April 28, 1962: Sandy Koufax bats left-handed and earns win, as developing injury looms

“I decided to bat lefty,” explained notoriously weak-hitting Sandy Koufax, a natural right-handed batter, about an ill-fated attempt to switch over in 1962. “[T]hat way my right arm would be nearer to the pitcher than my left, and if I was going to get hit by a pitch I’d rather have it hit my right arm than my left…. I got jammed by a pitch right on my hands, and I think that’s when the trouble started.”1

While not immediately noticed, the effects of that Koufax at-bat, in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 28 at newly-opened Dodger Stadium, had career-threatening implications.

After falling short in a season-long pennant battle with the Cincinnati Reds in 1961, skipper Walter Alston’s Dodgers seemed primed in 1962 to capture their second National League title in Los Angeles since their relocation from Brooklyn after the 1957 season. 

The NL was bunched up less than three weeks into the season, with four teams vying for the top spot. As the Dodgers (11-6) prepared for the second game of a four-game series with the front-running Pirates – who were 11-3 after a season-opening 10-game winning streak – the St. Louis Cardinals (9-3)2 and San Francisco Giants (11-5) were also off to fast starts in the first year of NL expansion from eight to 10 teams.

Koufax was coming off a record-breaking season. With a pedestrian 36-40 record through six big-league seasons, the hard-throwing southpaw finally achieved the success many predicted in 1961. He set a new post-1900 NL record by fanning 269 batters, was tied for fourth in the league with 18 wins, and was named to the All-Star squad.3 At age 26, Koufax seemed poised to make yet another leap in 1962. In his most recent outing, on April 24, he blistered the Chicago Cubs, tying his own NL record with 18 strikeouts in a complete-game victory at Wrigley Field.

Another reason for the Dodgers’ confidence was 23-year-old left fielder-third baseman Tommy Davis, whom club publicist Red Patterson boldly claimed “will carry the Dodgers this season.”4  Davis was batting .314 at the beginning of August 1961 before he aggravated a back injury. He went on to collect just 15 hits in his last 100 at-bats before being shut down for the season with 12 games to go.5 The Brooklyn native was on a tear thus far in ’62, as he was hitting .371 and slugging .790 with 23 RBIs in 15 games. “I know I have to produce,” he said. “I have to drive in the runs.”6

Skipper Danny Murtaugh’s Pirates were seeking to excise the bad taste of 1961, when they sank to a 75-79 record as reigning World Series champions. In the series opener against the Dodgers, the Bucs lost, 7-2, behind Don Drysdale’s complete game. Toeing the rubber to stave off a three-game losing streak was right-hander Earl Francis. A late-season call-up in 1960, Francis served as a swingman in 1961, going 2-8 (4.21 ERA). Thus far in ‘62 he had thrown 8⅓ innings of scoreless relief.

In the first Saturday afternoon game in the history of Dodger Stadium, a Ladies Day crowd of 28,964 (26,332 paid) ignored the overcast skies and breezy 60-degree weather, which forced the stadium lights to be in use during the mid-innings.7

The game unfolded as a tense pitching duel. The Pirates trotted out eight right-handed hitters, though vocal team leader Don Hoak missed the game with neck swelling caused from an abscessed tooth pulled earlier that day.8 Through three innings, Koufax fanned two and yielded two hits.

Francis struggled with control from the outset and “shoddy support,” opined Dodgers beat writer Frank Finch.9 Leading off the third, Koufax – an .089 lifetime hitter entering the season and hitless 14 at-bats into his 1962 experiment with batting lefty – got jammed on the hands, but singled through short. According to Jane Leavy’s biography of Koufax, however, “The heel of the bat dug into the palm of his [left] hand.”10

Maury Wills followed with another single. Koufax appeared to be picked off of second, but Francis’s throw caromed off shortstop Dick Groat’s forehead, and the Dodgers had runners on second and third.11 Francis recovered to strike out Jim Gilliam and Wally Moon. After an intentional walk to Duke Snider, Francis also fanned Davis, and the game remained scoreless.

Back on the mound for the fourth, with no reported after-effects from his at-bat in the previous inning, Koufax set down Roberto Clemente and Dick Stuart. Rookie left fielder Donn Clendenon then singled, and Johnny Logan walked. Right-handed hitting backup catcher Don Leppert’s single drove in the first run of the game. “I had some troubles by getting behind hitters in the first six innings,” admitted Koufax.12

Coming off his best season thus far with 35 home runs, Pittsburgh’s Stuart blasted a ball to deep center with one out in the top of the sixth, but speedy 22-year-old center fielder Willie Davis made the “fielding gem of the day,” claimed sportswriter George Lederer.13 Pirates beat writer Les Biederman raved that Davis made a “spectacular leaping catch” against the wall and “robbed” Stuart of extra bases.14 The crowd responded with a vigorous standing ovation, reported Finch, who noted that Davis’s gem was similar to his extra-base-robbing catch of Bill Mazeroski’s clout the previous night.15

One of the most underrated players of his generation, Davis still was acclimating himself to spiffy Dodger Stadium, located about six miles about northwest of Memorial Coliseum, the converted primarily football stadium where the Dodgers had played since their arrival in Los Angeles. “The fence here is soft enough so a fellow can back into it,” said Davis excitedly, noting that there were no dangerous bricks, vines, or wires along the wall like at other NL parks.16

The Dodgers were “lucky to tie it” in the sixth, opined Biederman.17 Francis had shut out Los Angeles through five innings, and he retired Snider and Tommy Davis before John Roseboro blooped a two-out single into left field.18 On a hit-and-run, Daryl Spencer hit a routine roller to Logan, playing third in place of Hoak. The throw to first went into the dirt; Stuart, whose fielding challenges earned him the unflattering moniker “Dr. Strangeglove,” stepped back to take the ball on one hop, according to Biederman, but it “skidded” off his glove, and Logan was charged with the error.19 Roseboro kept on running to tie the game, 1-1.

