August 14, 1971: Gibby Tosses a No No In Pittsburgh

On August 14, 1971, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Bob Gibson became the sixth pitcher in franchise history to throw a no-hitter. Gibby's no no was assisted by a 16 hit attack that led to an 11-0 win for the Cardinals. His backstop Ted Simmons not only caught the no no, he picked up four hits, knocked in a run, and scored three times. Joe Torre also delivered a 4 hit performance while Joe Hague set the tone early with a three run home run in the first. Gibson also contributed to the offense with a sac fly that scored a run and a two rbi single in the eighth. The Cardinals hurler scattered 3 walks, while striking out 10 as he added the no-hitter to his already impressive resume. Future Hall of Famer Willie Stargell struck out three times in the game, which included the final out of the contest. When asked about it the next morning Gibson said "It was simply that everything went just right." he went onto say "For the most part I was throwing good pitches, my fastball was alive and the slider was hitting the corners. When I did miss with a pitch, I didn't get hurt." He also said he talked about the fact he had a no hitter going in the dugout while it was in progress, Gibson didn't believe in any kind of jinx, he thought the only thing he had to worry about was the Pirates batters. The win was #201 for Gibby and the first no hitter thrown in the Steel City since 1907.  It was the only no-hitter of Gibson's career, at that point he was a 35 year old veteran that had dismissed the notion of achieving the feat, then it happened. Gibson won 251 games in his career, 56 of those games were shutouts. Despite that fact, he had relatively few low hit games in his career, he pitched only one one-hitter and seven two-hitters.

You can listen to Pirates announcer Bob Prince make the call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igUJqxKcCMM

Here's the box score: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197108140.shtml