1965-66 Pennant Races: LA’s Most Artful Dodger

On the afternoon of Sunday, June 20, 1965, New York Mets announcer Ralph Kiner described for listeners on WHN Radio in New York one of the more awesome sights in major-league baseball in the mid-1960s:

“Sandy Koufax, one of the top left-handers in the history of baseball …”1

Baseball Hall of Fame writer Roger Angell said in a 1999 interview that he’d never seen major-league hitters more overmatched than when Koufax was throwing his “terrific fastball and deadly curveball.” Angell recalled hitters looking out at Koufax on the mound as if they were wondering what they were facing. Batters sat in their dugout, said Angell, completely riveted by Koufax.2

In this Father’s Day doubleheader Koufax dueled the man who at the time was statistically the greatest lefty in the game’s history, Warren Spahn. The twin bill was critical to the pennant hopes of the Dodgers, who at 41-24 led the Milwaukee Braves by 3½ games and the Cincinnati Reds by 4 games.

Koufax versus Spahn was a classic mound matchup, and the game, historical as it was in that it marked the first time that Koufax and Don Drysdale started in the same doubleheader, lived up to expectations.

Amid near-perfect 68-degree weather, the two legendary lefties matched one another pitch for pitch–Koufax’s flame belching fastballs and 12-to-6 curves mystifying the Mets while Spahn’s sinking fastballs, screwballs, sliders, and knuckleballs were dazzling the Dodgers.

Claude Osteen, the number-three starter on the 1965-66 Dodgers, said in a 1998 interview that to call Koufax’s curveball “outstanding” was not a good enough word for it. Koufax’s curve dropped straight down, Osteen remembered, and his fiery fastball flared upward. Osteen said Koufax didn’t have a great changeup, but he didn’t need one, since his curve and fastball were otherworldly.3

Osteen recalled Koufax having huge hands and long fingers, the latter allowing him to exert extra spin on the ball. By adjusting his grip on the ball, he could deliver flaring fastballs estimated at between 95 and 100 mph and 85 mph power curves that broke in on right-handed hitters and away from lefties.

Ed Roebuck, a former Dodger teammate of Koufax, said in an interview that the pitcher’s long fingers allowed him to put extra spin on the ball and thus aided in his ability to throw his exceptional fastball and curve.4

Angell noted that with Koufax, one could see where all the heat was coming from on his pitches. It was generated by the bowed back, powerful arm, and powerful legs. It was very exciting, said Angell.5

Koufax’s duel with Spahn moved along briskly. At 1 hour and 52 minutes it was the third quickest contest the Dodgers played in 1965. Koufax’s 2-1 victory was reminiscent of a mound meeting he and Spahn engaged in nearly three years to the day earlier, June 13, 1962, in Milwaukee, Koufax allowing just three hits in another 2-1 victory.6

Decades later, Koufax would joke at a gathering of baseball greats for the All-Century Team that Spahn was the best southpaw pitcher in the room that day. Not because Spahn was so good, Koufax said tongue-in-cheek, but because he pitched “the whole damn century.”7

In LA, Koufax ignored an arthritic left elbow that caused him constant pain and went the distance, surrendering one hit and two walks while striking out 12. He faced just three batters over the minimum for a nine-inning game and improved his record to 11-3. The victory was his fifth straight in as many outings, a streak he eventually pushed to 11 as the Dodgers fought for their pennant lives.

The blazing National League race in the summer of ’65 emerged as one of the most suspenseful ever. The see-saw summer in ’65 saw six teams–Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco–spend time atop the standings.

That the Dodgers were in contention might have surprised some. The 1963 World Series champions plummeted to sixth place in ’64, the result of inconsistent play and injuries. The offseason saw the Dodgers bolster their mound rotation but weaken their offense when they acquired Osteen for slugger Frank Howard in a seven-player deal.

The Dodgers’ offense grew even more anemic one month into the 1965 campaign, their top hitter Tommy Davis breaking his ankle sliding into second base to break up a double-play attempt in a May 1 game against the Giants in Los Angeles. Davis didn’t return to the lineup until the final game of the regular season, and that in a pinch-hit role.

