May 25, 1961: Sandy Koufax outduels Bob Gibson in Dodgers’ 1-0 victory

On May 25, 1961, the same day President John F. Kennedy set a goal for the United States of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade, two future Hall of Famers beginning their ascents to stardom showcased the prodigious talents that would dominate National League hitters throughout the 1960s.

Entering the 1961 season, Sandy Koufax was a career 36-40 pitcher, regarded around baseball as a serviceable fireballing lefty who lacked control. Signed by the Dodgers as a bonus baby, Koufax never spent a day in the minor leagues.1 He made his major-league debut at 19 and spent the first six years of his career trying to harness his overpowering stuff. The winter of 1960-61 had been a transformative time for Koufax as he started to take his craft more seriously. “That winter was when I really started working out. I started running more. I decided I was really going to find out how good I can be.”2 That was not Koufax’s only change. At the suggestion of Dodgers catcher Norm Sherry, who pointed out that the harder the left-hander threw, the wilder he became, Koufax eased up, incorporated his curveball and changeup, and stopped trying to blow away hitters with every pitch. The changes had worked out okay for Koufax during his first nine starts in 1961 as he pitched to a 4-2 record with a 4.08 ERA.

The youngest of seven children, Bob Gibson was raised in Omaha, Nebraska. Gibson’s father died three months before he was born, and his mother worked at a laundromat and cleaned houses. Growing up in a housing project, Gibson faced racism as part of daily life. But sports provided an outlet for Gibson and earned him a scholarship to Creighton University, where he starred in basketball and baseball. Gibson preferred basketball and even played hoops for the Harlem Globetrotters in 1957.3 Yet the St. Louis Cardinals, who had tried to sign him out of high school, ultimately persuaded Gibson to focus solely on baseball. After making his major-league debut against the Dodgers as a reliever in 1959, Gibson shuffled back and forth the next two years between St. Louis and the Cardinals’ Triple-A clubs in Omaha and Rochester, New York. At the outset of 1961, Cardinals manager Solly Hemus used Gibson out of the bullpen and as a spot starter.

In late May the Cardinals and Dodgers connected for a quick two-game set in St. Louis. Los Angeles arrived in St. Louis with a record of 23-15, having just split two games with the Reds at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field.4 The Cardinals, meanwhile, had not yet found their stride, and were 14-18. In the series opener, the St. Louis offense erupted for seven runs en route to a 7-2 victory.

The Thursday evening finale pitted Koufax against Gibson in front of a small crowd of 6,878. Both hurlers came into this contest on the heels of strong outings: Koufax had twirled a four-hit complete-game victory against Willie Mays and the San Francisco Giants on May 21, retiring the last 16 men in a row, while Gibson pitched a shutout (with 11 strikeouts) against Ernie Banks and the Chicago Cubs.

The first hit of the May 25 game came in the top of the second, a single off the bat of the Dodgers’ veteran outfielder Duke Snider, who advanced to second with two outs on a hit by left fielder Ron Fairly. With two men on and two out, Gibson struck out Dodgers catcher John Roseboro to strand the runners.

With one out in the bottom half, Stan Musial singled off Koufax. “The Man,” who had made his major-league debut when Koufax was a 5-year-old boy, had hit Koufax well coming into the game: a .321 batting average in 32 plate appearances. Koufax quickly induced a groundball double play off the bat of shortstop Daryl Spencer to retire the Cardinals. Koufax did not allow another hit until the ninth as he and Gibson matched zeroes through the first six frames.

The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the seventh on a home run by third baseman Tommy Davis. A second-year player who grew up a Dodgers fan in Brooklyn, Davis had struck out in his two previous at-bats against Gibson. After taking the first pitch for a ball, Gibson challenged Davis with a high fastball. Davis turned on it and hit the ball into the left-center-field bleachers. It was Davis’s eighth home run of the season. “The pitch Davis hit wasn’t even a strike,” Cardinals backstop Hal Smith told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the game. “We tried to get the ball away from him but didn’t.”5 Davis’s blast was the lone damage against Gibson, who went eight innings, allowing five hits and striking out eight.

