Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals were the dominant pitchers of the 1960s, a decade that saw plenty of outstanding pitching. While Koufax rang up incomparable numbers in a four-year stretch before an ailing arm ended his career prematurely, Gibson continued to excel into the 1970s. Fans of the era had a tough time choosing between them.
Koufax's statistics were cramped at the beginning because of the abstruse 1950's rules for dealing with the rare players who got signing bonuses. He had to be placed on the Dodgers' roster at age 19 without minor league seasoning, and languished without success from 1955 to 1961, when he broke through with 18 victories and a 3.52 earned run average. Following up with a 14-7 record in 1962 with an ERA of 2.54, he soared to spectacular heights over the next four years with records of 25-5, 19-5, 26-8, and 27-9. His ERA's were 1.88, 1.74, 2.04 and 1.73, respectively. Moreover, he pitched a no-hitter in each of those seasons, including a perfect game in 1965, when he also established a strikeout record of 382..
Gibson, by contrast, came up at age 23 and two years later began a streak of fourteen straight seasons of double-digit victories. He won 20 games five times and 19 twice more. His 1968 ERA of 1.12 remains the lowest since the end of the "dead ball" era in 1920. In fact, Gibson's 1968 season was one of the finest in baseball history. He went 22-9, pitched 28 complete games and 13 shutouts, and had 268 strikeouts. In the World Series opener, his 17 strikeouts broke Koufax's 1963 record of 15. Ironically, Gibson, twice a Series Most Valuable Player, lost his bid for an unprecedented second three-victory Series as he lost the final game to three-game winner Mickey Lolich of the Detroit Tigers.
The argument about these two great pitchers comes down to how much value to attach to four brilliant seasons studded with record book achievements plus a couple of other good years, versus twice as many excellent seasons with a few records also attached. Does one factor in what might have been if Koufax hadn't been required to waste years on the bench, or if he hadn't suffered career-ending arm problems?
Suffice it to say that Gibson and Koufax were the two most overpowering hurlers in a decade that included Juan Marichal, Jim Bunning, Jim Palmer, Whitey Ford's two biggest seasons, the beginning of Tom Seaver, and the last 20-win season of Warren Spahn. You couldn't go wrong with either in his prime.
