Walter O’Malley is a bane or a blessing dependent upon which coast the person describing him resides.

In Brooklyn, baseball fans remember O’Malley with contempt for transporting their beloved Dodgers to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. LA baseball fans are proud that O’Malley’s decision not only made the city a major-league metropolis, but also opened the Western region to expansion: Angels in 1961; Padres in 1969; and Mariners in 1977. In the 1990s, the Diamondbacks and Rockies debuted.

While the Dodgers displaced the city’s two Pacific Coast League teams – the Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels (no connection to the American League squad) – they needed a major-league ballpark of their own. From 1958 to 1961, they played in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

In 1962 O’Malley unveiled his vision for a modern ballpark befitting the fans who immediately embraced Dodger Blue as their favorite color in the spectrum. Dodger Stadium debuted on April 10, ushering in a new era for Southern California baseball. But it began on somewhat of a sour note: The Dodgers lost the Opening Day game to the ’61 NL champion Reds. Score: 6-3.

This new edifice eclipsed the stadiums built in days of yore because of design, comfort, and luxury commanding respect, excitement, and awe.

Sportswriting legend Jack Murphy wrote, “Never has the game of rounders been played amid such splendor. The Dodgers new park is so plush that I wouldn’t dare remove my coat or loosen my tie while writing this essay; surely an usher would evict me immediately.”1

Johnny Podres had the honor of being the Dodgers’ first starting pitcher in the new ballyard, which drew 52,564 fans on this special day. They sat in seats with muted colors of yellow, orange, turquoise, and blue. With the increasing use of color television, Dodger Stadium would be a visual lure for TV viewers. Groundskeepers had painted the grass green.2

The home team faced a 1-0 deficit in the top of the first. Vada Pinson got the first RBI off the southpaw, scoring Cincinnati’s leadoff batter Eddie Kasko, who had smacked a double and taken third base on Cookie Rojas’s sacrifice.

LA responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, courtesy of Ron Fairly’s two-run double, scoring Jim Gilliam and Duke Snider. Gilliam had begun with a single and moved to second base on Wally Moon’s grounder to second baseman Rojas. Snider’s infield single gave Gilliam a path to third base, putting runners at the corners. After John Roseboro grounded out and gave Snider the opportunity to take second, Fairly’s swat gave Dodgers fans something to cheer about in their new ballpark.

The Reds evened the score in the top of the sixth. Pinson led off with a walk followed by two outs, Frank Robinson’s foul out to Fairly at first base and Wally Post’s fly ball to Willie Davis in center. Gordy Coleman’s single gave Pinson second base; Tommy Harper’s single to Dodgers stalwart Snider in right field scored him and pushed Coleman to third. Harper extended his journey to second base when Snider fired the ball.3 Podres loaded the bases with an intentional walk of Johnny Edwards to face Reds hurler Bob Purkey. The strategy proved valid. Purkey struck out.

When the Reds came up next, they added three runs. Podres got two outs on Kasko’s grounder to third baseman Daryl Spencer and Rojas’s fly to Moon in left. Then Cincinnati commenced a two-out rally. Pinson doubled; Robinson got an intentional walk; and Post smashed a three-run homer.

Alston admitted that his strategy of walking Robinson came from apprehension of his prowess. “Well, Robinson has always been a thorn in our side,” explained the Dodgers manager, beginning the ninth of 23 seasons at the helm. He was the league’s Most Valuable Player last year and you know he got a hit the next time he came up.”4

Podres retired Coleman on a fly out to Davis, sending the Dodgers to bat with a 5-2 gap.

Walter Alston changed pitchers in the top of the eighth, after Podres gave up singles to Harper and Purkey. Larry Sherry came into the game with one out, then retired Kasko on a fly ball and pinch-hitter Jerry Lynch on a called third strike.

When Dodger Stadium’s new occupants loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth, Cincinnati changed pitchers.

Purkey had gotten Tim Harkness – pinch-hitting for Sherry – out on a grounder to Harper. Maury Wills drew a walk, which was never good for opposing NL squads in ’62. He broke Ty Cobb’s stolen-base record of 96 in a single season with 104 thieveries. Here, he stayed in the vicinity of first base until Gilliam’s single sent him to second and Moon’s walk advanced him to third.

Cincinnati left-hander Bill Henry came in from the Reds bullpen and faced Tommy Davis pinch-hitting for Snider. To the frustration of fans from Moorpark to Mission Viejo, Davis grounded to Kasko for a double play.

The Reds amplified their lead with a sixth run in the top of the ninth. Ron Perranoski relieved Sherry. (LA’s ace reliever led the majors with appearances in 70 games that season.) Pinson and Robinson hit back-to-back singles; Pinson scored on flies by Post and Coleman to center field.

Cincy’s offense shone brighter than klieg lights at a Hollywood premiere. Pinson had a 4-for-4 day with three runs scored, a walk, and an RBI. Post went 3-for-5; Harper also notched three hits.

What made the victory more splendid than usual was the lack of rest for the victors. According to Lou Smith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, “less than five hours of sleep” graced the visiting squad, a result of an extended plane flight lasting more than nine hours and a 4:00 A.M. arrival in Los Angeles. Smith wrote that “strong headwinds” caused the expanded length.5

It was Podres’ first loss on his journey to a 15-13 record in 1962.

Besides his team’s inaugural loss, O’Malley faced some glitches with elevators and parking. With parking-lot sections exceeding 50, chaos emerged. “The opening day crowd had all kinds of trouble determining where their parking areas were located – and even the attendants often were confused in giving directions,” explained reporter Hank Hollingworth. “One Long Beach party wasted one hour after reaching the parking lot entrance before landing in the proper parking section.”6

Elite fans and the press had access to two elevators. One went kaput in the middle of the game. But an array of 10 buttons made the job of the operators confusing at best for the other elevator.7

Traffic was predicted to be a hassle. It wasn’t. A highly significant factor was the buildup of a perceived crisis that inspired fans to jaunt to the ballpark as early as 9:30 A.M. for a 1:00 P.M. start. LAPD Chief William H. Parker said, “We expected this to be one of the biggest traffic problems we have had to face.”8

Los Angeles Times reporter Paul B. Zimmerman observed that the parking lots were empty within a half-hour after the game ended.9

But the new ballpark in Chavez Ravine did not have a smooth path toward completion. Indeed, O’Malley had to navigate challenges in the political, social, and public relations. In his book Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, SABR 2021 Seymour Medal winner Eric Nusbaum tackles the complexities involving Hispanic families living in Chavez Ravine balanced against the civic goals of a baseball hallmark. Public housing vs. public relations. Nusbaum writes of O’Malley: “[H]e was acquiring the hangover from the war over public housing that had made this land available in the first place.”10

Dodger Nation had an aura of excitement in ’62. In addition to Dodger Stadium setting a new standard for ballparks and Wills’s exemplary performance on NL basepaths, Don Drysdale went 25-9 and won the Cy Young Award. The Dodgers tied the Giants for the NL title, then lost two out of three in a playoff. The Yankees defeated the Giants in seven games to win the World Series.

Acknowledgments

This article was copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes below, the author relied on pertinent information from Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org, including the box scores.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/B04100LAN1962.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196204100.shtml

Notes

1 Jack Murphy, “Park Lights Glow, Starlights Dim at New Dodger Stadium,” Monrovia (California) Daily News-Post, April 11, 1962: 4.

2 George Lederer, “Daffy Day At Chavez (?) Ravine,” Long Beach (California) Independent, April 11, 1962: C-2.

3 Retrosheet’s account does not say if Snider threw the ball home or to third base.

4 Associated Press, “Wally Moon Sums It Up: Good Game, Wrong Finish,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, April 11, 1962: 8. Robinson led the National League in slugging percentage from 1960 through 1962. For two of those years, he led the majors.

5 Lou Smith, “Dodgers’ New Stadium Utmost in All Respects,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 11, 1962: 23.

6 Hank Hollingworth, “Dodger Fans Find Parking, Not Traffic, Is Headache.” Long Beach Independent, April 11, 1962: 1.

7 “Dodger Fans Find Parking, Not Traffic, Is Headache.”

8 Paul Zimmerman, “Stadium Opener Lost by Dodgers,” Los Angeles Times, April 11, 1962: 1.

9 “Stadium Opener Lost By Dodgers.”

10 Eric Nusbaum, Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between (New York: Public Affairs, 2020), 279.

One week later the Giants had closed the deficit to one game. In the final game on September 30, Willie Mays’ eighth-inning home run gave San Francisco a 2-1 victory at home against Houston, while Los Angeles was losing at home to St. Louis, 1-0. Gene Oliver’s eighth-inning homer sent the Dodgers to their fourth straight defeat and sixth loss in their last seven games. Second in the league to San Francisco in runs scored, they were in the midst of a batting slump and hadn’t scored in 21 innings.1

A three-game playoff would decide the winner of the National League pennant.2 Dodgers manager Walter Alston selected Sandy Koufax as his starting pitcher for the first playoff game, at Candlestick Park on October 1. Koufax, sidelined in mid-July because of numbness in his left index finger, had been ineffective since returning in mid-September. Mays hit a two-run homer in the first inning,3 and San Francisco went on to win, 8-0.

