Sandy Koufax Versus Hall of Fame Members With At Least 100 Plate Appearances

Asked what it was like to face Sandy Koufax, Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks said, “It was frightenin’.” (SABR-Rucker Archive)

 

Sandy Koufax faced 512 different batters during his Hall of Fame career, from Dick Groat (145 plate appearances, or PA), to Vinegar Bend Mizell (one PA, along with 63 other batters). Along the way, he faced a number of players who have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including Ron Santo (87 PA against Koufax), Lou Brock (70), Pete Rose (60), and Stan Musial (44). Seven Hall of Famers whose careers paralleled Koufax’s so closely that they had 100 or more plate appearances against the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers ace:

• Ernie Banks–143
• Henry “Hank” Aaron–130
• Willie Mays–122
• Roberto Clemente–122
• Frank Robinson–121
• Bill Mazeroski–109
• Eddie Mathews–102

This essay will review Koufax’s performance against these legends of the game and highlight some key games in which they competed. Also compared are the performances of these Hall of Famers against the two Sandys–the “bonus baby” Koufax of 1955-1960 who compiled a 36-40 record with 6.7 Wins Above Replacement (WAR), and “The Left Arm of God” years of 1961-1966 (129-47, three Cy Young Awards, 46.4 WAR).

The Dominated

Ernie Banks–faced Koufax 143 times between 1955 and 1966:

Ernie Banks was perhaps the best player in the National League during the bonus-baby Koufax years of 1955-1960. He won two MVP Awards (1958-59) and had three additional top-10 MVP finishes, plus a .294 batting average with 248 home runs and 693 RBIs. Banks’ performance against Koufax during these years was more modest. “What was it like facing Koufax?” Banks said, “It was frightenin.’”1

Banks’ batting average of .250 was better than the .225 average that all batters had against Koufax during 1955-60. Banks’ best day was April 12, 1959, when he went 2-for-2 with a triple in a 5-3 Dodgers victory. The wind blowing in at Wrigley Field helped keep Banks’ third-inning drive from leaving the park, and again later in the game when he faced Johnny Klippstein in the fourth with two on.

Banks hit a game-winning home run against Koufax on September 6, 1959, in the first game of a doubleheader sweep that was notable for Koufax’s setting a major-league record in defeat with 41 strikeouts in a three-game stretch.2

The Banks of 1961-1966 was a very good player, but not quite the same as the Banks of 1955-60. During these six years, Banks’ batting average dropped to .264 and his home-run totals dropped to 150. Banks made four All-Star Games and received some MVP votes in 1962. His performance against Koufax was anything but All-Star worthy. Banks hit a triple in his first at-bat vs. Koufax in 1961, one of his three hits against three Dodgers pitchers that day. (Koufax came into the game in relief in the fourth inning.) Banks had only one other hit against Koufax in 1961, a single on June 20, 1961, and faced him twice in 1962, going 1-for-7 with a single in his final 1962 AB against him.

Banks faced Koufax in only two games in 1963 and the second, on June 9, was his best ever, with two home runs in an 11-8 loss. Banks hit a third homer against Larry Sherry in that losing cause. It was almost two years and another 26 appearances before he had another hit against Koufax. Included in that dismal streak were three swinging strikeouts in Koufax’s perfect game on September 9, 1965. “He tried to throw the ball right past us,” eulogized Banks. “And he did.”3 Banks was able to rebound with two singles in 1966, his final hits against the LA ace. Banks finished his time against Koufax with seven hits in six years, including going hitless in 1964 and 1965.

Bill Mazeroski–faced Koufax 109 times between 1957 and 1966:

Bill Mazeroski was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2001, based primarily on his superior defense for the Pittsburgh Pirates (eight Gold Glove Awards between 1958 and 1967) and perhaps the most famous home run of all time that ended the 1960 World Series. “Some critics scoffed at his election, saying his offense (career batting average .260) did not live up to that of others already residing at Cooperstown. Others replied that the caliber of pitchers he faced had to be considered, among them Hall of Fame pitchers like Warren Spahn, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, and Ferguson Jenkins.”4 There is some validity to this argument–in the years that both Mazeroski and Koufax were both active, 1956 to 1966, only Nellie Fox (20.6) and Johnny Temple (18.1) had an offensive WAR (oWAR) for second basemen higher than Mazeroski’s of 17.5.

Mazeroski faced a total of 14 Hall of Fame pitchers during his career and, as one would expect, he performed better against the non-Hall hurlers:

Mazeroski debuted with the Pirates in 1956 but did not face Koufax until 1957, when he got two hits in eight at-bats, with both hits resulting in RBIs. The highlight of his 11 plate appearances against Koufax in 1958 were three walks, including two in a row on June 13. Mazeroski continued to struggle against the lefty through 1963, scratching only six hits in 48 appearances. Unlike Banks, however, Mazeroski seemed to figure out Koufax the more he faced him. From 1964 on, Mazeroski had 11 hits in 42 at-bats against Koufax, a .262 average, better than his lifetime average of .260 and considerably better than his .154 batting average against Koufax in his three prior years.

