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

The holidays will be here like any second, so you're almost out of time to get your place looking good. Because when the holidays come to town, so do your friends and your family.

And sometimes their friends and family too, right? But hey, no problem. The Home Depot has everything you need to prep your home for the holidays with up to 40% off select online bath for all the easy updates, projects, and refreshes you've got planned. Get your bathroom guest ready with a modern Glacier Bay Tobana vanity for tons of extra storage space. Or give your sink a new look with a stylish Oswald Faucet in matte black. Trust me, swapping out a vanity or a faucet is quick and easy. And it'll give your bathroom a completely new look. Right now you'll save up to 40% off select online bath for your project with free delivery on all online vanities and faucets. So head to the Home Depot and make it happen before your auntie starts ringing your doorbell.

Get holiday ready right now at the Home Depot, how doers get more done. Following last year's amazing turnout, the black effect podcast network and Nissan are giving 50 HBCU steam scholars the opportunity to have an all expenses paid trip to Nissan second thrill of possibility summit. This is a remarkable opportunity to be mentored by auto tech and podcasting brightest minds. NCA and T's Marcus Scott Jr, who attended the first summit had this to say a life changing impactful experience that I've never had in my life.

Enter now to be a part of this incredible weekend. For more information, visit black effect.com slash Nissan. Introducing Uber teen accounts. If you have a teenager, you probably drive them around a lot. Maybe you're even driving them right now. New Uber teen accounts are apparent supervised Uber account with always on safety features that let your teen request a ride when you can't take them yourself. Your teen gets to ride with a highly rated driver and you get to follow along with real time notifications and live trip tracking in your Uber app. Add your team to your Uber account today.

Available in select locations. See after details. 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 most always focus upon elite actors. But we also understand that change comes from average folks. America's civil rights narrative exemplifies this Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, John Lewis and Diane Nash are household names and rightfully so.

But change also comes from below. And in terms of civil rights, 220 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 St. 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 Berra 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 and forces 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-Bush magnate, purchased the team. And at his first spring training, 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 don't 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 righty whose pride and intensity and will to win came from a hardscrabble childhood filled with racial slights. In 1964, the 29-year-old had yet to fully channel his passion and skill. To do so, he depended upon his 23-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 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, McCarver struggled. At the 1959 spring training, Gibson boarded the team bus and noticed the young southerner drinking an orange soda. Fully aware that McCarver would not like to share a drink with a black man, Gibson asked, 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 their soul. 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 it was the club house to hum.

Gibson said of his teammate, 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 McCarver 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 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 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 leapt into Gibson's arms. The two embraced. In 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 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 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 Hengler. And a special thanks to Jeff Bloodworth, who's a professor of American history at Gannon 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 by their example. One third of Americans watch that 1964 World Series and watch 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 on Our American Stories. So you can sit wherever you want and still get the perfect picture. They come loaded with all your favorite apps too, like iHeartRadio. So you can stream music, radio and podcasts straight out the box. So whether it's mesmerizing brightness, superior contrast, or high speed Wi Fi for streaming and gaming that you're after these TVs have it.

Head to Vizio.com to learn more or check them out at your favorite retailer. Football is back and NFL Plus has you covered. Get NFL Plus and you'll never miss a moment of live football action this season with live local and primetime games on mobile, NFL Network, NFL RedZone, live game audio and more all in one place. That's right. This season get NFL RedZone and NFL Plus premiums so you never miss a touchdown. That's every touchdown from every game every Sunday during the regular season across devices. Sign up today at plus.nfl.com. Terms and conditions apply.