The teams moved to Dodger Stadium the next day. The score was 5-0 in San Francisco’s favor when Los Angeles finally broke its scoring drought with seven runs in the sixth inning. The Giants tied the game in the eighth, but the Dodgers won, 8-7, when Maury Wills scored the winning run in the ninth on a sacrifice by Ron Fairly.

For the decisive third game, Dodgers coach Leo Durocher, who had managed the 1951 Giants to their dramatic playoff victory over the Dodgers when both teams were in New York, brought the same T-shirt he wore 11 years earlier when Bobby Thomson hit his pennant-winning home run. Current Giants manager Alvin Dark, Durocher’s starting shortstop in 1951, was asked if he had brought anything from that game. He replied, “Yeah, Willie Mays.”4

Johnny Podres, pitching on two days’ rest for the first time in his career,5 held the Giants scoreless in the first two innings, allowing only a single by leadoff hitter Harvey Kuenn. Wills singled to start the bottom of the first, but he was the only baserunner allowed by San Francisco starter Juan Marichal in the initial two frames.

Jose Pagan singled to open the top half of the third. Podres fielded Marichal’s bunt and threw past second base into center; Pagan took third on the error. Pagan scored on Kuenn’s single to left, with Marichal holding at second.

Chuck Hiller missed a bunt attempt. Marichal was caught off second on the play, but John Roseboro’s throw sailed into center for another error, putting Marichal at third.

Hiller flied out to left. Marichal bluffed for home, and Duke Snider’s throw was cut off by third baseman Tommy Davis, who threw to Jim Gilliam at second, catching Kuenn in a rundown. Kuenn scrambled back toward first; Gilliam’s throw hit him in the back. Kuenn was safe at first, and Marichal scored on Los Angeles’s third error of the inning for a 2-0 lead.

In the Dodgers’ half of the third, Wills singled with two outs and stole second. He was stranded there after Gilliam’s fly out. Consecutive two-out singles in the fourth put Giants runners on first and second, but Kuenn fouled out to the catcher, ending the threat.

Snider doubled to start the Dodgers fourth and advanced to third on a single by Tommy Davis. One out later, Frank Howard grounded to third. Davis slid hard into second base, breaking up a potential double play and allowing Snider to score. The Giants’ lead was down to 2-1.

In the sixth, the Giants loaded the bases with no outs on Orlando Cepeda’s line-drive single to right, Ed Bailey’s smash off Wills’s glove, and Jim Davenport’s bunt single. Ed Roebuck, making his sixth appearance in the Dodgers’ last seven games, relieved Podres. Pagan grounded to Wills, who threw home for the force out. Marichal hit into a groundball double play; the Dodgers escaped, still training by only a run.

Roebuck’s clutch relief looked like a turning point after Snider led off the Dodgers’ half of the sixth with a single. Tommy Davis hit a 3-and-1 pitch deep into the left-center-field seats, putting the Dodgers in front, 3-2.6

The Giants failed to score in the seventh, leaving runners stranded at first and second, and the Dodgers added a run in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Wills hit his fourth straight single and stole second on Marichal’s first pitch to Gilliam, who then flied out to left. Wills stole third on the first pitch to the next batter, Larry Burright, and came home when Bailey’s errant throw bounced past Davenport into left field.7 Los Angeles now led 4-2.

Roebuck kept the Giants scoreless in the eighth. In the Dodgers half of the inning, Marichal, after throwing three pitches to Tommy Davis, all balls, was relieved by Don Larsen, whose first pitch was a low curve for ball four. A sacrifice by Fairly moved Davis to second. He stole third on Frank Howard’s swinging strikeout. Larsen intentionally walked the next two batters, bringing up the pitcher. Roebuck grounded out, but the Dodgers were three outs from the World Series.

Matty Alou, pinch hitting for Larsen, singled on Roebuck’s first pitch in the top of the ninth. Kuenn forced Alou at second on a grounder but beat the throw to first, avoiding a double play. Pinch-hitter Willie McCovey walked on four pitches, then Felipe Alou walked on a 3-and-2 count to load the bases.

Alston visited the mound, but left Roebuck in the game. Mays lined a single off Roebuck’s glove, scoring Kuenn to cut the gap to 4-3.

Stan Williams relieved with the bases still loaded. Cepeda’s sacrifice fly to right tied the score, with Felipe Alou advancing to third.

Williams threw a strike to Bailey, then sailed a high pitch over Roseboro’s glove. Alou held at third as Mays advanced to second on the wild pitch. Alston called for an intentional walk to Bailey, and the bases were again loaded.

Davenport walked on five pitches, sending Alou home with the go-ahead run.

Ron Perranoski relieved Williams, and Jose Pagan hit a grounder toward second. Burright, a defensive replacement in the seventh, bobbled the ball for an error – Los Angeles’ fourth error of the game. Mays scored for a two-run lead.

After watching his team score four runs on two hits, four walks, an error, and a wild pitch to take the lead, 6-4, Billy Pierce relieved and retired the Dodgers in order in the home half of the ninth. The Giants were headed to the World Series for the first time since moving to California after the 1957 season.

The Dodgers kept the press out of their locker room for nearly an hour after the loss. Team captain Snider, one of the few to dress in order to congratulate the Giants, said, “Don’t hold it against the guys. They just want to cool off. They agreed they didn’t feel like talking. They’re still in a daze.”8

A stunned Roebuck let Wally Moon explain to reporters what happened on the line drive hit by Mays in the ninth. “Ed told me the ball just hit the web of his glove and he didn’t see it.”9

Alston said he let Roebuck hit in the eighth with the bases loaded and two out because Roebuck was the best pitcher to protect the Dodgers’ two-run lead. Stating that his pitchers finally “ran out of gas,” Alston added, “We just came close, that’s all. Ed Roebuck did one helluva job as long as he lasted. I think everybody gave it everything he possibly could.”10

Dark defended his counterpart’s strategy. “Maybe some will think he should have taken Ed Roebuck out of the game earlier in the ninth inning, but I don’t think he could have, the way Roebuck was pitching,” Dark said. “When McCovey went to bat with a man on first, Alston could have called in Ron Perranoski, his lefthander, but he knew that my next three batters after McCovey were righthanders, so he couldn’t take a chance with a lefthanded pitcher in a spot like that.”11

San Francisco and the New York Yankees split the first six games of the 1962 World Series. Down 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth in Game Seven, the Giants had runners on second and third with two outs and McCovey at the plate. Their hopes of another comeback were silenced when McCovey’s line drive was caught by Bobby Richardson.

Despite speculation that he would be replaced by either Durocher or Pete Reiser,12 Alston signed his 10th one-year contract to manage the Dodgers the day after the World Series ended.13 Koufax made a complete recovery in 1963, winning 25 games and the Cy Young Award.14 He was also named the National League’s Most Valuable Player. Los Angeles held off a late-season challenge by the St. Louis Cardinals to win the pennant. San Francisco finished in third place. The Dodgers swept the Yankees in the 1963 World Series.

Sources 

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. for box scores/play-by-play information, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other data:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196210030.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/B10030LAN1962.htm

The author also accessed YouTube’s Classic Baseball on the Radio for NBC’s national broadcast of this game by Al Helfer and George Kell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jHOlcH1GiM

Notes

1 Dan Hafner, “Stunned Dodgers Can’t Believe It,” Los Angeles Times, October 1, 1962: C4.

2 It was the fourth time the NL season ended with two teams tied for first place, necessitating a best-of-three-games playoff to decide the pennant winner.  In 1946 the Dodgers and Cardinals tied, with St. Louis winning the first two playoff games. In 1951 the Dodgers and Giants needed three games to determine a winner, with Bobby Thomson’s home run in the bottom of the ninth giving the Giants the pennant. In 1959, the Dodgers won the first two playoff games against the Braves. Dodgers outfielder Duke Snider and Giants center fielder Willie Mays were the only active players remaining from the 1951 playoff. Leo Durocher, now a coach for Los Angeles, managed the Dodgers in 1946 and the Giants in 1951. Current San Francisco manager Alvin Dark and coaches Whitey Lockman, Wes Westrum, and Larry Jansen all played for the Giants in 1951.

3 Results of the playoff games counted in the players’ season statistics. At the end of the 162-game schedule, Mays led the National League in home runs, with 47, but Harmon Killebrew of the American League’s Twins led the majors with 48. In addition to his first-inning home run, Mays hit one off Larry Sherry in the sixth inning, giving him a major-league-leading total of 49.

4 “Playoff Pearls,” The Sporting News, October 13, 1962: 10.

5 Bob Hunter, “Dodger Slab Staff Cracks in Showdown,” The Sporting News, October 13, 1962: 7.

6 The two RBIs gave Davis 153 for the season, tops in the majors. Davis started the game with a .344 batting average, two points ahead of Cincinnati’s Frank Robinson. He ended the day with a .346 average after two hits and a walk in four plate appearances.