Koufax maintained his one-hitter until the ninth inning, when Curt Flood hit a leadoff single. The next man up, Joe Cunningham, twice tried to bunt Flood to second base and twice failed. With the count 2-and-2, Koufax induced a fly out to left fielder Fairly. Although left-handed-hitting Cardinals first baseman Bill White had already struck out twice against Koufax, Hemus stuck with him. White rewarded Hemus’s faith by singling to left and advancing Flood to second.

That brought up Cardinals star third baseman Ken Boyer. A Missouri native who was named a National League All-Star in 1959 and 1960, Boyer came into the game slashing .297/.378/.827 with five home runs. Koufax had struck out Boyer twice so far in the game. That must have played into LA manager Walter Alston’s decision to allow Koufax to face him. After the game, Alston said he had considered bringing in right-hander Turk Farell.6 After taking Koufax’s first offering, Boyer hit a low liner to right. Flood took off. “There was no doubt in my mind that it was going to be a base hit,” said Flood.7

But Snider, a longtime center fielder who had begun playing more in right field in 1959 as a way to take stress off his knees, caught the ball and tossed it to second baseman Jim Gilliam to double off Flood, who had already rounded third, and end the game. Koufax allowed only three hits and struck out eight for his fifth victory of the campaign.

Afterward, Alston praised pitching coach (and native St. Louisan) Joe Becker for his work with Koufax. “Becker has worked with Koufax continually, has shown lots of patience and has never given up on him,” said Alston.8

“Koufax’s biggest problem was fighting himself,” said Becker. “He has [had] a good curve ball to go with his great fast ball for some time now, but he couldn’t control his pitches. Finally, after six years of trying, he’s putting all of his baseball abilities together.”9

How did Koufax explain his successful start in ’61? “[I]t’s because I’m not trying to throw so hard. I’m getting my curve over the [plate] now and that makes all the difference in the world. This makes two complete games in a row–I hope I’m on my way.”10

Whatever Koufax found continued to work for the rest of the season. In July he was named to his first All-Star team. By season’s end, he had broken Christy Mathewson’s National League single-season strikeout record, having fanned 269 batters.11

On July 6, with a 33-41 record, the Cardinals fired Hemus and replaced him with Johnny Keane. Gibson flourished under Keane and made his first All-Star team in 1962. Two years later in the World Series against the Yankees, Gibson became a bona fide star after pitching complete-game victories in Games Five and Seven to help bring St. Louis its first championship since 1946.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. The author also relied on game coverage in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Los Angeles Times and SABR BioProject biographies for several players involved in the game, especially Terry Sloope’s biography of Bob Gibson.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN196105250.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1961/B05250SLN1961.htm

NOTES

1 The major leagues instituted the bonus rule in 1947. It stipulated that when a team signed a player to a contract with a signing bonus greater than $4,000, the team was required to keep him on their 25-man active roster for two full seasons. Failure to keep the player on the big-league team would cause the team to lose rights to the player, and the player would then be exposed to the waiver wire.

2 Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002), 101.

3 In fact, the Los Angeles Times game summary for the game described Gibson as “the former Harlem Globetrotters’ melon manipulator.” Koufax also excelled at basketball and played on the University of Cincinnati’s freshman team in 1954. Frank Finch, “Dodger Boots Aid Cards, 7-2,” Los Angeles Times, May 25, 1961: IV-1.

4 This turned out to be a matchup of the National League’s two top teams in 1961. The Reds won the 1961 National League pennant but lost the World Series to the New York Yankees. The Dodgers finished second in the National League, four games behind Cincinnati.

5 Neal Russo, “St. Louisan Joe Becker Helps Koufax Snap Cardinal Jinx, 1-0,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 26, 1961: 9B.

6 Russo.

7 Russo, 4.

8 Russo.

9 Russo.

10 Associated Press, “Control Found, Koufax Wins,” Monrovia (California) Daily News-Post, May 26, 1961: 10.

11 Mathewson struck out 267 batters in 1903.