The injury might have doomed the Dodgers if not for the clutch play and pleasing personality of his replacement, Lou Johnson. Called Sweet Lou by teammates for his infectious good humor, Johnson was a journeyman outfielder who had played for the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels, and Milwaukee Braves.

The injury to Tommy Davis was one of many endured by the Dodgers in ’65. Willie Davis, Ron Fairly, John Roseboro, and Maury Wills all missed playing time because of injuries. That the ’65 Dodgers did not produce a player with more than 12 home runs or 70 RBIs shows how important pitching was for this team.

Osteen, Drysdale, Johnny Podres, and a deep bullpen headed by relief ace Ron Perranoski picked up the slack, but it was Koufax who proved to be LA’s most artful Dodger. It hadn’t always been that way. Sportswriter Dave Anderson covered Koufax’s signing with the Dodgers for the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper in 1955 and recalled in a 1999 interview that Koufax was “a nice kid” but also just the 25th guy on the roster. Even as a rookie, Koufax could throw the ball through a brick, Anderson said, but he often couldn’t find the brick because of his lack of control.8

By 1965 Koufax was the best pitcher in baseball, but his success came at a costly price from a physical standpoint. The day on which he was scheduled to pitch saw Koufax apply the heating ointment Capsolin to his left arm to loosen the muscles. Capsolin was so hot it would nearly cause the skin to blister, but its effect was to stimulate the circulation beneath the skin.

Minnesota Twins ace southpaw Jim Kaat, who faced Koufax three times in the 1965 World Series, remembered in a 1998 interview standing next to Koufax for pregame publicity photos and having his eyes water from the strong smell of the Capsolin. The ointment heated up the arm, said Kaat, and killed the pain. After the game, Dodgers trainers filled a small plastic tub with crushed ice, dropping the water temperature to 35 degrees, and Koufax would submerge his pitching arm in the freezing water for 35 to 45 minutes.9

Eight days before defeating Spahn and the Mets on June 20, Koufax had taken the mound on a sunlit Saturday in Shea Stadium seeking his 11th victory in 12 career starts against New York. By the game’s end, his 5-0 shutout had raised his career mark against the Mets to 11-0 and lowered his career ERA against them to 1.00. He told reporters that he didn’t have a good curveball that afternoon; instead, he challenged the Mets with his fastball.10

When the Mets mounted even a modest rally, Koufax, according to Joseph Sheehan of the New York Times, “put an end to that nonsense.”11

Five days after his victory over Spahn, Koufax returned to the Dodger Stadium mound and again allowed just one run and struck out 12 in beating Bob Friend and Pittsburgh. Four days later Koufax climbed the hill in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, struck out 10, including future Hall of Fame sluggers Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, and won 9-3.

On Saturday night, July 3, Koufax fanned 10 to beat the Astros beneath the plastic sky of the new Houston Astrodome. It was his fourth straight game of 10 or more strikeouts and his seventh consecutive complete-game victory.

The All-Star break found the Dodgers trailing the first-place Reds by three percentage points. The hotly contested race saw San Francisco 3 games back of Cincinnati, Philadelphia 3½, and Milwaukee 5½ games out.

Koufax’s remarkable streaks of consecutive complete games and strikeouts ended abruptly in his next outing, a 7-6 defeat on July 7, which saw Cincinnati score five runs in the first two innings at Crosley Field and drive Koufax off the mound in the fifth. Because the Dodgers rallied to tie the game at 6-6 in the eighth inning, Koufax was not the pitcher of record at game’s end.

The defeat dropped the Dodgers into a first-place tie with the Reds. Four days later, in the first game of a Sunday doubleheader in Pittsburgh, Koufax survived a two-run first inning and then slammed the door on the Pirates. Koufax got a run back in the third with an RBI single and the Dodgers added two more runs in the fourth and one in the eighth to claim a 4-2 win.

