver. The story of the 1964 World Series here.
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