7 Wills had four steals in the playoff series, bringing his season total to 104, a major-league record at the time. He edged out Mays for the National League MVP award (209 points with 8 first-place vote to 202 points with 7 first-place votes for Mays).

8 “Dodgers Want to Be Alone,” San Francisco Examiner, October 4, 1962: 65.

9 “Dodgers Want to Be Alone.”

10 “Dodgers Want to Be Alone.”

11 “Playoff Pearls,” The Sporting News, October 13, 1962: 10.

12 Sid Ziff, “Walt Will Be Back,” Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1962: B3.

13 Paul Zimmerman, “Alston Keeps Job, OK’s Durocher Stay,” Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1962: B3.

14 Until 1967, only one Cy Young Award, covering both the National and American Leagues, was given.

It was a great pitching match-up as the fifth-place Los Angeles Dodgers (15-15) hosted the National League-leading San Francisco Giants (19-11) on May 11. It was a great pitching match-up: Juan Marichal (4-2) and Sandy Koufax (3-1).

Koufax had missed two weeks at the end of April into May with stiffness in his shoulder. A couple of weeks later, he said, “Guess I’m getting old. I’m just falling apart, piece by piece.”1

In Koufax’s first no-hitter, the season before, the Dodgers supported him with four runs in the first inning. Koufax had not had great control, going to full counts on nine New York Mets batters and walking five while striking out 13.

This game was a much different story. Going to the bottom of the sixth inning, the score was 1-0 in favor of the Dodgers. The lone run was produced by a Wally Moon fly-ball home run down the right-field line. Koufax had not yet walked a batter. He only had one three-ball count – in the first inning to Willie Mays, who then flied out to center. Koufax was perfect through six. The only close play came in the fifth when Orlando Cepeda hit a slow roller that shortstop Dick Tracewski barehanded to throw out Cepeda at first.

In the bottom of the sixth, Junior Gilliam lined a single to right to open the inning. Ron Fairly tried to advance Gilliam with a bunt but popped it to first base for the first out. Tommy Davis singled to right and then Wally Moon lined a run-scoring single to right and advanced to second on the throw from the outfield. With runners on second and third and one out, Frank Howard was intentionally walked. John Roseboro, with a career average under .200 against Marichal, lined a single to center, scoring Davis and Moon. After an infield hit by Tracewski loaded the bases, Marichal was replaced by John Pregenzer, who struck out Koufax and got Willie Davis on a groundball.

At the start of the seventh, Nate Oliver went in to play second base. Second baseman Gilliam moved to third and Tommy Davis switched from third base to left field, replacing Wally Moon, who came out of the game.

This turned out to be a key move. Koufax ran into lady luck in the seventh inning when Harvey Kuenn smashed a liner to right, but squarely into the mitt of Frank Howard. Felipe Alou, the league’s leading hitter, then sent a high, hard shot to left. Tommy Davis took it about two feet short of the stands. Next, Willie Mays cracked a blistering liner that Jim Gilliam stabbed behind the third base bag.”2 When Davis caught Alou’s ball, the bullpen kept yelling, “You got room, you got room.”3

Don Larsen, the last man to pitch a perfect game, was watching from the San Francisco bullpen.4

None of the players on the bench said anything about the possible no-hitter but Koufax was aware all the time and knew he was close to a perfect game.5

Leading off the eighth, Orlando Cepeda hit a hot shot off Koufax’s glove to second baseman Nate Oliver, who threw out Cepeda by a step.6 The next man up was catcher Ed Bailey. Bailey had not much success previously against Koufax. Bailey took three balls, then two hard, straight fastballs for strikes before fouling one off. The pressure was agonizing.7 “Finally, he threw one I couldn’t reach,” Bailey said later, “and he walked me.”8 Koufax, aware of the no-hitter all the way, kicked the mound and thumped his glove as the perfect game got away.9 Then Bailey was taken off the basepaths as Jim Davenport grounded into a double play.

It was ladies night at Dodger Stadium. The crowd of 55,350 (49,807 paid) was the largest of the season thus far in the major leagues.10 From the sixth inning on, fans were aware of the no-hitter and a possible perfect game. They applauded every time Koufax retired a batter.11

In the bottom of the eighth with one out, Roseboro and Tracewski singled. As Koufax approached the plate he received a standing ovation from the crowd.12 He drew a walk and scored the sixth run of the game on a double by Ron Fairly.

In the ninth Joe Amalfitano popped out to first baseman Fairly. José Pagán flied out to Willie Davis in deep center. Willie McCovey pinch-hit for Pregenzer and walked on four pitches. Koufax got one strike on Kuenn, who hit a bouncer right back to him. Koufax carefully lobbed the ball over to Fairly after running almost to first for the putout.

Koufax was mobbed by his teammates as the crowd roared and sent a shower of seat cushions onto the field.13 Koufax could be seen anxiously looking for his parents, who had recently relocated to the West Coast, but they were not to be seen as Koufax had forgotten to leave them tickets.14

Koufax believed that in his first no-hitter he had exceptional stuff, but did not think he had overpowering stuff this night. It was good but not great. Strikeouts tell the story. In his first no-hitter he had 13, but against the Giants only four, and none after the sixth inning.15 He threw 111 pitches, relying more on breaking balls.16

When it was all over, Koufax had become the only active pitcher other than Warren Spahn with two no-hitters. He also joined Carl Erskine as the second pitcher in Dodgers history to pitch two no-hitters. It was the third no-hitter pitched at Dodger Stadium.17

Notably, Koufax had not yet allowed a run at Dodger Stadium in 1963 after having pitched 24⅔ innings.

The victory was the second and final time Koufax beat Marichal.

NOTES

1 Bob Hunter, “Koufax’ No-Hit Voodoo Kayoes Injury Hex,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, May 25, 1963: 5.

2 Frank Finch, “Sandy’s Finger, Arm OK —And How!! Dodger Lefty Retires First 22 Batters in 8-0 L.A. Win,” Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1963: 11.

3 United Press International, “Koufax Triumphs on No-Hitter, 8-0,” New York Times, May 12, 1963: S1.

4 Melvin Durslag, “Perfecto Larsen Viewed Sandy’s Classic Curving,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, May 25, 1963: 4. Larsen was a relief pitcher for the Giants in 1963.

5 “Koufax Rates 2nd No-Hitter First,” New York Times, May 13, 1963: 52.

6 Joe McDonnell, “Dodger Stadium’s Most Memorable Moments … Koufax’s Three No-Hitters,” 1987 Dodger Scorebook; Durslag.

7 Durslag.

8 Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax, A Lefty’s Legacy (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 123.

9 Hunter.

10 Finch.

11 “Koufax Rates 2nd No-Hitter First.”

12 Finch.

13 Finch.

14 Leavy, 122.

15 Sandy Koufax with Ed Linn, Koufax (New York: Viking Press, 1966), 181-183.

16 “Koufax Rates 2nd No-Hitter First.”

17 Bo Belinsky pitched a no-hitter for the Los Angeles Angels in Dodger Stadium on May 5, 1962.

In late September 1963, the pennant races were winding down and it seemed likely that the Los Angeles Dodgers would meet the New York Yankees in the World Series. Only some individual honors were yet to be determined on the final day of the season – including whether Tommy Davis would claim his second consecutive National League batting title for the Dodgers.

The league batting race was the source of a good deal of drama as the season wrapped up in late September, with seven players involved. On Tuesday, September 17, Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates moved into a narrow lead over the St. Louis Cardinals’ Dick Groat with a mark of .3231 to .3227. Davis was third at .3219.1 Others in the chase were Orlando Cepeda of the San Francisco Giants, Vada Pinson of the Cincinnati Reds, Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves, and Tony González of the Philadelphia Phillies.

On Friday, September 20, Davis went 3-for-4 in a 2-0 win over the Pirates to move ahead of Groat, .324 to .322.2 Clemente had dropped to .320. Davis led the rest of the way but it wasn’t easy. By September 22, Davis had dropped a point to .323 with Cepeda and Groat close on his heels at .320.

Yet with only a week remaining in the season and the pennant not yet clinched, the Dodgers had to focus on the standings, not the batting race. On September 24 the Dodgers clinched the pennant before taking the field as the second-place Cardinals lost a day game in Chicago to the Cubs, 6-3. In their night game in Los Angeles, the Dodgers handled the New York Mets, 4-1, but Davis was hitless in three at-bats.

The next day three Dodgers pitchers shut out the Mets, 1-0, as Davis went 2-for-3. Davis was not in the lineup on September 26 but returned on Friday against the Phillies to go 2-for-3. In his final regular-season game, on September 28, Davis hit a two-run home run in the first inning. After flying out in his next at-bat, Davis left the game and the club to travel with his wife to New York following the death of his mother-in-law.3 The Dodgers lost the game, 12-3.