The complete-game victory, in which Koufax struck out 10, raised his record to 15-3 and allowed the Dodgers to remain tied for first place. Returning to Dodger Stadium, Koufax kept LA tied with Cincinnati with a four-hit shutout of Chicago on July 16, and his 3-2 victory over Houston four days later allowed the Dodgers to increase their cushion atop the standings to 3½ games. Once again Koufax helped his own cause. With the Dodgers tied with the Astros at 2-2 in the ninth inning, LA manager Walter Alston allowed Koufax to bat rather than be pinch-hit for, and Koufax singled to left, scoring Jim Lefebvre with the winning run.

The superlative pitching of Koufax and the rest of the Dodgers’ staff was crucial, since LA ranked ninth in the league in runs scored, due in part to the mounting injuries the club continued to suffer. The Dodgers’ bench grew so short that Alston had his pitchers hit for themselves in clutch situations and used Drysdale as a pinch-hitter. That Drysdale often came through is evident by his batting average of .300 and slugging average of .508 that season.

The Dodgers dropped decisions in each of Koufax’s next two outings, though he took the loss in only one. With LA’s lead melting in the summer months, Koufax went the route in a 3-2 win in St. Louis as the calendar flipped to August. The Dodgers led the Reds by 1½ games and were 3½ ahead of the Braves and 4 games in front of the Giants.

On August 8 the Dodgers made national headlines with an 18-0 loss in Cincinnati. Koufax returned his team to normalcy in his next outing, a complete-game 4-3 win in which he fanned 14 Mets and won his 20th game for the second time in his career.

Koufax improved to 21-4 in his next mound appearance, a 1-0 victory over the Pirates on August 14 in which he struck out 12, did not walk a batter, and scattered five hits. Four days later, Koufax matched up against Jim Bunning but neither great pitcher figured in the decision in a 6-3 Phillies win.

On Sunday, August 22, Koufax and Giants ace Juan Marichal opposed one another in a much-anticipated matchup that would result in one of the more infamous games in major-league history. What should have been a memorable mound duel between two all-time greats engaged in a pressure-packed pennant race was marred by one of the sport’s all-time ugliest incidents–Marichal attacking Roseboro with his bat after the catcher buzzed the Giants hitter’s head as he returned the ball to Koufax. Claiming the ball nicked his ear, Marichal bloodied Roseboro before Mays, Koufax, and others restored peace.

The loss started a streak of four straight games in which the Dodgers dropped a game started by Koufax, who may have been still shaken by the Marichal-Roseboro brawl. Four days later, on August 26, Koufax absorbed his second straight defeat, 5-2 in Shea Stadium in a game that future ace reliever Tug McGraw started for the Mets and earned the win. After working seven innings in New York, Koufax was back on the mound two nights later in Philadelphia, pitching the ninth inning to earn a save in an 8-4 win over the fading Phillies in Connie Mack Stadium. The save was his first of the season and the eighth in his career.

The first day of September saw Koufax drop his third straight start, losing to the Pirates 3-2 when Jim Pagliaroni reached him for a two-out double to left field to score Willie Stargell. Stargell’s strikeout in the fourth inning was number 307 on the season for Koufax, the most by a National League pitcher in 73 years.12

The game featured an intriguing pitcher-hitter duel between Koufax and Roberto Clemente in the bottom of the sixth. According to the Pittsburgh Press, Clemente fouled off “at least 15 pitches” from Koufax before going down on a swinging strikeout.13

Koufax struck out 10 in 11 innings in a game rescheduled from the day before due to rain, but the afternoon loss left LA tied for first with the Reds. In the post-mortem, Koufax told reporters that he threw a bad pitch and Pagliaroni hit it good.

Another one-run defeat in that night’s game dropped the Dodgers into second place, one percentage point behind Cincinnati.

The NL race listed five teams within 2½ games of first place. Opposing fellow future Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts in the Astrodome on Sunday, September 5, Koufax worked seven innings but did not get a decision in a 4-2 win. The pressure of a pennant race now in its stretch run was such that even the usually unflappable Koufax was affected. After the game Koufax reportedly stormed into the Dodgers locker room, overturned a training table, and threw it against the wall.