While Mazeroski may have had better success against Koufax the longer he faced him, one thing he could not do was drive in any runs. On July 29, 1961, Mazeroski started a remarkable string of appearances against Koufax with little to no effect on the game. He singled in consecutive at-bats, the second giving the Pirates a 2-1 lead. Mazeroski came up again in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and two out but struck out swinging. This at-bat was the first of 57 consecutive plate appearances in which Mazeroski did not record an RBI against Koufax. There was a runner in scoring position in only eight of these appearances, and in one opportunity Mazeroski was intentionally walked.

Frank Robinson–faced Koufax 121 times between 1956 and 1965:

Frank Robinson was one of the most feared hitters in the National League in his years with the Cincinnati Reds. Debuting in 1956, Robinson won the Rookie of the Year Award; he won his first Most Valuable Player Award in 1961, and played in eight All-Star Games during the Koufax era. For his first years competing against Koufax, Robinson had the better of the matchup. From 1956 through 1961, Robinson hit .367 against Koufax while slugging a robust .776. Robinson homered in his second time facing Koufax, a first-inning shot in a 6-4 Reds victory. His second homer off Koufax was more meaningful. Leading off the eighth inning with the Reds trailing by a run, Robinson homered to tie the score. The Reds won a walk-off victory in the ninth inning, moving to one game behind the Milwaukee Braves for the NL lead. The Reds stayed in contention all season but finished two games behind the Dodgers for the crown.

Robinson continued to have success against Koufax, especially in the Reds’ World Series campaign of 1961. Robinson’s three-run homer tied the April 21 game against the Dodgers that the Reds eventually lost. He doubled twice off Koufax on June 24, the second a bases-loaded shot that gave the Reds the lead in another game they lost. Another double on August 15 tied that game. Robinson eventually had 9 hits in 19 at-bats against Koufax in 1961, with 9 RBIs and an OPS of 1.460, easily the best of any hitter against Koufax that year with more than 10 plate appearances.

And then it was gone. Much like Banks, it was as if a switch was flipped in 1962. In the final years of this matchup, Robinson’s batting average plummeted to .111 and his slugging percentage shrank to .259. Included in these totals was an 0-for-17 stretch in 1964-65. After a home run in July 1965, Robinson finished his time against Koufax going hitless in his last nine at-bats. Robinson, though, had the last laugh, getting a triple in the sixth inning of Game Two of the 1966 World Series, which the Baltimore Orioles swept. Robinson, who was traded to Baltimore after the 1965 campaign, gave his Orioles teammates some advice: “If it starts at the belt, take it because it’s going to choke you.”5

The Enigmas

Eddie Mathews–faced Koufax 102 times between 1955 and 1966:

One of the most feared power hitters in the National League, Mathews struggled against the younger Koufax during the Milwaukee Braves’ glory years of the 1950s, then hit Koufax better than anyone else in this essay during the 1960s. Mathews had a hit in one of this three at-bats against the young Koufax, but then went more than two seasons without another one, albeit in limited appearances (eight total). Seeing Koufax more in 1958 than he did in the three prior seasons combined, he had some success, managing 4 hits in 13 at-bats. Two of those hits came on July 30, when Mathews’ home run on the first pitch leading off the bottom of the eighth inning gave the Braves a 4-3 victory, moving them into first place in the NL, a lead they did not relinquish for the remainder of the campaign. Warren Spahn broke a streak of his own on this night, defeating the Dodgers for the first time since September 25, 1951. Mathews’ next hit off Koufax was more than a year later, and also a home run, on August 17. It was his only hit off Koufax in 1959, the year he led the NL with 46 homers.

After facing Koufax only four times in 1960 (walking three times), Mathews began a stretch of hitting against Koufax that was unlike anyone else in the NL, except for his teammate Henry Aaron (more on him later). Mathews’ .378 batting average against Koufax in 1961-63 compares favorably to the average that hitters against Koufax achieved in these years of .202. Unfortunately for Mathews, 15 of those 17 hits were singles, and he drove in only three runs in this period.