No team had ever lost the first two games of the World Series at home and come back to win. New York Mayor Robert Wagner assessed their chances and decided not to join them in Los Angeles.1

The Los Angeles Times found the Yankees rocked to their soles. “The glum, grimly-determined Yankees held a star-chamber session in the clubhouse before working out at Dodger Stadium Friday,” wrote Frank Finch. Yankees manager Ralph Houk downplayed the glum and the grim, saying the meeting was a standard review of the opposition after the first two games of any series. “There was no ‘Let’s win one for the Gipper oration’ by me,” he said.2

Veteran Yankees third-base coach Frank Crosetti summed up the company line. “We’ve been two down before and come back to win. There’s no reason why we can’t do it again.”3

The move from the left-handed-pitcher-loving Yankee Stadium to the pitcher-loving Dodger Stadium had both managers choosing to start their lead right-handers. Jim Bouton had emerged that season for the New Yorkers, winning 21 games with a team-leading 2.53 earned-run average. Bouton had pitched five times in Dodger Stadium against the Los Angeles Angels. It was a sterling record of two starts, including a five-hit shutout, and three relief appearances – a total of three earned runs surrendered in just over 25 innings.

For the Dodgers, Don Drysdale took his deceptive 19-17 record to the mound. His 2.63 earned-run average was a better indicator of how he had pitched. The Dodgers’ anemic offense seemed to be even worse when Drysdale took the mound. In nine of his losses, the team’s hitters had scored one run or been shut out. The previous Sunday, attempting to win his 20th while tuning up for the Series, Drysdale had pitched five shutout innings. The offense had scored once and the bullpen had given up three runs to the Phillies, leaving Drysdale with a no-decision.

The managers made small accommodations to the lineups, reflecting that they were now facing right-handers. John Blanchard replaced the injured Roger Maris in right field for the Yankees. Ron Fairly took over right field from Frank Howard for the Dodgers. Normally, Fairly would have played first base, but Dodgers manager Walt Alston chose to stick with Moose Skowron as the streaky veteran seemed to be on one of his streaks.4 The crowd of 55,912 came out in 74-degree weather and were treated to one of the great pitching duels of World Series history.

The offense can be summarized quickly. In the Dodgers’ first inning, Jim Gilliam drew a one-out walk. He moved to second on a wild pitch by Bouton. After a line out by Willie Davis, National League batting champion Tommy Davis came to the plate and hit a hard shot up the middle. It eluded Bouton, received a mild deflection from the edge of the pitcher’s mound and ricocheted off Bobby Richardson’s shin into short right field. Gilliam scored.

Richardson said he lost sight of the ball after Bouton lunged at it. The deflection and the bank of white shirts in the stands behind home plate did not help. “I just plain old didn’t see it,” said Richardson. “Who would think a little play like that so early in the game would be so decisive.”5 Two of the three official scorers ruled it a hit.6

The end of offense served to ratchet up the tension in the ballpark. Bouton gave up only three more singles in six more innings, leaving the game well within the range of Yankee hitters. He blamed himself. “I walked too many,” he said. None of the rest scored.7

Drysdale, meanwhile, battled a powerful Yankees lineup that was always one swing away from a tied game. “Drysdale pitched with a swaggering confidence that bordered on insolence,” wrote New York Times columnist Arthur Daley.8

The Yankees tried to shake that confidence. In the sixth inning, with Crosetti complaining loudly about spitballs, home-plate umpire Larry Napp went to the mound. Tony Kubek was on third and Mickey Mantle at the plate. Napp ordered Drysdale to wipe his fingers after every visit to his mouth. Drysdale struck out Mantle.9

In the late innings, poor Dodger baserunning ruined a chance to give Drysdale a better cushion. Johnny Roseboro led off the seventh inning with a single and with the Yankees’ Clete Boyer drawn in expecting a bunt, Dick Tracewski slapped the ball past him. Roseboro beat the throw to third and Tracewski took second. Drysdale bounced to Richardson and Roseboro faked going home. Richardson threw out Drysdale at first, but Tracewski had misread Roseboro’s fake and joined him on third, where he was tagged out. The Dodgers had gone from runner on second and third with no outs to a runner on third with two outs. A Maury Wills groundout ended the seventh. In the eighth, Gilliam was gunned down by Elston Howard trying to steal third with one out.

Drysdale continued to dominate. After his brush in the sixth inning, he surrendered only one single. The tension grew another notch with two outs in the ninth. Joe Pepitone hit a high fly ball to deep right that brought hearts into throats. “I was scared,” Drysdale admitted.10 But then he saw Fairly would catch it just in front of the Yankees’ bullpen gate.

“It was a normal Drysdale game in that his teammates got him that one run and left the rest of the job up to him,” wrote Los Angeles Times sports editor Paul Zimmerman.11 “Koufax and Podres were great, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Drysdale any better,” echoed Alston.12

From a more neutral vantage point, Sports Illustrated’s William Leggett wrote: “In two hours and five minutes Don Drysdale pitched the best pitched game of this superbly pitched series. The Dodgers gave him one cheap, lucky, idiotic, precious run, and he defended it.”13

For bettors, the Dodgers were now listed at 15-1 favorites.14 But Houk kept his stiff upper lip.

“The last game is the toughest to win. Nothing is impossible,” he said.15

When asked about starting Game Five, Johnny Podres joked, “I’ll be happy if I don’t have to pitch again. I’d like to make other plans for Monday.”16

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the following books, video, and digitized box scores:

Spink, C.C. Johnson, compiler. Official Baseball Guide for 1964 (St. Louis: Charles C. Spink & Son, 1964).

“Major League Baseball Presents the World Series of 1963” (retrieved August 17, 2020, at youtube.com/watch?v=HFjFv00JagA)

baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196310050.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1963/B10050LAN1963.htm

Notes

1 “It Looks Bad, so N.Y. Mayor Stays Home,” Los Angeles Times, October 5, 1963: A3.

2 Frank Finch, “Grim Yankees Hold Meeting Before Drill,” Los Angeles Times, October 5, 1963: A3.

3 Braven Dyer, “We’ve Come Back Before, Says Crosetti,” Los Angeles Times, October 5, 1963: A3.

4 John Drebinger, “Maris Considered Unlikely to Play,” New York Times, October 5, 1963: 41.

5 John Hall, “Richardson Has No Alibi for T. Davis ‘Hit,’” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1963: I2.

6 Frank Finch, “Big D Cuts Off Yank Power Again, 1-0,” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1963:  I1.

7 Finch, “Big D Cuts Off Yank Power Again.”

8 Arthur Daley, “On the Edge of the Cliff,” New York Times, October 6, 1963: 198.

9 Dan Hafner, “Teammates Feel Drysdale Best Series Hurler of All,” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1963: I2.

10 Finch, “Big D Cuts Off Yank Power Again.”

11 Paul Zimmerman, “Dodgers Push Yanks to Brink of World Series Humiliation,” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1963: G1.

12 Hafner.

13 William Leggett, “KooFoo the Killer,” Sports Illustrated, October 14, 1963: 23.

14 “Dodgers Now 15-1 to Hit the Jackpot,” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1963: I5.

15 Hall.

16 Hafner.

As the New York Yankees arrived at Dodger Stadium for the fourth game of the 1963 World Series, they knew no team had ever come back from a three-game deficit to win. “The knowledge of defeat could not be disguised in the quiet but calm Yankee clubhouse,” wrote the New York Times’s Leonard Koppett after the third game.1

Days before, as the Yankees’ team bus left for the airport and Los Angeles, third baseman Clete Boyer joked that what the Yankees needed was more Jewish holidays. “You mean like Yom Koufax,” said Mickey Mantle.2 Now they would have to face Sandy Koufax, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Jewish left-hander who had set a strikeout record beating them in Game One. Before they left their hotel that morning, the Yankees packed their bags, at once a standard practice and a foreshadowing.3

A mild fall afternoon with temperatures in the high 70s greeted Koufax and the Yankees’ Whitey Ford, meeting in a rematch. With the exception of Hector Lopez, subbing for the injured Roger Maris in right field for the Yankees, it was the same lineup as that game, a 5-2 Dodgers victory.

Hidden from the Yankees was an open sore between the last two toes of Koufax’s left foot, the one he used to push off from the mound. A corn had torn off two days before and had not healed. Dodgers team physician Robert Kerlan had given the area a shot of novocaine and the trainer was primed to give him more if needed. It was not.4

As with all the games in this Series, there was a premium on runs. As the Dodgers came up in the bottom of the fifth, they had managed one single. The Yankees had a single and a double. Nobody had any runs. With one out, Frank Howard came to the plate and launched the first home run ever hit into the second deck down the left-field line, a blow estimated at 450 feet.5

Koufax set the Yankees down in the sixth and got Tom Tresh to pop out leading off the seventh. But Mickey Mantle, limited to a fluke bunt single so far in the series, launched a Koufax fastball over the 380-foot sign in left-center to tie the score. It was Mantle’s 15th World Series home run, tying him with Babe Ruth for the most round-trippers in Series history. The Yankees had never led a game the entire Series and now had barely edged into a tie.