When Koufax strode to the Dodger Stadium mound for a Thursday night game against the Cubs on September 9, LA was on a two-game losing streak and had fallen a half-game out of first place. Once again, he was called upon to be the Dodgers’ stopper. Leading off for Chicago and making his major-league debut was center fielder Don Young. Koufax got Young on a pop fly to second baseman Jim Lefebvre, and then fanned both Glenn Beckert and Billy Williams looking.

Though the mound matchup looked like a mismatch–the 21-7 Koufax versus the 2-2 Bob Hendley–the Cubs southpaw matched the legendary lefty pitch for pitch, inning by inning. Koufax had five strikeouts through the first four frames; Hendley, on the other hand, retired the Dodgers on a series of groundouts and fly outs. Each had a no-hitter heading into the fifth inning, and the Dodgers broke up the scoreless tie without benefit of a base hit. Johnson led off with a walk, was sacrificed to second, stole third, and scored on catcher Chris Krug’s throwing error.

Johnson’s walk ended Hendley’s perfect-game bid, and his two-out double past first baseman Ernie Banks in the seventh broke up the no-hitter. Koufax, meanwhile, kept the Cubs in check and he said afterward that the seventh inning was when he felt he had a shot at a perfect game.14

Koufax whiffed Ron Santo, Banks, and Byron Browne in the eighth. On the verge of baseball history, he finished with a flourish, striking out the side–Krug, Joey Amalfitano, Harvey Kuenn–in the ninth.

“The last three innings I had the best stuff I threw all night, and perhaps all year,” Koufax told reporters.15

He said he used high heat to set up his breaking pitches. “I had a real good fastball, and that sort of helps your curve,” Koufax remarked to reporters.

Frank Finch wrote in the next day’s Los Angeles Times that Koufax was “[a] Michelangelo among pitchers.”16

Koufax and Hendley produced more drama five days later in Wrigley Field, though it was the Cubs hurler outpitching the Dodgers’ ace with a complete-game 2-1 win. Koufax’s no-hit streak lasted one-third of an inning before Beckert doubled to right field.

The loss left the Dodgers 3½ games out of first place, and another loss the next day, the team’s third straight, dropped them 4½ games back in mid-September. The season was expiring, and so were the Dodgers’ dreams of the pennant. Koufax helped halt the slide the following day, claiming his second save of the season by working the ninth inning in a 2-0 victory over the Cubs. The victory sparked a win streak that eventually reached 13.

Two days later, on September 18, Koufax blanked the defending World Series champion Cardinals 1-0 in Busch Stadium. His complete-game four-hitter kept the Dodgers at 3½ games back with 13 to play.

On September 22 Koufax toed the rubber in Milwaukee’s County Stadium and was knocked out in the third inning against the Braves, giving up five runs on six hits. It was one of his shortest starts of the season, but the Dodgers rallied to win 7-6 in 11 innings. The dramatic victory allowed LA to cut its deficit to two games, and three days later Koufax overcame pain and fatigue to fan 12 in a 2-0 win over the Cardinals.

In a day game in Dodger Stadium on September 29, Koufax contributed to Cincinnati’s slide with a 5-0 victory that gave him his second straight shutout. Fanning 13, he fired a complete-game two-hitter that lifted LA to a two-game lead over San Francisco with four games to go in the torrid race.

The Dodgers’ next to last game of the regular season had them hosting the Braves before a Saturday afternoon crowd of 41,574. Pitching through pain once again, Koufax overcame his chronic sore elbow and a Milwaukee lineup featuring Hank Aaron, Felipe Alou, and Joe Torre. The dangerous trio went a combined 0-for-10 with five strikeouts as Koufax threw his third straight complete-game victory. Striking out 13 for the second straight time, Koufax with his four-hit, 3-1 win clinched the Dodgers’ second pennant in three seasons.

After Johnson caught Denis Menke’s fly ball to left field for the game’s final out, Finch wrote in the LA Times that the “magnificent Sandy Koufax” had made the anemic offense provided by the Dodgers–two hits, both by Lefebvre–stand up.

