Chris Carpenter's World Series start Friday night on three days' rest marked the first time a Cardinals starter had made a Series start on three days' rest since lefthander John Tudor did it twice in 1985.

In the 1985 Series, Tudor started Games 1, 4 and 7. He won Game 1 in Kansas City by a 3-1 score and then won Game 4 here by a 3-0 count. But, in the decisive Game 7, Tudor, not sharp, was tagged for five runs in 2 1/3 innings in an 11-0 loss in Kauffman Stadium.

The previous Cardinals starter on three days' rest in World Series play was Hall of Famer Bob Gibson. Pick a year.

Gibson made nine World Series starts in three seasons, 1964, 1967 and 1968.

In 1964, he started on three days' rest twice and then the winning Game 7 against the New York Yankees on two days' rest. In 1967, Gibson pitched and won Games 4 and 7 on three days' rest, beating the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 and hitting a home run in the process. He finished that Series 3-0.

Then, in 1968, Gibson made two more starts on three days' rest after spinning his masterful 17-strikeout game in a first-game shutout of Detroit. He also won Game 4 and was deprived of his second consecutive three-win Series in Game 7 when a fly ball was misplayed into a triple and a scoreless game with the Tigers became a 4-1 loss.

For the record, Gibson pitched 81 innings in those nine games, averaging nine innings a game. Seven of those were nine-inning complete games. One was a 10-inning complete game in Game 5 in New York in 1964. The other was his first World Series start, an eight-inning stint, in 1964 when he lost to the Yankees, 8-3.

"It's not hard," said Gibson of pitching on short rest. "This is what this whole thing is about. If you can't get up enough for this, I don't care who you are. I don't know. It's not hard.

"Are you at the top of your game? Maybe not. But Carp is a big, strong guy.

"I'm 6-1 1/2 and 200 pounds. He's 6-6 and weighs 230. He's going to be strong enough to do it."

Gibson conceded that he generally wasn't as strong at the end of his final World Series start and that he could see why that would happen now, too.

"My stuff was good," he said. "But it kind of runs out a little about the sixth inning and you start going downhill. Or is it uphill?

"There's no doubt that your stuff isn't quite as good as you get towards the end. But you can make up for that with control, and if your team gets you enough runs, you can do anything."

But Tim McCarver, the longtime Fox television baseball analyst, begs to differ.

McCarver, who caught all 81 of those innings that Gibson pitched in World Series play for the Cardinals, laughed and said: "Here it is. I'm still disagreeing with him 50 years later."

For the most part, McCarver thought Gibson was just as strong in a Game 7 as he had been earlier in the Series, with the exception of the Game 7 he pitched on two days' rest in 1964.

"Against the Tigers (in 1968), he allowed one baserunner in the first six innings," said McCarver, who was correct in that assessment.

"There was no noticeable difference in him. Against the Yankees, when he pitched the 10-inning game, he gave up the home run to (Tom) Tresh, but he pitched 8 2/3 shutout innings on three days' rest. Now, Game 7, against the Yankees, he might be right. I might give him that one.

"But you're talking about a man of extraordinary ability. And a man of extraordinary strength, mental and physical. Now, can anybody do that? Today, certainly not, because it's done so seldom.

"I'm almost embarrassed to be having conversations like this," McCarver said before Friday's Game 7, "because (pitching on three days' rest) was so accepted. I grew up in a different age.

"I know I'm a dying breed, or lone wolf, or whatever it is. The proponents (that it doesn't work) won't listen to me. And I've had more experience in catching guys than they have in seeing guys.

"Today, they just don't do it — pitching on two or three days' rest. So, therefore they can't compare it to anything. I can. I see it. We old-timers, for sake of a better word, are willing to listen if they have evidence.

"But there has been no study that's been done, from a medical standpoint, that proves throwing on three days' rest is much worse than throwing on four days' rest — that your arm stands a much greater chance of being injured."

Gibson is second only to New York Giants Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson for most complete games per World Series start for those who have appeared in multiple series.

Mathewson, who pitched in four World Series from 1905-13, had 10 complete games in 11 starts. Gibson had eight complete games in nine World Series starts.

"I never gave it a thought," Gibson said. "That's the first time anybody's ever mentioned that to me. That's what we did. Heck, Warren Spahn was 60 years old and he pitched 15 or 16 innings against Juan Marichal one time."

Spahn, pitching for the Milwaukee Braves, was actually 42 when he was outdueled in 16 innings by San Francisco's Marichal on July 2, 1963, when both he and Marichal were working on three days' rest.

"Marichal's famous line," McCarver said, "was he told (Giants manager) Alvin Dark, 'I'm not leaving the game until that old man does.'"

Gibson said, "I really do think that they make too much out of pitching with three days' rest. I think that if you had to do it the entire season, I can see where you might have some reservations about doing it. But it's the World Series and the end of the season, and you've got all winter to rest."

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had voiced some concern about possibly hurting a pitcher's career by having him pitch when he isn't strong enough.

But Gibson said, "You really don't think a lot about whether it's going to ruin your career or not. You could get hit by a line drive (Roberto Clemente broke Gibson's leg).

"Or you could get hit by taxi, especially in New York."