The tie lasted five batters. Koufax shut out the Yankees in the rest of the seventh inning. Jim Gilliam led off the Dodgers’ seventh with a high bouncer to Boyer, who leapt high in the air to glove the ball, came down, and launched a belt-high throw across the diamond. The throw hit first baseman Joe Pepitone on inside of his right forearm and bounced down along the right-field stands. Gilliam wound up at third and scored on Willie Davis’s sacrifice fly to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

“It was a perfect throw. I didn’t see it. It got lost in the shirts behind third base. It hit me on the side of the glove and wrist and went on by,” said Pepitone of the game’s crucial play.6

There was one final bit of drama in the Yankees’ ninth. With two outs and Bobby Richardson on first, Elston Howard hit a groundball to Maury Wills, who threw to Dick Tracewski for the force out. Koufax leapt off the mound, hands high in the air, nearly reaching third base before realizing Tracewski had dropped the short hop and Richardson was safe. Koufax returned to the mound and got Hector Lopez to ground slowly to Wills. This time, Tracewski held on to the throw. This time Koufax kept leaping and was joined by his teammates.

“I don’t feel anything – I’m numb,” said Koufax afterward.7 His teammates were focused on a larger picture. “They won’t call us choke artists any more,” said Gilliam, harking back to the Dodgers’ epic collapse at the end of the 1962 season, which had haunted them through 1963.8 “This makes up for last year,” echoed Johnny Podres. Asked to compare this game with his victory over the Yankees in the seventh game of the 1955 World Series, Podres exclaimed: “Damn right it’s better than ’55. Why, you just can’t beat those guys four straight.”9

Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray gloated: “There’s been a bunch of guys out here masquerading as the New York Yankees. It’s the clumsiest impersonation I’ve ever seen.”10

The Sporting News was awed. It was “pitching that bordered on the fantastic,” wrote Fred Lieb, “[w]hile Ralph Houk’s versatile New York Yankees entered the Series as odds-on favorites, the Dodger victory was hardly an upset. The sweep, though, came as a shocker.”11 The Dodgers weak offense had taught them how to manufacture runs against good pitching. It was a skill the Yankees had never had to learn.

Mickey Mantle joined in the praise. “I never saw pitching like that. In our league, we see good pitching for a game or two, but never for four straight games. These guys are the best I have ever seen.”12

Those guys were also few in number. Alston used only 13 players in the four games – eight basic position players plus Ron Fairly, three starting pitchers and one inning of relief from Ron Perranoski. With the pinch-hitters and relief pitchers necessary for come-from-behind tactics, Houk used 20. The four games took a total of 8 hours and 17 minutes.

The 55,912 people in the stands that day pushed total series attendance to 247,279 and total gate receipts to $1,995,189.09, There was also $3.5 million from NBC and Gillette for television rights.13 The players’ share came to $1,017,546.43 with the Dodgers passing out full shares worth $12,794 and Yankees disbursing $7,874.32 per share.14 Both were the largest ever. Because the Series went only four games, the commissioner’s office, and the two leagues would not participate in the receipts. The teams would take home smaller amounts. Nevertheless, Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley would describe the sweep as his greatest thrill in baseball.15

Summed up Red Smith: “An hour and a quarter after the game, the eleganti still lapping it up in the stadium club overlooking right field saw a gaggle of young men in business suits emerge from the dugout and trudge toward an exit gate. Most of the Yankees, for it was indeed they, wore black. All walked ever so slowly as to – hell, write your own simile.”16

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org and the following books, video, and digitized box scores:

“Major League Baseball Presents the World Series of 1963” (retrieved August 17, 2020, at youtube.com/watch?v=HFjFv00JagA)

baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196310060.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1963/B10060LAN1963.htm

Notes

1 Leonard Koppett, “It Isn’t Dodgers Pitching, Says Houk, It’s a Yankee Batting Letdown,” New York Times, October 6, 1963: 198.

2 Jane Leavy, The Lost Boy (New York: HarperCollins, 2010): 262.

3 “Yanks Packed Their Bags Before Game, Just in Case,” New York Times, October 7, 1963: 38.

4 “Sandy Won Decider with Ulcerated Toe,” Los Angeles Times, October 8, 1963: B2. In The Sporting News of October 19, 1963, Bob Hunter reported that the drug used was morphine. The information is on page 2 in a story that begins on page 1 with the headline “Couldn’t Be Done – But Dodgers Did It.”

5 William Leggett, ‘Koo-foo the Killer,” Sports Illustrated, October 14, 1963: 24.

6 John Hall, “’It Was a Perfect Throw. … I Didn’t See It’ – Pepitone,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1963: B4.

7 Bill Becker, “Manager Praises Koufax’s Hurling,” New York Times, October 7, 1963: 38.

8 Bob Hunter, “Couldn’t Be Done – but Dodgers Did It,” The Sporting News, October 19, 1963: 1. In 1962 the Dodgers had a four-game lead as late as September 17, then faded into a tie with the San Francisco Giants. The Giants won a three-game tiebreaker series to take the 1962 NL pennant.

9 Dan Hafner, “’We’ve Made Up for Last Year,’” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1963: B2.

10 Jim Murray, “Bring on the Yanks!” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1963: B1.

11 Frederick G. Lieb, “Review of Series,” in Official Baseball Guide for 1964 (St. Louis: Charles C. Spink & Son, 1964): 177.

12 Dick Young, “Yanks in for Razzing; They Won’t Forget It,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1963: B4.

13 Bob Burnes, “Unbelievable! That’s Story of Dodger Sweep,” The Sporting News, October 19, 1963: 5. The NBC and Gillette figures are in Clifford Kachline, “‘Broadcasting’ Says Sponsors Will Rush to Back Fetzer Plan,” The Sporting News, October 19, 1963: 14.

14 “Splitting Swag,” The Sporting News, October 26, 1963: 6.

15 Bob Oates, “O’Malley’s Top 10 and 20,” Los Angeles Times, March 2, 1977: E1.

16 Red Smith, The Sporting News, October 19, 1963: 22.

On September 9, 1965, Sandy Koufax became the “no-hittingest pitcher of all time,”1 the first major-league pitcher to throw four no-hitters.2 His record-setting accomplishment was a 1-0 perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. In front of a relatively small crowd of 29,139 fans at Dodger Stadium, Koufax, who came into the contest with a 21-7 record, locked in a pitchers’ duel with a fellow lefty, Bob Hendley. Koufax had been unsuccessful in his previous five starts in winning his 22nd game.

Hendley had just been recalled from the minors. After four seasons with Milwaukee and San Francisco, he had been traded on May 29, 1965, from the Giants (with Harvey Kuenn and Ed Bailey) to the Cubs (in exchange for Dick Bertell and Len Gabrielson). Hendley also pitched a brilliant game, giving up only one hit, and the only run scored off him was unearned. Koufax went him one better.

Cubs center fielder Don Young, in his major-league debut, led off the game. Koufax’s first pitch was “a curve ball that bounced in the dirt.”3 After that, his control was nearly perfect, as he retired Young with a popout to second baseman Jim Lefebvre. Koufax then struck out Glenn Beckert and Billy Williams looking. Hendley was equally sharp, getting the first three Los Angeles batters in order. Koufax was in top form, striking out at least one Chicago batter in every inning. Future Hall of Famer Ernie Banks struck out three times, all swinging. According to Dodgers radio announcer Vin Scully, the first Banks strikeout came in the second inning on a forkball. Every Cubs batter except shortstop Don Kessinger struck out at least once. On the other side, Hendley had only three strikeouts, Koufax and Lefebvre (twice).

Hendley was in no danger though the first four innings. The only run of the game came in the fifth. Lou Johnson led off with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice by Ron Fairly. Hendley might have had a play at second base when he fielded the bunt, but he dropped the ball and got the sure out at first. With Lefebvre batting, Johnson stole third base and then continued home as Cubs catcher Chris Krug made a throwing error. The run was unearned, and Hendley still had not allowed a hit.

The Cubs had a chance in the sixth inning, when Krug hit a groundball to shortstop Maury Wills. Wills’ throw to first was in the dirt, but Wes Parker dug the ball out for the first out of the inning, preserving the string of consecutive outs. This was the only threat to Koufax’s perfect game. Kessinger then hit a grounder to third and was just erased, as third baseman Jim Gilliam was playing in for a possible bunt. Koufax then struck out Hendley to end the inning.

Both pitchers had no-hitters intact until the seventh inning, when Koufax retired the side on a strikeout and two fly outs. That’s when Koufax “really started to feel as though I had a shot at [the perfect game].”4 In the home half, the Dodgers had several exciting at-bats. Lead-off batter Gilliam hit a grounder to third baseman Ron Santo, who fielded the high bouncer and just threw out Gilliam at first. Willie Davis followed with a slow grounder to first. Banks fielded the ball and then tagged out Davis, who tried sliding into the bag to avoid the tag. Johnson then hit a ball past first base that barely made it to the outfield grass before rolling into foul territory. By the time Banks retreated to field it, Johnson had motored to second base for a two-out double. However, he was stranded there as Fairly grounded out to short, and the Dodgers did not score, but Hendley’s bid for a no-hitter was gone.

