Summer of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball--And America--Forever (18 page)

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Entering the ’68 season, the St. Louis Cardinals were poised to win their third World Series championship in five years. Ahead of their time, the Cardinals’ lineup was made up of blacks, whites, and Latinos.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.

Tim McCarver, like any good catcher, knew how to earn a pitcher’s trust. During his twenty-one years in the majors, he called the signals for such Hall of Fame pitchers as Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton. McCarver went on to a successful second career in the broadcast booth.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.

Orlando Cepeda was heartbroken when he was dealt from the San Francisco Giants to the Cardinals early in the 1966 season. But the Puerto Rican star soon realized he had joined a team built to win titles.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.

Mike Shannon helped supply the power for a Cardinals’ team built on pitching, speed and defense. He also became a popular broadcaster after retiring as a player.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.

No one was more eloquent than presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in the hours after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. Speaking from the heart and from few notes, he urged a crowd in Indianapolis, shown here, “to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.” When he was finished, many rushed the platform to reach out to him.

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Robert Kennedy was assassinated eight weeks after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. Maury Wills, then playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, refused to play the day after Kennedy’s murder. Instead Wills stayed in the training room, reading Kennedy’s book
To Seek a Newer World
.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.

Pirates’ star Roberto Clemente was also ready to sit out the game, as well, but changed his mind after meeting with Pittsburgh manager Larry Shepard. “I preferred not to play,” Clemente later said.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.

In Cincinnati, pitcher Milt Pappas was adamant that his team shouldn’t take the field against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals. After the game, Pappas resigned as player rep. Less than seventy-two hours later, Pappas was traded to Atlanta.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.

Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers set the bar high for pitching excellence in 1968 by hurling six consecutive shutouts. His fifty-eight-scoreless-inning record would stand for twenty years until another Dodger pitcher, Orel Hershiser, broke it. Drysdale is shown in his first start after Robert Kennedy’s assassination. Note the black armband.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.

Despite pitching five no-hitters in high school, some ballclubs considered Jim “Catfish” Hunter to be damaged goods due to a hunting accident. Athletics’ owner Charlie Finley was convinced that the right-hander could win at the big-league level and Hunter rewarded him with a perfect game in 1968.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.