1967 World Series
The 1967 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 1967 season. The 64th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League champion Boston Red Sox and the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals. In a rematch of the 1946 World Series, the Cardinals won in seven games for their second championship in four years and their eighth overall. The Series was played from October 4 to 12 at Fenway Park and Busch Memorial Stadium. It was the first World Series since 1948 that did not feature the Yankees, Dodgers, or Giants. This was the first World Series where the winning team was presented the Commissioner's Trophy.
As of, this is the last time the Cardinals won the World Series on the road.
Background
This was the sixth meeting between teams from Boston and St. Louis for a major professional sports championship.Boston Red Sox
The "Impossible Dream" Red Sox were led by triple crown winner Carl Yastrzemski and ace pitcher Jim Lonborg, who won the American League Cy Young Award. The Red Sox reached the World Series by emerging victorious from a dramatic four-team pennant race that revitalized interest in the team after eight straight losing seasons. Going into the last week of the season, the Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, and Chicago White Sox were all within one game of each other in the standings. The White Sox lost their last five games to fall out of the race. Meanwhile, the Red Sox and Twins met in Boston for the final two games of the season, with Minnesota—who won the AL Pennant two years earlier—holding a one-game lead. Boston swept the Twins, but needed to wait out the result of the Tigers' doubleheader with the California Angels in Detroit. A Detroit sweep would have enabled them to tie the Red Sox for first place. The Tigers won the first game but the Angels won the nightcap, enabling the Red Sox to claim their first pennant since 1946.St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals won 101 games en route to the National League pennant, with a team featuring All-Stars Orlando Cepeda, Lou Brock, Tim McCarver, and 1964 World Series MVP Bob Gibson, as well as former two-time American League MVP Roger Maris and Curt Flood. Twenty-two-year-old Steve Carlton won 14 games in his first full major league season, beginning what was to be a lengthy and very successful career. The Cardinals overcame the absence of Bob Gibson, who missed almost one-third of the season with a broken leg on July 15 suffered when he was struck by a ball hit by Pittsburgh's Roberto Clemente. Gibson still managed to win 13 games, and while he was out, Nelson Briles filled his spot in the rotation brilliantly, winning nine consecutive games as the Cardinals led the N.L. comfortably for most of the season, eventually winning by games over the San Francisco Giants.Summary
Pitching dominated this World Series, with Bob Gibson leading the Cardinals. Lonborg pitched the decisive final game of the regular season for Boston, so he was unable to start Game 1. Facing José Santiago, Gibson and St. Louis won the Series opener, 2–1. Maris knocked in both of St. Louis' runs with third and seventh-inning grounders. Santiago pitched brilliantly and homered in the third inning off Gibson for the Red Sox' only run.Gibson cemented his reputation as an unhittable postseason pitcher in this series, allowing only three total runs over three complete games. His efforts allowed the Cardinals to triumph despite the hitting of Yastrzemski, and pitching of Lonborg, who allowed only one run total in his complete-game wins in Games 2 and 5. In Game 2, Yastrzemski belted two homers but the story was Lonborg. The Boston ace retired the first 19 Cardinals he faced until he walked Curt Flood with one out in the seventh inning. He had a no-hitter until Julián Javier doubled down the left field line with two out in the eighth. Lonborg settled for a one-hit shutout in which he faced only 29 batters.
In St. Louis, the El Birdos took Games 3 and 4, with Briles pitching the home team to a 5–2 victory, and Gibson tossing a 6–0 whitewashing. With the Cardinals leading 3 games to 1, Lonborg kept the Bosox in the series with a 3–1 victory in Game 5. The 25-year-old righthander tossed two-hit shutout ball over innings, then finally gave up a run when Maris homered to right.
Going for the clincher at Fenway Park in Game 6, the visiting team took a 2–1 lead going into the fourth inning when Dick Hughes gave up a record three homers in a single inning. Yastrzemski led off the inning with a long drive over the wall in left center and, two outs later, rookie Reggie Smith and Rico Petrocelli hammered consecutive shots. Brock tied the game with a two-run homer in the seventh, but Boston responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of that inning and went on for the 8–4 triumph to tie the series at three games all. The Cardinals set a World Series record using eight pitchers.
The decisive Game 7 featured Gibson and Lonborg facing each other for the first time in the series, but Lonborg was starting on only two days' rest and was unable to compete with Gibson, who allowed only three hits over the course of a complete game. Going into Game 7, both pitchers were 2–0 in the series with Gibson giving up four hits in 18 innings and Lonborg surrendering a single run and four hits in his 18. Something had to give—and it was Lonborg. The Cardinal ace clearly dominated the finale, allowing only three hits, striking out 10 batters and even adding a home run blast of his own in the fifth. Javier added a three-run shot off Lonborg in the sixth and Gibson cruised to the decisive 7–2 victory. He now boasted a 5–1 record and a 2.00 ERA in two World Series, with 57 strikeouts in 54 innings and only 37 hits allowed.