In the top of the eighth inning Koufax, facing the middle third of the Cubs’ order, struck out Santo looking and Banks and Byron Browne swinging. The Dodgers tried to add a run in their half of the eighth, but Jeff Torborg’s long fly to left was caught by Browne in front of the bullpen gate.

Before the ninth inning, Vin Scully told his producers, “Let’s make a recording.”5 Fans can still hear Scully call the final three outs. The Cubs had sent up two pinch-hitters. After Krug struck out, Joey Amalfitano pinch-hit for Kessinger and struck out swinging. The broadcast climaxed when Scully exclaimed, “Swung on and missed, a perfect game!” as Harvey Kuenn, who batted for Hendley, struck out to end the game.6 The game lasted one hour and 43 minutes. The final six Chicago batters (and seven of the final nine) went down on strikes.

The next day, Los Angeles Times writer Frank Finch started his story with, “A Michelangelo among pitchers, Sandy Koufax produced his masterpiece when he pitched a perfect no-hit, no-run game against the Chicago Cubs.”7 After the historic game, Koufax had told reporters, “I had a real good fastball, and that sort of helps your curve.”8 He added, “The last three innings I had the best stuff I threw all night, and perhaps all year.”9

With his accomplishment, Koufax surpassed the record of three career no-hitters held by three different pitchers: Larry Corcoran, Cy Young, and Bob Feller.10 This was just the eighth perfect game pitched in major-league history.11

As of the beginning of the 2023 season, this was the only perfect game thrown by a Dodgers pitcher.12 Further, this marked the fourth consecutive season in which Koufax had pitched a no-hit game. His record of four career no-hitters stood for 16 years, until Houston Astros fireballer Nolan Ryan pitched his fifth no-hit game on September 26, 1981, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.13

Hendley faced only 26 batters in his eight-inning gem. On any other day, his performance would have grabbed the top headlines. Five days after Koufax’s perfect game, on September 14, 1965, he and Hendley faced each other again, this time at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The Cubs prevailed, as Hendley beat Koufax 2-1.

The Cubs had only three groundball outs. Koufax’s 14 strikeouts were the highest strikeout total in a perfect game (equaled by Matt Cain on June 13, 2012). Koufax finished the season with 382 strikeouts, which bested Rube Waddell’s twentieth-century record of 349 set in 1904. But Ryan topped this mark eight years later, striking out 383 in 1973.

Koufax finished the 1965 campaign with a record of 26-8. His earned run average was 2.04, and he pitched 27 complete games out of 41 starts. He was the unanimous choice for the 1965 Cy Young Award and finished second in the NL’s Most Valuable Player Award voting.14

Author’s Note

This game was reminiscent of another pitchers’ duel, when Chicago’s Hippo Vaughan and Cincinnati’s Fred Toney pitched a double no-hitter through regulation on May 2, 1917. Vaughan held the Reds hitless for 9⅔ innings, before two hits produced a run. Meanwhile, Toney pitched 10 hitless innings for the win and part of history.

An abridged version of this article was published in SABR’s “No-Hitters” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin. As Scully described Krug’s ninth-inning at-bat against Koufax, the future Hall of Fame broadcaster uttered the timeless phrase, “There’s 29 thousand people in the ballpark and a million butterflies.”15

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, SABR.org and the following sources:

“The Cubs haven’t been no-hit since Sandy Koufax pitched,” https://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/08/the-cubs-havent-been-no-hit-since-sandy-koufax-pitched.

“Sandy Koufax pitches perfect game,” http://history.com/this-day-in-history/sandy-koufax-pitches-perfect-game.

Click here to listen to Vin Scully call the final three outs of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game on September 9, 1965.16

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196509090.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1965/B09090LAN1965.htm

Notes

1 “Sandy Now No. 1 on No-Hit Parade,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 1965: 46.

2 Koufax’s other no-hit games were pitched on June 30, 1962, May 11, 1963, and June 4, 1964.

3 “Koufax Eyed ‘Perfection’ All the Way,” Chicago Tribune, September 10, 1965: 53.

4 Charles Maher, “Even Koufax Admits Game ‘Nearly Perfect,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 1965: 45.

5 “Recorded History: Vin Scully Calls a Koufax Milestone,” found online at https://www.npr.org/2007/04/23/9752592/recorded-history-vin-scully-calls-a-koufax-milestone. Accessed January 2023.

6 Harvey Kuenn, who struck out to end the perfect game, also made the last out in Koufax’s 1963 no-hit game against the San Francisco Giants. In that game, Kuenn grounded out to the pitcher, Koufax.

7 Frank Finch, “Hendley Loses, 1-0, on 1-Hitter,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 1965: 45.

8 Maher.

9 “Koufax Eyed ‘Perfection’ All the Way.”

10 The first to achieve this total was Chicago White Stockings hurler Larry Corcoran, whose no-nos took place on August 19, 1880,[10] against the Boston Red Caps; September 20, 1882, against the Worcester Worcesters; and June 27, 1884, against the Providence Grays. Next was Cy Young, who pitched his first no-hitter as a member of the Cleveland Spiders on September 18, 1897, against the Cincinnati Reds; followed by two as a pitcher for the Boston Americans and Red Sox on May 5, 1904, against the Philadelphia Athletics; and June 30, 1908, against the New York Highlanders. Cleveland Indians star Bob Feller was the third pitcher to tie the mark, on April 16, 1940, against the Chicago White Sox; April 30, 1946, against the New York Yankees; and July 1, 1951, against the Detroit Tigers.

11 For the complete list, see https://www.mlb.com/news/all-time-perfect-games. Accessed January 2023.

12 “Los Angeles Dodgers no-hitters,” found online at http://nonohitters.com/los-angeles-dodgers-no-hitters/. Accessed April 2015.

13 “Baseball Sisco Kid Style: Sandy Koufax Becomes the First Pitcher to Throw 4 No-Hitters September 9, 1965,” http://baseballsiscokidstyle.blogspot.com/2014/09/sandy-koufax-becomes-first-pitcher-to.html. Accessed April 2015.

14 In 1965, Koufax led the majors in victories (26), earned-run average (2.04), innings pitched (335⅔) and strikeouts (382). He received all 20 first-place votes for the Cy Young Award. Koufax finished second to San Francisco’s Willie Mays in the MVP race, receiving six first-place votes (177 vote points) to Mays’ nine first-place votes (224 vote points). Before 1967, only one pitcher was awarded the Cy Young Award. Koufax won his third Cy Young Award in 1966, the season before MLB began the practice of awarding a winner from each league.

15 Found online at https://ia800701.us.archive.org/16/items/VinScullyCallsThe9thInningOfSandyKoufaxsPerfectGame/VinScully-1965-KoufaxPerfectGame9thInning_64kb.mp3. Accessed April 2015 and January 2023.

16 To hear Vin Scully call just the final strike, click here (from mlb.com).

“Gomer” was the nickname bestowed on Claude Osteen, the Dodgers’ starter in Game Three of the 1965 World Series, because of his (rather unfortunate) resemblance to the television character. And while the television Gomer was a goof, the real live one was anything but. Osteen was a solid major-league pitcher, a three-time All-Star in an 18-year major-league career, who went 15-15 with a 2.79 ERA in 1965. His won-loss record is misleading, as the Dodgers scored only 28 runs in his 15 defeats.

The Dodgers’ star pitchers, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, overshadowed Osteen in the media. But on this day he didn’t take a back seat to anyone, shutting down the powerful Minnesota Twins with a 4-0 complete-game victory, giving the Dodgers new life in the fall classic.

This was a typical Dodger win, with speed and pitching complementing their 10-hit attack. Shortstop Maury Wills, who led the world in stolen bases in 1965 with 94, stole his first sack of the Series, as did first baseman Wes Parker (who stole third), and even catcher John Roseboro. (Parker and Roseboro combined on a double steal in the fourth.) Five of the Dodgers’ hits were doubles.

The Twins’ starter, Camilo Pascual, was no slouch either. He had a 9-3 record during the season with a 3.35 ERA. During his career he was a five-time All-Star and led the American League three times each in complete games and shutouts.

The game got off to a bad start for the Twins in general and catcher Earl Battey in particular. Shortstop Zoilo Versalles led off the first inning with a ground-rule double to left. Center fielder Joe Nossek grounded to the right side, allowing Versalles to reach third with one out. After a groundout by right fielder Tony Oliva and a walk to third baseman Harmon Killebrew, Battey came to the plate. Twins third-base coach Billy Martin flashed the hit-and-run sign, but Battey missed it.

What followed was the pivotal play of the game and, perhaps, the Series. Killebrew was supposed to head for second and draw a throw from Roseboro, at which point Versalles would take off for home. Killebrew was supposed to run to second but stopped. Wills saw Versalles breaking for the plate and threw back to Roseboro, who threw to third baseman Jim Gilliam, who applied the tag; 6-2-5 for you who score.