Koufax cruised after Leppert’s RBI single, as he yielded just two singles over the final five innings; he admitted after the game that he “was laboring” in the later innings. He began the ninth with six strikeouts, one away from 1,000 in his career. Koufax had two strikes on both Stuart and Logan, who grounded and flied out, respectively. In between those outs was arguably the “most unusual assist of the year,” wrote Lederer.20 Koufax muffed Clendenon’s roller back to the mound, but it deflected to Moon at first for the out.

It was still a 1-1 game going into the bottom of the ninth. Francis was “always in trouble and yet pitched out so easily,” wrote Biederman.21 He began the ninth working on a four-hitter, but had walked eight, including four intentionally, and his defense had made three errors. With one out, Moon hit a single that “glanced” off Mazeroski’s glove;22 Moon advanced to second on Snider’s slow roller to first. Tommy Davis, hitless in four at-bats thus far, smashed a hard grounder into left field to drive in Moon for a 2-1 win, completing the game in 2 hours and 39 minutes.

The Dodgers remained in fourth place despite the victory, while the Pirates, Cardinals, and Giants were tied for first. In a classic 1960s pitchers duel, Koufax tossed 144 pitches, while Francis hurled 147 en route to his first career complete game.

“I couldn’t seem to get going today,” said Koufax, perhaps feeling the effects of his last outing.23

About a week after this game, Koufax began feeling numbness in his left index finger, yet did not tell coaches or the training staff.24 By sometime in May, wrote biographer Leavy, Koufax’s “index finger had turned white and lifeless. By July, the tissue was close to gangrene.”25

All the while, however, Koufax continued to pitch. In four straight complete-game victories (May 21-June 4), he fanned 49 in 36 innings. On June 30, he tossed his first no-hitter, against the expansion New York Mets. Another win over the Mets on July 12 improved his record to 14-4, and he was leading the majors in innings (174⅔), strikeouts (208), and ERA (2.06).

After lasting just an inning in his next start, Koufax was sidelined for more than two months. Physicians diagnosed him with Raynaud’s Syndrome, a serious circulatory condition. Doctors who examined Koufax suggested that his circulatory problem might have stemmed from his injury suffered in this game.26

With the Dodgers’ pennant hopes on the line, he returned for four brief, ineffective outings late in the season, yielding 10 earned runs in 8⅔ innings. The Dodgers lost the pennant to the Giants in a three-game tiebreaker set.

The bigger question was Koufax’s career and health. “The doctors told me they weren’t worried so much about when I was going to pitch again as they were that they might have to amputate the finger,” he recalled.27

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196204280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/B04280LAN1962.htm

Notes

1 Harold Friend, “Sandy Koufax: The Doctors Were Worried They Might Have to Amputate the Finger,” MLB.com. June 7, 2019, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/959588-sandy-koufax-the-doctors-were-worried-they-might-have-to-amputate-the-finger.

2 The Cardinals also had one tied game.

3 In 1962 there were two All-Star games. Koufax was named to the first game..

4 George Lederer, “Tommy D. Fulfilling Prophecy of Stardom,” Long Beach (California) Independent-Press-Telegram, April 29, 1962: C1.

5 Lederer, “Tommy D. Fulfilling Prophecy of Stardom.”

6 Lederer, “Tommy D. Fulfilling Prophecy of Stardom.”

7 Weather, Ladies Day attendance figure, and use of stadium lights from George Lederer, “Sandy Tops Pirates for 4th Victory,” Long Beach (California) Independent-Press-Telegram, April 29, 1962: C1. And “Weather Report,” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 1962: D12.

8 Les Biederman, “Dodgers Now Have a Beautiful Stadium, Need Team to Match,” Pittsburgh Press, April 29, 1962: 3,3.

9 Frank Finch, “T. Davis Hit in 9th Beats Pirates, 2-1,” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 1962: D1.

10 Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax. A Lefty’s Legacy, (New York: Perennial, 2002): 119.

11 Biederman, “Dodgers Now Have a Beautiful Stadium, Need Team to Match.”

12 Joe Hendrickson, “O’Malley Cushions Pay Off,” Pasadena (California) Independent-Star-News, April 29, 1962: A1.

13 Lederer, “Sandy Tops Pirates for 4th Victory.”

14 Biederman, “Dodgers Now Have a Beautiful Stadium, Need Team to Match.”

15 Finch.

16 Hendrickson.

17 Les Biederman, “Pirates Drop out of Lead, 2-1,” Pittsburgh Press, April 29, 1962: 3,1.

18 While Biederman describes the hit as a “bloop” in “Pirates Drop out of Lead, 2-1,” and Finch writes Roseboro “looped a single over Groat,” Baseball-Reference notes it as a line drive.

19 Biederman, “Pirates Drop out of Lead, 2-1.”

20 Lederer, “Sandy Tops Pirates for 4th Victory.”

21 Biederman, “Pirates Drop out of Lead, 2-1.”

22 Finch.

23 Don Johnson, “Dodgers Eye Top Rung in Tight N.L. Scramble,” Pasadena (California) Independent Star-News, April 29, 1962: A1.

24 Leavy, Sandy Koufax. A Lefty’s Legacy: 119.

25 Leavy, 119.

26 According to Leavy, the diagnosis was not correct. He had a crushed artery in the palm of his hand, and 10 days of experimental IV medication successfully reopened the artery. Leavy, 121.

27 Friend.