The Dodgers’ stretch drive had seen them win 14 of their final 15 games and turn a 4½-game deficit into a two-game margin of victory. Koufax contributed four complete-game victories and a save to the streak, and he finished the regular season by leading the league in wins (26), winning percentage (.765), ERA (2.04), complete games (27), innings pitched (335 2/3”), and strikeouts (382).

It was enough to earn him his second Cy Young Award in three seasons. In an era when the award was given to only one pitcher across the major leagues, Koufax claimed all 20 first-place votes. He finished second to Mays in the MVP balloting, totaling 177 vote points to Mays’ 224.

Koufax continued his dominance in the World Series. After losing Game Two, 5-1, to fellow future Hall of Famer Kaat in Minnesota, he returned to the Dodger Stadium mound and blanked the Twins 7-0 in Game Five to give LA a 3-2 Series lead. Three days later, amid partly sunny and cool conditions on October 14, Koufax pitched what is arguably the signature game of his great career in Game Seven.

Facing Kaat again in Metropolitan Stadium in the rubber match between the two, Koufax overcame an arthritic elbow aching from extreme fatigue and an ineffective curveball and challenged the Twins’ top hitters–Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, Don Mincher, et al.–with his blazing fastball. With the World Series on the line, a weary, injured Koufax struck out 10, walked three, and allowed only three hits in a 2-0 victory.

Oliva faced many great pitchers in his career but recalled in a 1999 interview that Koufax was something special. Oliva said Koufax’s pitches did something different from other pitchers. Everyone knew Koufax threw hard, said Oliva, but the fact that he threw every pitch from the same over-the-top motion made it difficult to pick up his pitches. Oliva said the Twins realized what their National League counterparts already knew, and that was that Koufax’s curve went straight down, and his high-90s fastball seemed to sail upward. Every delivery was the same, said Oliva, and every pitch was off the same motion.17

Oliva was a professional hitter, owning quick wrists and excellent bat control. But he remembered struggling to catch up to Koufax’s fastball, which Oliva believed approached 100 mph with great movement. Koufax threw hard, Oliva remembered, and he said there weren’t too many hitters who could hit a fastball that had as much movement as the ones fired by Koufax.

Killebrew recalled being impressed by Koufax’s outstanding fastball and great control. He said Koufax’s curveball looked like his fastball before dropping straight down, and what he and some of the other hitters on the American League championship squad sought to do against the Dodgers ace was the opposite of what teams like the Giants and Pirates did in the National League.18

Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski remembered in a 1998 interview that the Pittsburgh Pirates would look for the fastball because even if they looked to hit Koufax’s curve they still struggled to connect.19

Killebrew said the Twins took the opposite approach and laid off Koufax’s high fastball since they didn’t believe they could catch up to it.

Kaat, a decent hitting pitcher who batted .247 in 1965, couldn’t recall being able to put the ball in play or even hitting a foul ball against Koufax in the World Series. His fastballs, Kaat said, were a blur. Kaat said the feeling in the Twins’ dugout as Koufax mowed down one batter after another was almost a feeling of sorrow for the next man up.

The Twins were experiencing what the New York Yankees had dealt with two years earlier, when Koufax won Games One and Four to highlight a stunning sweep of the two-time defending World Series champions. Second baseman Bobby Richardson, a clutch World Series player for the Yankees, remembered in a 1998 interview that Koufax’s fastball took off so quickly that he was able to throw it past the Yankees hitters. Richardson recalled Koufax’s curve dropping as though it was rolling off a cliff. The Yankees won Series in 1961 and ’62, but in ’63, Richardson said, Koufax took the wind out of their sails.20

The 1965 World Series champions followed a similar path to the pennant in ’66. Koufax and Drysdale staged a celebrated joint holdout in spring training over contract disputes, but both signed just before the start of the regular season. While Drysdale followed with a sub-.500 season, Koufax won his first three decisions, including a 4-2 victory over Bob Gibson on April 26 under the lights in Dodger Stadium.

From May 10 to June 10, Koufax won eight straight starts, all of them complete games, to raise his record to 11-1. A 3-0 loss to Houston on June 14 snapped the win streak, but Koufax resumed his winning ways in his next outing, a 3-2 complete-game decision over the Giants.