As Mathews’ career wound down, so too did his appearances against Koufax. In 1964 the Braves faced the Dodgers in 18 games and Mathews played in 16 of these affairs but managed to avoid Koufax completely. In fact, Mathews went more than two years between appearances against the lefty. Matthews singled in the second inning against Koufax in what was the Braves’ final home game in Milwaukee, on September 22, 1965, a 7-6 defeat. Mathews managed just one more hit against Koufax, a home run in his final at-bat against him on August 9, 1966, that gave the Braves a walk-off 2-1 victory. The game was new Braves manager Billy Hitchcock’s first after Bobby Bragan was fired. Before the game, Hitchcock said, “I believe (Mathews) still has a lot of sting in his bat,”6 He was right–Mathews hit eight home runs in the final month and a half of the season to bring his total for the Braves to 493 before being traded to the Houston Astros after the 1966 season.

Roberto Clemente–faced Koufax 122 times between 1955 and 1966:

In his 18-year career with the Pirates, Roberto Clemente was one of the most consistent hitters in history. From 1960 until his final season of 1972, Clemente hit under .300 only once (1968), and over .340 five times. He finished in the top 10 of MVP voting eight times (winning in 1966) and missed only one All-Star Game in this period (1968). This consistency was evident against Koufax as well, perhaps not year over year, but over the course of the 12 years of competition between the two.

Koufax and Clemente were both rookies in 1955, and Roberto singled off Sandy in their first meeting, on July 6. They did not face each other very often through 1959, but when they did, Clemente had Koufax’s number, reaching base 13 times in their 29 battles. Clemente’s single in the fifth inning on August 17, 1957, put the Pirates in the lead to stay and gave Koufax his third loss of the season.

Remarkably, in the Pirates’ magical championship year of 1960, Clemente had one of his worst seasons against Koufax, reaching base only four times in 15 appearances, with his only home run providing his lone RBI. That changed in 1961, as Clemente hit .389 against Koufax in 18 at-bats, including a double on June 29 that tied the game in the eighth inning and knocked Koufax out of the game. Koufax held Clement hitless in 1962, but the seasons of 1963 and 1964 were Clemente’s best against the left-hander: .500 over the two seasons combined. Clemente missed a cycle by only the home run on May 17 in the first game of a doubleheader, his fly ball to right field coming up short. Clemente got that homer two weeks later, tying the game on May 31 in the third inning before an eventual Pirates loss.

The final two seasons of competition swung toward Koufax, as Clemente struggled with five total hits in 30 at-bats. In a tight pennant race late in 1966, Koufax beat the Pirates 5-1 to increase the Dodgers’ lead over the Pirates to 3½ games. Noting his unusually low number of strikeouts (five), Bob Bailey said, “Compared with the way he usually throws, he had nothing.”7 Clemente thought otherwise. “When my back hurts, they call me a goldbrick. Koufax says his elbow hurts and they make him a national hero. He threw as hard tonight as he ever has. He can’t have a sore elbow and throw like that.”8 Even with these two offyears, Clemente hit .301 off Koufax in his prime, when the NL as a whole hit only .197 against him.

The Dominators

Willie Mays–faced Koufax 122 times between 1955 and 1966:

Few rankings of all-time greats don’t include Willie Mays as either the best or second-best outfielder to ever play the game. Mays’ .278 lifetime average against Koufax was understandably less than the .313 that he averaged over the time he and Koufax competed against each other. What Mays did better than anyone else was, as Billy Beane said in the movie Moneyball, “He gets on base a lot.”9

Mays faced Koufax only 33 times during first six years of the lefty’s career, less than anyone else in this essay. That his on-base percentage was .576 likely means that Koufax was happy they did not face each other more often. His first plate appearances against Koufax went like this: walk, home run, walk, double, strikeout swinging, single, single, single. He walked four consecutive times in 1958, including a bases-loaded walk that gave the Giants some insurance in a victory on August 10.

As Mays faced Koufax more often in the 1960s, his batting average declined, but he kept getting on base. On August 20, 1961, Mays doubled and homered (and walked) to drive in the first three runs of an 11-8 Giants victory. The loss was the Dodgers’ seventh in a row, their longest streak since they lost eight straight in 1948.10 Mays also homered twice, the first against Koufax in the first inning, in the first game of the three-game tiebreaker series to decide the 1962 NL pennant. The season may have taken its toll on Koufax. “I’ve seen Sandy throw a lot harder. The long layoff hurt him,” Mays said after the game.11

Mays was also there for Koufax’s second ho-hitter, on May 11, 1963. Mays almost broke up the no-hitter with a screaming line drive that was snared by Jim Gilliam at third base. Koufax had not allowed a baserunner to that point. Mays got revenge later in the year, getting a double and home run on September 6, his only hits against Koufax that season in 15 plate appearances. Mays would find his form against Koufax over 1964 and 1965, averaging .385 with an on-base percentage of .484, phenomenal considering that Koufax had overall totals of .184 average against, with an OBP against of .233. Even in their final year together, Mays achieved a .400 OBP thanks to six walks in 20 plate appearances.