Matchups
Game 1
In attendance for the opening match-up were Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, both Massachusetts natives and supporters of the Red Sox.Ace Bob Gibson, who sat out July and August with a broken leg, started Game 1 for the Cardinals while 21-year-old José Santiago started for the Red Sox. Santiago, starting because Sox ace Jim Lonborg had pitched the final day of the regular season, won seven straight second-half games helping Boston stave off the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins to win the pennant by one game in a tightly fought race.
Pitching was prime as Gibson and Santiago seemed to have their best stuff for this afternoon game at Fenway. The Cards got on the board in the top of the third on a leadoff single to center by Lou Brock, a double by Curt Flood, and a Roger Maris groundout to first scoring Brock from third. The Sox came right back to tie the score in the bottom of the same inning. After Bob Gibson struck out Red Sox catcher Russ Gibson, Santiago helped his own cause by homering to left center field.
However, Bob Gibson was masterful the rest of the way finishing with ten strikeouts, allowing just six hits with one walk. Santiago matched Gibson until the top of the seventh when Brock again led off with a single to right, promptly stole second base, and eventually scored on back-to-back groundouts by Flood and Maris. That run would hold up for a 2–1 Cardinal win, but Lonborg was waiting in the wings to start Game 2.
Game 2
enjoyed his best season as a professional in 1967 capturing the Cy Young Award with an A.L. best 22 wins, was tops with 246 strikeouts, and had an impressive earned run average of 3.16. Lonborg continued his superb pitching starting Game 2 for the Red Sox and for innings, the Cardinals could only manage one baserunner, a seventh inning walk by Curt Flood. After Tim McCarver and Mike Shannon led off the eighth with groundouts, Julián Javier turned a Lonborg fastball around, lining a double into the left-field corner breaking up his no-hitter. Bobby Tolan, pinch-hitting for weak-hitting Dal Maxvill, ended the inning by grounding out to second-base. Lonborg retired the side in order in the ninth ending the game as close to perfect, giving up just one hit and one walk while striking out four.Carl Yastrzemski provided more than enough offense by homering in the fourth and adding a three-run shot in the seventh The other Red Sox run came in the sixth inning on walks to George Scott and Reggie Smith and a sacrifice-fly by shortstop Rico Petrocelli. The final score was 5–0 to even up the series at one game apiece with an upcoming journey to St. Louis for Game 3.
Game 3
After "Sleepwalking in Boston", the St. Louis Cardinals came out of their hitting slumber and tagged Boston starter Gary Bell for three runs on five hits in the first two innings of Game 3. A former 16-game winner for the Cleveland Indians, Bell was an early-season pickup who pitched well in 29 games for the Sox going 12–8 with an ERA of 3.16. But he didn't have his best stuff against the Cardinals' starter, 23-year-old Nelson Briles. Briles, after losing 15 games in 1966, alternated between middle-relief and starting pitching in '67, and finished with a neat 14-win, five-loss record and an even neater 2.43 ERA.The great table-setter Lou Brock started things rolling in the first with a triple to left-center. Curt Flood followed with a single to center scoring Brock for the game's first run. In the second, Tim McCarver led off with a single to center followed by a Mike Shannon home run to left. Ineffective Gary Bell was pinch-hit for in the third inning, replaced by Gary Waslewski. Waslewski pitched three perfect innings, striking out three before leaving in the sixth for relief pitcher Lee Stange.
Boston scored their first run in the sixth with Mike Andrews,, singling to center. Andrews took second on a Tartabull sacrifice, immediately scoring on a Dalton Jones base hit to right. But the Cards added some insurance in the bottom of the frame with the disconcerting Brock bunting for a hit, eventually going to third when Stange, attempting a pick-off, threw wild into right-field. Roger Maris, in his next-to-last season, would have a good Series with ten hits and a home run, scored Brock with a single to right-center.
In the seventh Reggie Smith hit a lead-off home run for Boston, trimming the score to 4–2 but the Cards stifled any further Sox comeback scoring their fifth run in the bottom of the eighth when Maris beat out an infield tap for a single and Orlando Cepeda muscled a double off the wall in right-center making the score 5–2. Briles would finish his complete-game victory with a 1–2–3 ninth, the second out recorded when Reggie Smith would interfere with McCarver who was trying to catch his pop-up foul down the first-base line. Up two games to one, St. Louis would send Bob Gibson back to the mound, a championship within reach.