In the same year Bob Gibson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, he was fired by the Mets.
Rather than close the door to baseball jobs, the dismissal gave Gibson a chance to explore other possibilities. Those options included:
_ Working for Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
_ Replacing Dave Duncan as pitching coach of an American League team.
_ Reuniting with Joe Torre as pitching coach of a National League team.
New games
After pitching his last game for the Cardinals in 1975, Gibson went home to Omaha. He had investments in a bank and a radio station, and opened a restaurant near the campus of Creighton University, his alma mater. Gibson’s only connection to baseball was some television broadcasting for ABC and HBO.
In his book “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said he was offered the job of pitching coach on the staff of Giants manager Joe Altobelli when Herm Starrette left to join the Phillies after the 1978 season. Gibson said he declined because he was preoccupied with opening his restaurant.
(The Giants hired Larry Shepard, former Pirates manager and Reds pitching coach. If Gibson had taken the job, one of the pitchers he’d have coached on the 1979 Giants was Vida Blue. As intriguing as that is to consider, it turned out for the best that Gibson turned down the Giants. Altobelli was fired before the completion of the 1979 season.)
Later, Gibson was interested in returning to the Cardinals organization as manager of their Class AAA farm club. In 1980, the Omaha World-Herald reported, “If Hal Lanier had not returned this year as manager of Springfield in the American Association, the job might have gone to Bob Gibson.”
A. Ray Smith, owner of the farm club, said he “had a deal with Gibson … we had an agreement” if the job became available, according to the Omaha newspaper.
Instead, Gibson made his return to baseball with the Mets, who were managed by friend and former teammate Joe Torre. On Oct. 23, 1980, the Mets announced Gibson was joining Torre’s coaching staff. The Mets had a pitching coach, Rube Walker. In his autobiography, Gibson said Torre told him his job was to be an “attitude coach.”
“Rube is a fine, settling influence on the pitchers,” Torre told The Sporting News. “They have great respect for him, but he can carry them just so far. Maybe Gibson can carry them the rest of the way. Maybe he can light a fire in some of them.”
Gibson said to The Sporting News, “You can’t teach competitiveness, but you can work on attitude. If you can improve a player’s attitude, he may become more competitive.”
In and out
In January 1981, three months after the Mets hired him, Gibson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first appearance on the ballot. He got 84 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Two other first-time candidates _ Harmon Killebrew (59.6 percent) and Juan Marichal (58.1 percent) _ failed to get enough support. Others falling short included Don Drysdale (60.6 percent), Red Schoendienst (41.4 percent) and Orlando Cepeda (19.2 percent).
The 1981 Mets were a bad team (41-62) in a strike-shortened season. The pitching staff Gibson worked with included two fading Cy Young Award winners (Randy Jones and Mike Marshall), a future Cy Young Award winner (Mike Scott), a closer nearing his peak (Neil Allen) and a future closer (Jeff Reardon).
In his autobiography, Gibson said, “As it turned out, my role became largely one of a counselor for the likes of our two talented relief pitchers, Neil Allen and Jeff Reardon, both of whom were having difficulty dealing with their identities on the team as well as their working relationship with each other. Reardon thought he was deserving of Allen’s role as closer.”
In his book “Chasing the Dream,” Torre said, “Gibby had tremendous knowledge to give pitchers but was willing to share it only with people who sincerely wanted to listen. A lot of pitchers don’t think they need help, and Bob was turned off by those types and wouldn’t hesitate to show them his gruff side.”
When the season ended, Torre and his coaches were fired.
Torre said in his autobiography that Gibson “took it much harder than I did … The rejection devastated him.”
Decisions, decisions
Bill Bergesch, who signed Gibson for the Cardinals in 1957, was vice president of baseball operations for the Yankees in 1981. When the Mets fired Gibson, Bergesch offered him a job in player development for the Yankees. In his autobiography, Gibson said the job was to be minor-league pitching coordinator.
Meanwhile, Cleveland Indians pitching coach Dave Duncan left for Seattle to become pitching coach of the Mariners for manager Rene Lachemann. The Indians inquired about the availability of Gibson for manager Dave Garcia’s staff, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. According to The Sporting News, Gibson was offered the job.
Of the two opportunities, the Yankees tempted Gibson the most because of Bergesch’s association with the club, Gibson said in his autobiography. Bergesch told Gibson he had a standing offer to work for the Yankees, Newsday reported.
Instead, when the Braves named Joe Torre their manager, Gibson accepted his offer to join the coaching staff. In his autobiography, Torre said the deal was sealed when the Braves agreed to Gibson’s demand for a two-year contract.
Gibson told Newsday he took the job in order to add more major-league service time toward his pension plan.
“I do want to work in player development,” Gibson said to Newsday, “but I need three years (in uniform in the majors) to get 20 years on my pension. I figured this is the time.”
Torre also hired Rube Walker for the Braves coaching staff, but, unlike with the Mets, Gibson was named pitching coach and Walker took a secondary role. “We divided up the duties to everybody’s satisfaction,” Gibson said in his autobiography. “Mine included being a lieutenant, more or less, to Torre.”
How it went
Gibson was a soap opera fan _ his favorites were “All My Children” and “Ryan’s Hope,” according to Newsday’s Marty Noble _ but it’s hard to imagine he would have liked being caught in the drama involving the Yankees had he gone there.
The 1982 Yankees used five pitching coaches. When the season began, Jeff Torborg and Jerry Walker shared the role. Stan Williams took over in April, then Clyde King succeeded Williams in June. A month later, Sammy Ellis replaced King. Ellis had been pitching coach at the Yankees’ Columbus farm club. If Gibson had been employed by the Yankees, it’s easy to imagine him being included in the shuffle of pitching coaches.
The 1982 Cleveland Indians went with Mel Queen as the replacement for Dave Duncan as pitching coach and he worked with a staff that included a pair of former Cardinals pitchers, John Denny and Lary Sorensen.
With Torre and Gibson, the Braves won a division title in 1982 but were ousted by the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.
The good times didn’t last long. After the 1984 season, Torre was fired by club owner Ted Turner and so was Gibson. They were reunited in 1995 when Torre managed the Cardinals and added Gibson to the coaching staff as his assistant, but it was not a good year for them. Torre was fired in June, the Cardinals finished 62-81 and Gibson never coached again.