Hank Aaron–faced Koufax 130 times between 1955 and 1966:

There are 126 players who faced Sandy Koufax 25 times or more in their careers. (We’ve discussed six of them.) Of those 126 players, three had an OPS of 1.000 or greater against Koufax. Gene Oliver faced Koufax 54 times in his career with the Cardinals and Braves and hit .392 with 4 home runs and an OPS of 1.073. He also struck out 11 times. Hal Smith (the Cardinal, not the Pirate) faced Koufax 36 times, hitting .364 and accumulating an OPS of 1.053. (For the record, the other Hal Smith faced Koufax 37 times, striking out in 11 of them.) Aaron’s 1.077 OPS against Koufax was the best of the seven Hall of Famers with 100 plate appearances against Koufax, and it isn’t even close, with Mays the closest at .962. Aaron’s strikeout-to-plate-appearance rate of 9.2% is also easiest the best of his contemporaries–7.2% better than Mays, 12.4% better than his teammate Mathews. He was the one hitter for whom Koufax confessed he never had a plan.12

Aaron was there at the beginning for Koufax. Sandy debuted in Milwaukee on June 24, 1955, in the bottom of the fifth inning, replacing Jim Hughes. After a bloop single by Johnny Logan, Mathews grounded to Koufax, who threw the ball into center field. Aaron came up next and walked on four pitches. Koufax managed to get out of that situation, striking out Bobby Thomson and getting Joe Adcock to hit into a double play. “A park-packing crowd of 43,068 witnessed the historic occasion, and doubtless was oblivious to it,” Dick Young wrote in the New York Daily News. “To them it was just another guy named Koufax. To the Brook brass, however, it marked the start of what they expect to be a fine career. They sank a $20,000 bonus ($6,000 salary included) into the kid, who won’t be 20 until December.”13 Aaron didn’t get his first hit against Koufax until 1957, but he quickly made up for lost time. Aaron homered and tripled on August 23, 1957, in a game in which the Braves gave up three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and lost 3-2. The Hammer lived up to his nickname over the next three years–facing Koufax 39 times between 1958 and 1960, Aaron hit .500 with 4 home runs, 8 RBIs, and an OPS of 1.558. In a remarkable stretch from June 24, 1960, through May 16, 1961, Aaron reached base 10 times (five singles, two doubles, a triple, a home run, and one reached on error) in 11 plate appearances.

Koufax would eventually catch up with Aaron–there was likely no way he could have kept up that kind of performance, especially against the post-1960 version of Koufax right after Aaron’s 9-for-11 streak. Koufax went on one of his own, retiring Aaron eight times in nine plate appearances, surrounding just an intentional walk. That was the last great year that Aaron had against Koufax. The years 1963-1965 saw Koufax take over, with Aaron dropping to a .156 batting average and a pedestrian OPS of .438–both figures even lower than Koufax’s totals for everyone in those years of .186 and an OPS of .507. Between August 25, 1963, and the end of the 1965 season, Aaron had an especially tough time–one hit and one walk in 20 plate appearances. The move from Milwaukee to Atlanta did give Aaron a chance for redemption as he hit .400 against Koufax in 1966, with an OPS back to an impressive 1.100. Aaron’s final hit against Koufax was the 424th home run of his career, on July 9, 1966.

A lifelong White Sox fan now living in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, KEN CARRANO works as the business operations manager for SABR. He has been a SABR member since 1992 and has contributed to several SABR publications and the SABR Games Project. Ken and his Brewers fan wife Ann share two children, two golden retrievers, and a mutual disdain for the blue side of Chicago.

 

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted SABR’s Biography Project (BioProject) and Games Project.

All data from baseball-reference.com.

 

NOTES

1 Ira Berkow, “Koufax Is No Garbo,” New York Times, July 3, 1985: B7.

2 Richard Dozier, “Cubs Defeat Dodgers Twice on Homers,” Chicago Tribune, September 7, 1959: 77.

3 Bob Hunter, “Now Sandy Stands Alone on Summit,” The Sporting News, September 25, 1965: 3.

4 Bob Hurte, “Bill Mazeroski,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bill-mazeroski/.

5 Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (New York: Harper-Collins, 2002), 221.

6 Wayne Minshew, “Cap’n Ed 2, Sandy 1,” Atlanta Constitution, August 10, 1966: 35.

6 Minshew.

7 Leavy, 224.

8 Leavy, 224.

9 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210166/characters/nm0000093

10 Frank Finch, “Dodgers Roll 7, but Just Keep Fading,” Los Angeles Times, August 21, 1961: 78.

11 Paul Zimmerman, “Mays, Giants Rout Futile Dodgers, 8-0,” Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1962: 40.

12 Leavy, 86.

13 Dick Young, “Braves win 7th in Row, Diverting Brooks 8-2,” New York Daily News, June 25, 1955: 242.