“That was the big play,” said Osteen. “If they score they have a big advantage. Getting a run early makes a team confident and more aggressive. They would have been tougher to pitch to.”1

“Earl missed the sign,” said Martin. “He usually protects the runner pretty good.”2

The game remained scoreless until the fourth inning. Right fielder Ron Fairly led off the Dodgers’ half with a double to left and moved to third on a sacrifice by left fielder Lou Johnson. Second baseman Jim Lefebrve got an infield hit, but Fairly had to stay at third. Pascual then did what he didn’t want to do; he walked Parker to load the bases. Up came number-eight hitter John Roseboro and he didn’t disappoint, driving in two runs with a single to right. The Dodgers had broken through and went into the fifth ahead 2-0. The only downside to the inning came when Lefebvre bruised his heel crossing the plate. Dick Tracewski replaced him for the rest of the Series.

The Dodgers added to their lead in the fifth. Fleet-footed center fielder Willie Davis singled to center and went to second on a Fairly groundout. Johnson came up again and smacked a double to left-center field, scoring Davis.

With the Twins down by three and the pitcher’s spot due up first in the top of the sixth, Twins manager Sam Mele chose to pinch-hit for Pascual with Rich Rollins, who was the Twins’ regular third baseman during the season but saw duty only as a pinch-hitter in the Series. Rollins grounded back to Osteen, but had he gotten on base, the Twins may have gotten back into the game, because Versalles and center fielder Joe Nossek followed with singles. However, with runners on first and third, Osteen induced right fielder Tony Oliva to hit into a double play to end the Twins’ last serious threat of the game.

Jim Merritt replaced Pascual on the mound and Parker greeted him with a base hit to center. Roseboro flied to right, and then Dodgers manager Walter Alston ordered the next batter, Osteen, to attempt a sacrifice with one out. The move worked, as Osteen successfully bunted over Parker, who then scored on a double by Maury Wills. Merritt got a measure of revenge by picking Wills off second to end the inning.

Battey’s horrid day continued in the bottom of the seventh. While chasing a foul pop off Jim Gilliam, he smashed into the fence next to the Twins’ dugout, bruising his neck and jaw. Jerry Zimmerman replaced Battey behind the plate. The doctor who examined Battey after the game would not allow him to talk unnecessarily, which was fine with him after the bad day he had.

“Gomer,” who got the nickname from Tracewski, piled up the zeroes the rest of the way and earned a 4-0 complete-game win. The victory was impressive because the power-laden Twins had been shut out only three times all season, but at the same time Osteen seemed to have their number, having compiled a 5-0 record against them when he pitched for the Washington Senators from 1961 to 1964.

“I just feel I know how to pitch to them,” he said. “Except for Zoilo Versalles, all the hits they got off me were on bad pitches. “When I got the ball where I was supposed to, they didn’t hit me.”3

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com, dodgers.mlblogs.com, and the Kingsport (Tennessee) Times-News.

Photo credit: Claude Osteen, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Notes

1 Jack Mann, “Dodgers Down – and Up,” Sports Illustrated, October 18, 1965.

2 Lew Ferguson, “Missed Hit-and-Run Sign Throttles Minnesota,” San Bernardino (California) Sun, October 10, 1965.

3 Joe Reichler, “Gomer’s Luck Finally Changes,” San Bernardino (California) Sun, October 10, 1965.

Drysdale developed a reputation as a brushback pitcher, in the style of notoriously intimidating pitchers like Sal Maglie and Early Wynn, who were in their prime in the 1950s.1 Drysdale, whose nickname was “Big D,” not only relied on an occasional brushback to move batters off the plate; he hit more batters (154) than any other major-league pitcher between 1956 and 1969. He was also suspected of using foreign substances to give himself an added advantage over batters.2

By 1968 Drysdale had been a Cy Young Award winner (1962), appeared in eight All-Star Games, and was a key contributor to three World Series championship teams (1959, 1963, and 1965). Still only 31 years old in his 13th season, he was no stranger to hurling shutouts. From 1956 to 1969 he led all major-league pitchers with 49 whitewashes. In the process of breaking Johnson’s 56-inning scoreless streak, set in 1913, he threw six straight shutouts, also a record. His streak became the crowning achievement in his Hall of Fame career.

Drysdale’s streak began on May 14 against the Chicago Cubs. Over the next 20 days, he threw five more shutouts, defeating Houston (twice), St. Louis, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh. Among the pitchers who opposed him were future Hall of Famers Ferguson Jenkins, Bob Gibson, and Jim Bunning. In all but one of the six games, he threw on three days’ rest.

In his autobiography Once a Bum, Always a Dodger, Drysdale recalled that he was the beneficiary of umpire Harry Wendlestedt’s favorable call in the game against the Giants. With the bases loaded in the ninth inning, Drysdale grazed Dick Dietz’s left elbow. That should have scored a run and ended his streak. But Wendlestedt ruled that Dietz made no effort to get out of the way of the pitch, thus negating the hit-by-pitch call. Drysdale ended up retiring Dietz and the next two Giants batters to preserve his streak.3

Along his historic journey, Drysdale passed several other pitchers with significant stretches of scoreless innings. One of them occurred earlier in the 1968 season when Cleveland Indians pitcher Luis Tiant recorded 41 shutout innings. Others Drysdale passed included Cy Young (45 innings in 1904), Doc White (45 in 1904), Sal Maglie (45 in 1950), Carl Hubbell (45⅓ in 1933), and Jack Coombs (53 in 1910).

The Phillies were in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 8, to play the Dodgers. A Ladies Night sellout crowd of 50,060 showed up at Dodger Stadium to witness Drysdale’s pursuit of Johnson’s record.4 Drysdale’s streak was at 54 innings, two behind Johnson.

Dodgers players wore black armbands on their left sleeves in memory of Senator Robert Kennedy, assassinated two days before at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles while campaigning for the presidential nomination.5

Veteran right-hander Larry Jackson drew the starting assignment for Phillies manager Gene Mauch. The Phillies were in fourth place, 3½ games out of first place.

With his nerves perhaps getting the best of him, Drysdale had a shaky start in the first inning, throwing seven balls in his first eight pitches. But he regained his composure to keep his streak intact.6

In the second inning, Drysdale retired Bill White, Tony Taylor, and Clay Dalrymple, tying Johnson’s 55-year-old record.

In the top of the third, leadoff batter Roberto Peña hit a slow, high bouncer to third baseman Ken Boyer, who cleanly fielded the ball and carefully threw to first baseman Wes Parker for the out. With the record then broken, the jam-packed crowd let loose loud ovations for Drysdale’s accomplishment. Drysdale stood on the mound with his back to home plate and tried to soak in the moment. Later, when questioned about what he was thinking at the time, he said, “Thank God, it’s over with.”7

After the side was retired, plate umpire Augie Donatelli intercepted Drysdale on his way to the dugout. At the request of Mauch, the umpire asked Drysdale to remove his cap so he could check him for the use of foreign substances. He ran his fingers through Drysdale’s hair and confirmed Mauch’s suspicion. He ordered Drysdale to stop using the greasy substance. Then before the start of the fourth inning, Donatelli confronted him again on the mound and told him not to touch the back of his head or under the bill of his cap, or he would face automatic ejection. The Los Angeles Times surmised that Mauch was well aware of Drysdale’s pursuit of the innings record and waited until after he passed the milestone before registering his complaint with Donatelli.8

The Dodgers had taken a 1-0 lead in the first inning, when Boyer singled to score Willie Davis. In the bottom of the fourth Tom Haller doubled and Boyer singled. The combination of a fielder’s choice, a Phillies error, and a sacrifice fly added three more Dodger runs.

The Phillies started the fifth inning with singles by Taylor and Dalrymple. Peña struck out, but not before Drysdale caused him to hit the dirt. Howie Bedell, who played his first game with the Phillies two days earlier after not having appeared in the majors since 1962, pinch-hit for Jackson.9 Bedell stroked a fly ball to left field that scored Taylor from third, ending Drysdale’s streak at 58⅔ innings.

Drysdale gave up a solo home run to White in the sixth inning. After an RBI single by Cookie Rojas in the seventh made the score 4-3 and left runners on second and third, Dodgers manager Walter Alston pulled Drysdale. Reliever Hank Aguirre rescued the Dodgers by retiring the next two batters. The final run of the game came on Parker’s solo home run off Turk Farrell in the seventh inning. The final score was 5-3.

Drysdale was credited with his eighth win of the season. The Dodgers’ win was their ninth in their past 10 games. They were in second place, 2½ games behind the first-place St. Louis Cardinals. Jackson gave up four runs in four innings and took the loss to run his record to 6-6.

