Whose most successful single was a cover of a song written by a retired baseball pitcher?
Bob Gibson Robert Gibson (born November 9, 1935) is a retired American baseball pitcher who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1959–75). Nicknamed "Gibby" and "Hoot", Gibson tallied 251 wins, 3,117 strikeouts, and a 2.91 earned run average (ERA) during his career. A nine-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion, he won two Cy Young Awards and the 1968 National League (NL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award. In 1981, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. The Cardinals retired his uniform number 45 in September 1975 and inducted him into the team Hall of Fame in 2014.
Tal Abernathy Talmadge Lafayette Abernathy (October 30, 1921 – November 16, 2001), also known as Ted Abernathy, was a professional baseball player whose playing career spanned eight seasons, including parts of three in Major League Baseball with the Philadelphia Athletics (1942–1944). Abernathy was a pitcher. Over his major league career, he went 0–3 with an 11.07 earned run average (ERA), one complete game and 13 strikeouts in seven games, two starts. Abernathy batted right-handed and threw right-handed.