The Dodgers ace amped up his intensity in the summer. Complete-game victories in his next two outings improved Koufax’s record to 14-2. He was 15-4 at the time of the All-Star Game on July 12, and was hugely responsible for the Dodgers not trailing the league-leading Giants by more than five games.

In the 1967 documentary Portrait of Willie Mays, aired on ABC-TV and narrated by sportscaster Chris Schenkel, the Giants’ superstar said that when Koufax was a young hurler in Brooklyn, he threw hard but couldn’t control his pitches. Mays said Koufax now made batters hit his pitch. Willie looked for the breaking ball but said Koufax more often than not challenged him with his fastball.

Norm Sherry, a catcher with the Dodgers from 1959 to ’62, said in a 1999 interview that Koufax’s transition from being a pitcher who struggled with control to one who could pinpoint them with power and accuracy was startling. Sherry recalled Koufax in his peak years, 1963-66, being able to place his pitches wherever he wanted.21

Mays told Schenkel that he loved to face Koufax because he felt he hit well against the Dodgers’ ace. He believed that even though Koufax threw hard, his overhand delivery made it easier for Mays to see the pitch and decipher if it was a fastball or breaking ball. Mays said his plan against Koufax was to get on base any way he could and use his speed to try to disrupt Sandy’s pitching rhythm and the Dodgers’ infield defense.

Koufax’s 4-2 win in Shea Stadium in the Dodgers’ first game after the All-Star break trimmed their deficit to four games, and by the end of July they were tied for first place in the blistering race. Koufax went 4-3 in August and the Dodgers were three games back entering the regular season’s final month. On September 11, Koufax’s 4-0 win over Houston in the first game of a Sunday doubleheader in LA lifted the Dodgers into sole control of first place for the first time since June 11.

As he had in 1965, Koufax ratcheted up his game in the season’s stretch run. Severe muscle spasms caused his back to seize up in pain on the mound, but Koufax soldiered on as the summer gave way to a golden fall. A 5-1 win over Pittsburgh on September 16 increased the Dodgers’ lead to 3½ games. An 11-1 final against the Phillies on September 20 gave Koufax his 25th victory of the summer. A 2-1 loss to Ken Holtzman and the Cubs followed before Koufax equaled his personal best with win number 26, a 2-1 decision over the Cardinals in Busch Stadium.

In the final games of the regular season, the Dodgers were in Connie Mack Stadium for a doubleheader against the Phillies. Koufax was warming up on the mound for the second game amid darkening, overcast skies when he heard the crowd roar behind him. He stopped and turned to look at the cause of the commotion and saw that the stadium scoreboard showed the Giants had won in Pittsburgh. San Francisco’s victory meant Koufax had to beat Bunning to nail down the pennant. Pushing himself to the limits of his pain and endurance, Koufax threw so hard that he fell off the mound.

For eight innings Koufax shut out the Phillies on four hits as the Dodgers gave him a six-run lead. But he was exhausted by the ninth inning and the Phillies plated three runs with no outs. Manager Alston visited the mound and told the tired Koufax to stick it out. Cameras captured Koufax going through his mannerisms as he prepared to meet the challenge–touching the back of his blue cap with his left hand and tugging on the bill before rubbing the ball with both hands, staring in for the sign, and then rocking and delivering the pitch.

Firing fastballs in dramatic fashion through the deepening shadows, Koufax retired the side and then raced off the mound in celebration when he fanned Jackie Brandt for his 10th strikeout to end the game.

Koufax’s 6-3 win gave him career bests in victories (27) and ERA (1.73). His 41 starts and 27 complete games matched his personal bests from the season before. Koufax led the league for the second straight season in wins, ERA, games started, complete games, innings pitched (323), and strikeouts (317), and paced the NL in shutouts (5) for the third time in four years.

Koufax claimed his second consecutive Cy Young Award and was runner-up in the MVP voting for the second straight year, this time to Clemente.

