Player #101: George C. "Mooney" Gibson. Catcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1905-1916 and with the New York Giants in 1917-1918. 893 hits and 15 home runs in 14 MLB seasons. 1909 World Series champion. His best season was 1909 as he posted a .326 OBP with 52 RBIs in 571 plate appearances. During the 1909 season, he caught in 134 consecutive games, which was the record until 1940 when it was broken by Ray Mueller. His 150 games caught during the 1909 season was also a record, which stood until broken by Ray Schalk in 1920. He led the 1909 National League catchers in fielding percentage, baserunners caught stealing, and in caught stealing percentage. He also caught all seven games in Pittsburgh's 1909 World Series championship. Gibson managed the Pirates in 1920-1922, the Chicago Cubs in 1925, and the Pirates again in 1932-1934. He is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gibson's SABR biography summarizes his career as a player in MLB: Over the three-year period from 1908 to 1910, Pittsburgh Pirates catcher George Gibson averaged 144 games behind the plate per season, an unheard-of figure for a catcher during the Deadball Era. “Wagner, Clarke, and Leach have been set above all others in allotting credit for Pittsburgh’s success, but there is a deep impression in many people’s minds that ‘Gibby’ was the one best bet,” wrote Alfred H. Spink in The National Game. Though he wasn’t much of a hitter, as evidenced by his lifetime .236 batting average, Gibson was generally regarded as one of the NL’s premier catchers because of his stellar defensive skills and his deadly, accurate throwing arm. When his playing days were over, the popular former backstop turned his reputation as a smart player and square shooter into a moderately successful managing career, compiling a 413-344 record in parts of seven seasons as one of the first Canadians ever to manage in the major leagues. . . .
. . . Catching veteran twirler Deacon Phillippe in his major-league debut at Cincinnati on July 2 (1905), “Hack” Gibson recorded six putouts, two assists, and one error. In The Glory of Their Times he explains how the error occurred on a throw to second base: “The first time one of the Cincinnati players got on first base, he tried to steal second. I rocked back on my heels and threw a bullet, knee high, right over the base. Both the shortstop and second baseman—Honus Wagner and Claude Ritchey—ran to cover second base, but the ball went flying into center field before either of them got near it. I figured they were trying to make me look bad, letting the throw go by, because I was a rookie. But Wagner came in, threw his arms around me, and said, ‘Just keep throwing that way, kid. It was our fault, not yours.’ What had happened was that they had gotten so used to Heinie Peitz‘s rainbows that any throw on a straight line caught them by surprise.” Although he posted back-to-back batting averages of .178 in 1905-06 and allowed 31 passed balls during the latter season, Gibson diligently studied the mental game of baseball under Fred Clarke’s tutelage and worked hard to improve his skills. Years after his retirement he credited Clarke with teaching him to play intelligent baseball and boasted that “thinking was my real specialty.”
Gibson’s greatest season was the phenomenal 1909 campaign, in which the Pirates posted a 110-42 record. That year he caught 150 regular-season games for the Corsairs, including a remarkable string of 134 consecutive games to set an NL record. “There is no doubt but that Gibson could have caught every game of the National League schedule had it been necessary for him to do so,” wrote Spink. “However, the pennant was clinched many days before the wind-up and Clarke gave Gibson the rest he so richly deserved.” He never missed a game despite “black and blue marks imprinted by 19 foul tips upon his body, a damaged hand, a bruise on his hip six inches square where a thrown bat had struck, and three spike cuts,” and he even managed to post one of his better offensive seasons: .265 with 25 doubles, nine triples, two home runs, and 52 RBI. In the midst of his streak, Gibson slugged a double for the final hit in Pittsburgh’s Exposition Park on June 29, and the next day captured the Pirates’ first hit (a single) in the new Forbes Field. On the eve of the World Series, press reports described him as “far and away the best catcher in the National League.” The London Free Press, his hometown newspaper, even credited him with the World Series success of pitcher Babe Adams: “His ability to quickly discover the weakness of the Detroit heavy hitters undoubtedly was the cause of Adams’ strength.”
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1675591821