After retiring to the clubhouse, Drysdale admitted that it had been a harrowing experience throughout the stretch. He said breaking the streak “was bound to happen sooner or later.” He acknowledged he and his family had been disturbed by the death of Robert Kennedy, a family friend. He added, “This was just one of those nights, the kind when you just run out of steam.”10

Johnson pitched for the Washington Senators from 1907 to 1927. There were similarities between the former and new record-holders. Both had made their major-league debuts at age 19. Both had reputations for being menacing pitchers, mainly relying on their intimidating fastball. Johnson was a side-arm pitcher, while Drysdale frequently mixed in side-arm deliveries in his repertoire. At the time of Drysdale’s retirement, Johnson was the all-time leader in strikeouts (3,509). Drysdale was eighth on the list (2,486).

Partially overlapping Drysdale’s streak was another one involving the St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson. From June 2 to June 26, Gibson pitched 47 consecutive scoreless innings, in the midst of a 15-game winning streak. Gibson won both the Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player Award that season.

Drysdale finished the season with a 14-12 record, as the Dodgers ended up in seventh place. Suffering from shoulder problems that had bothered him in earlier seasons, he retired late in the 1969 season at the age of 33 after making only 12 appearances. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.

Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser broke Drysdale’s mark in 1988. He pitched 59 consecutive scoreless innings, composed of the last four innings of a game on August 30, five shutouts, and 10 shutout innings on September 28.

Sources

Lewis, Allen. “Dodgers Beat Phils; Drysdale Breaks Mark,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 9, 1968: Section 3, 1.

Daley, Arthur (New York Times Service). “Big Train: Fastest Moundsman of All,” Long Beach (California) Press-Telegram, June 9, 1968: S-1.

Schlossberg, Dan. “Flashback: Orel Hershiser’s 1988 Season,” Baseball Digest, June 2003 (Vol. 62, No. 6): 48-51.

Notes

1 Joe Goddard, “Are Brushback Pitchers a Dying Breed?” Baseball Digest, September 1978: 43.

2 Emil Roth. “When Drysdale’s Shutout Streak Ended,” Baseball Digest, December 1973: 63.

3 Don Drysdale and Bob Verdi. Once a Bum, Always a Dodger (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990), 142.

4 The June 9, 1968, edition of the Los Angeles Times reported the total attendance as 55,017, with 50,060 as paid.

5 Dwight Chapin, “Boyer Carefully Handles Slow Hopper for Record,” Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1968: Section D, 1.

6 Dan Hafner, “Drysdale Sets Record (58⅔), Then Gets KO’d,” Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1968: Section D, 1.

7 Chapin, Section D, 6.

8 Chapin, Section D, 1.

9 Hafner.

10 Chapin, Section D, 1.

“On a muggy, overcast night in Chavez Ravine,” the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-3, a game highlighted by Willie Stargell’s home run in the seventh inning that was the first ever hit out of Dodger Stadium. “It appeared to be Apollo 12,” one observer noted as the baseball landed in the parking lot behind the right-field pavilion.1

The Pirates scored the first run of the game in the top of the second inning off Dodgers starting pitcher Don Drysdale. Roberto Clemente was safe on an error by shortstop Maury Wills and went to second base on a passed ball by the Dodgers catcher, Tom Haller. After Al Oliver was hit by a pitch and Manny Sanguillen was safe on a bunt to load the bases, Gene Alley drove in Clemente from third base on a single to left field. With the bases still loaded, Bill Mazeroski struck out and the next batter, Steve Blass, flied out to Andy Kosco in left field. Oliver tagged up from third base and appeared to have scored the second run of the inning. However, he was ruled out on a successful appeal by the Dodgers who claimed he left third base early.2

Pittsburgh jumped ahead 2-0 in the top of the third inning. Matty Alou singled to center field, took second and third on successive infield outs, and scored when Clemente singled to left field.

Sanguillen gave the Pirates a 3-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning when he hit a home run into the left-field seats, his third homer of the season.3

After being held to two singles though five innings by Pirates starting pitcher Blass, the Dodgers tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning. The second batter of the inning, Wills, singled to center field and Willie Davis followed with a single to left. Len Gabrielson reached when he hit into a force play at second. Wills and Gabrielson scored when Kosco hit a 400-foot home run over the center-field wall, his 16th homer of the season. Blass commented after the game, “It was a very hittable pitch. I would have been surprised if he hadn’t hit it out.”4

The top of the seventh inning was the scene for Stargell’s memorable home run. Alan Foster had relieved Drysdale, who left the game for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth inning. With one out, Foster threw a curveball that Stargell hammered over the right-field pavilion, his 18th home run of the season that “brought the crowd up gasping. …” Stargell wasn’t visibly impressed after the game. He said, “… I had no idea it was going to go that far. I wasn’t trying to hit one. Every time I try, I can’t do it.”5

One writer estimated the distance of the home run to be between 480 and 500 feet6 and another wrote that it traveled as much as 525 feet.7 The ball easily cleared the 50-foot-high ceiling of the pavilion, which has a back fence that is 450 feet from home plate.8 Another writer declared that the ball was still rising as it cleared the pavilion.9 Quipped a visiting writer, “Willie Stargell’s muscles have now joined Jack Benny’s violin, Bob Hope’s nose and Raquel Welch’s anatomy as all-time great conversation stimulators here in the neon capital of the Western world.”10

The Pirates waited until the ninth inning to blow the game open. They exploded for seven runs, all charged to former Pirates pitcher Pete Mikkelsen, who had relieved Foster to start the inning. Blass opened with a single and moved to third base on a single by Alou. Blass and Alou both scored when Richie Hebner’s groundball bounced off first baseman Tom Hutton’s glove for an error.11

After Stargell struck out, Clemente singled to left field and Hebner scored when Kosco bobbled the ball and overthrew home plate. Clemente reached third base and scored when the next batter, Oliver, doubled to the right-field corner. Oliver came home on Sanguillen’s single to center field. Gene Alley grounded out, then Sanguillen scored on Mazeroski’s homer down the left-field line.12 As one visiting writer wrote, “The Pirates did win, 11-3, but their big stretch drive was as anticlimactic as stitches after open heart surgery.”13

Blass held the Dodgers scoreless in the bottom of the ninth to finish his complete-game win, his 11th victory of the season in 18 decisions. “I’ve been struggling to find my slider all year,” said Blass after the game. “I still have some rough edges, but I’m slowly getting back into the groove.”14 It was his second complete-game win of the week over the Dodgers.15

Stargell, surrounded by reporters after the game, said, “They don’t pay you any more for distance. If I hit one that barely goes out and we win, that’s the real thrill. They don’t mean anything if you don’t win.” Asked if this was his best home run, Stargell said “No, the best home run I ever hit was the one over the roof at Forbes Field this year off (Mets pitcher Tom) Seaver.”16

“If Stargell during recent years had been playing anywhere but Forbes Field,” said Pirates manager Larry Shepard, “he might have challenged the home run records of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris.” Hitting well at Dodger Stadium was not uncommon to Stargell, who slugged three homers there in a game in 1965.17

Among Clemente’s two hits in the game was the 2,500th of his 15-year career.18 “I can’t remember my first major league hit,” Clemente said. “I can’t even remember hits I had a few weeks ago. But I’m happy to be hitting again and helping the team.”19

This was the first game in two months in which all of the Pirates regulars played. Stargell had missed some playing time with a swollen thumb20 and Mazeroski, for the first time in a month, was a regular in the lineup. “I’m just up from York,” kidded the delighted second baseman, who was struggling through an injury-marred campaign. “That one sure felt good. I’m like a kid with a new toy.” This game was the first since June 10 in which the Pirates’ starting lineup was intact.21

Drysdale acknowledged that he was pitching with pain in his shoulder. He said, “The pain is still there, but it’s something I’m going to have to learn to pitch with.”22

“Funny,” said Walter Alston, the Dodgers manager, “but Foster had great stuff tonight. I thought he was throwing the ball better than he had in some time.”23 He blamed the two Dodgers errors in the ninth for erasing any chance LA had of catching the Pirates in the game.24

The teams combined for 14 runs, 22 hits, and three errors in a game that lasted 2 hours 11 minutes. Attendance at Dodger Stadium on this Tuesday evening was 22,604.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196908050.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1969/B08050LAN1969.htm

Notes

1 Ross Newhan, “Apollo 12? Stargell’s Blast Flattens Dodgers,” Los Angeles Times, August 6, 1969: 39, 42.

2 Charlie Feeney, “‘Coasted’ Pirates Use Homers to Top Dodgers,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 6, 1969: 18.

3 Feeney.

4 Phil Musick, “Stargell Leads Pirates Bombing,” Pittsburgh Press, August 6, 1969: 68-69.

5 Musick.

6 Newhan.

7 Feeney.

8 Newhan.

9 Musick.

10 Musick.

11 Feeney. On July 30, Blass had beaten the Dodgers, 4-2, at Forbes Field.

12 Feeney.

13 Musick.

14 Musick.

15 Newhan.

16 Musick.

17 United Press International, “Can LA Forget Stargell’s Shot?” Pomona (California) Progress Bulletin, August 6, 1969: 41.

18 Feeney.

19 United Press International.

20 Feeney.

21 Musick.

22 Newhan.

23 Newhan.

24 United Press International.