page_title: 1964 World Series
section_title: Game 7
hierarchical_section_title: 1964 World Series / Matchups / Game 7
caption_attribution_description: English: St. Louis Cardinals pitcher en:Bob Gibson in 1962.
context_page_description: The 1964 World Series pitted the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals against the American League champion New York Yankees, with the Cardinals prevailing in the best of seven games. St. Louis won their seventh world championship, while the Yankees, who had appeared in 14 of 16 World Series since 1949, did not play in the Series again until 1976.
  In an unusual twist, the Yankees fired Yogi Berra after the Series ended, replacing him with Johnny Keane, who had resigned from the Cardinals after the Series. His job had been threatened by Cardinals management, and it was unexpectedly saved by the Cardinals' dramatic pennant drive.
  This was also the last World Series that matched the Yankees up against the Cardinals; in the previous four meetings, each team had won twice, with the Yankees winning in 1928 and 1943, and the Cardinals in 1926 and 1942.
  This pennant for the Yankees concluded their remarkable run of 15 World Series appearances over 18 years. In total, they won 29 American League championships in the 44-year span from 1921 through 1964.
context_section_description: "Something had to give" in Game 7, as the Yankees had lost back-to-back World Series only once (to the New York Giants in 1921–22), and were in danger of doing so again, having lost to the Dodgers in 1963; and the Cardinals had never lost a World Series Game 7.
  Bob Gibson pitched his third start in this Series on two days rest. He was tired but deliberately worked fast to hide his fatigue from the Yankees.  In the bottom of the fourth the Cardinals scored three times.  Again the Yankees botched a double play when Linz's throw to first went wide, and Bill White scored.  McCarver then scored from third on a double steal. Al Downing came in for the fifth after Stottlemyre developed shoulder stiffness, and Lou Brock hit his first pitch for a home run. Two more runs made it 6–0.
  Mantle cut the gap in half with a three-run homer in the sixth, adding to his own record for total home runs in the World Series. Ken Boyer responded with a home run in the seventh that pushed the lead to 7–3.  Bobby Richardson broke a World Series hit record in the seventh with his 13th hit, later tied by Brock in 1968 and Marty Barrett in 1986. Gibson continued to tire, but manager Keane left him in.  Ken Boyer's brother Clete hit a home run for New York with one out in the ninth, making the score 7–4.  Pinch-hitter Johnny Blanchard struck out.  Linz hit another home run, pulling New York to within two, 7–5, but the next batter, Richardson, popped up to second baseman Dal Maxvill and the Cardinals won the Series.
  Bob Gibson won the Series MVP award for his 2–1 record, 3.00 ERA, and 27 IP. Jim Bouton, pitching for the Yankees, started two games and won them both, compiling a 1.56 Series ERA. Six years later, he would write the classic baseball memoir, Ball Four.  After the series, the Yankees fired manager Yogi Berra and replaced him with the Cardinal manager, Keane, who quit St. Louis due to his differences with Cardinal owner Gussie Busch. Yogi Berra would go on to join the New York Mets, the following season and be re-united with Casey Stengel as a player/coach.
  The 1964 Cardinals were the only team between 1962 and 1972 to win the World Series when owning home-field advantage.
  Game 7 was the last postseason game to be played at the first Busch Stadium, and the last such game to be played in St. Louis until 1967 (at Busch Memorial Stadium, which opened during the previous season), when the Cardinals defeated the Boston Red Sox to win their next world championship. The first non-World Series postseason games to be played in St. Louis occurred in 1982, when the Cardinals defeated the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS and the then-American League Milwaukee Brewers in the World Series. The Cardinals also ended their first season at the current Busch Stadium with a World Series win over the Detroit Tigers in 2006; the Yankees (then in their first season at the current Yankee Stadium) did the same thing in 2009 by defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in that year's World Series.
caption: Bob Gibson
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