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If I recall correctly, Gibby had a 1.12 ERA in 1968. Mind boggling. One of the greatest of all time.

In a sign of the times in 1968, that only yielded a 22-9 W-L record. You would have figured 27-4 (or better), but he didn't get much run support.

He had 13 shutouts that season, but didn't get his first one until the 12th game he pitched (out of 34 starts). So, 13 of his last 23 games started he pitched a shutout. Raised mound or not, that was unreal.

Gibson completed twenty-eight of the thirty-four games he started in 1968, and was never removed in the middle of an inning—never knocked out of the box. His 1.12 earned-run average is second only to the all-time low of 1.01, established by the Red Sox’ Hub Leonard in 1914, and it eclipsed the old National League mark of 1.22, set by Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1915. Gibson’s thirteen shutouts are second only to the sixteen that Alexander achieved the following summer. But those very low early figures, it should be understood, must be slightly discounted, for they were established in the sludgy, Pleistocene era of the game, when aces like Leonard and Alexander and Walter Johnson and the White Sox’ Red Faber regularly ran off season-long earned-run averages of two runs or less per game, thanks to the dead ball then in use.

Agreed. Amazing stats, CatOwner. Gibson must have been an intimidating pitcher. He sure didn’t need any extra help from a raised mound to get batters out.