The excellence Koufax achieved on the mound did not surprise former teammate and fellow pitcher Carl Erskine. In a 1999 interview, Erskine recalled that even in Koufax’s early years he had shown spurts of greatness. On any given day, Sandy could be awesome, said Erskine, who added that the potential for consistent dominance on the mound was always there.22

As he had the year before, Koufax started Game Two of the World Series, this time facing the Baltimore Orioles, surprise champion of the American League. Just as they had against the Twins in the ’65 fall classic, the Dodgers trailed in the World Series 1-0 and looked for Koufax to be their stopper. For the second year in a row, Koufax lost Game Two. The “Kiddie Corps” Orioles scored four runs in six innings, though only one run was earned as the Dodgers committed six errors on the sun-soaked afternoon.

Making his third pressure start in just eight days, the workhorse Koufax was undoubtedly fatigued. Writing in Sports Illustrated, Jack Mann thought Koufax “looked tired, he was forcing his pitches.” Mann added that the tiring Koufax “failed to impress the Baltimore hitters.”23

Yet Jim Palmer, a 20-year-old future Hall of Fame pitcher making his World Series debut that day, recalled Koufax’s flashing fastballs.

“Radio fastballs,” Palmer called them in a 1999 interview. He could hear them, Palmer remembered, but he couldn’t see them. Everybody says the ball doesn’t jump, that you can’t get it to rise, said Palmer. “Well, his ball jumped six to eight inches.”24

Koufax’s rising fastballs were a rising tide that helped lift the Dodgers to league titles in the bruising NL pennant races in 1965 and ’66. His arthritic elbow forced his retirement after the ’66 World Series, ending an era of dominance.

Boston sportswriter George Sullivan was in Michigan to cover college football’s latest “Game of the Century” in November 1966 when Koufax announced his stunning retirement. Sullivan recalled it decades later as the sports equivalent to Pearl Harbor in December 1941, one of those days where people would remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.25

ED GRUVER has been a sportswriter for four decades, covering the Philadelphia Philles and Baltimore Orioles, the World Series, playoffs, and All-Star Games. He is the author of 12 sports books, including two on baseball – Koufax and Hairs vs. Squares: The Mustache Gang, the Big Red Machine, and the Tumultuous Summer of ’72. He is a contributor to SABR’s BioProject and Games Project as well as more than 30 sports books.

 

NOTES

1 Roger Angell phone interview with the author, 1999.

2 Angell interview.

3 Claude Osteen phone interview with the author, 1998.

4 Ed Roebuck phone interview with the author, 1999.

5 Angell.

6 Associated Press, “Spahn Is Beaten in Pitching Duel: Koufax Limits Braves to 3 Hits and Strikes Out 6 in Gaining 9th Victory,” New York Times, June 14, 1962.

7 Associated Press, “Koufax Considers Spahn Best Lefty,” South Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), October 25, 1999.

8 Dave Anderson phone interview with the author, 1999.

9 Jim Kaat interview with the author, 1998.

10 Joe Trimble, “LA’s Koufax Blanks Mets, 5-0, to String 11-0 Mark,” New York Daily News, June 13, 1965: 144.

11 Joseph Sheehan, “Dodgers Triumph Over Mets by 5-0,” New York Times, June 13, 1965: S1.

12 Lester J. Biederman, “Stargell Fans as Koufax Sets Record,” Pittsburgh Press, September 2, 1965: 45.

13 Biederman.

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

15 Charles Maher, “Even Koufax Admits Game ‘Nearly Perfect,’” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 1965: 53.

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

17 Tony Oliva phone interview with the author, 1999.

18 Harmon Killebrew phone interview with the author, 1999.

19 Bill Mazeroski phone interview with the author, 1999.

20 Bobby Richardson phone interview with the author, 1999.

21 Norm Sherry phone interview with the author, 1999.

22 Carl Erskine phone interview with the author, 1999.

23 Jack Mann, “A Practical Demonstration of Palmer’s Law,” Sports Illustrated, October 17. 1966: 34.

24 Jim Palmer in-person interview with the author, 1999.

25 George Sullivan phone interview with the author, 1999.