Hildebrandt: Listen to a young Vin Scully call a 1957 Dodgers-Cubs game with Sandy Koufax
From SABR member Chuck Hildebrandt at SABRMedia.org on June 1, 2015:
I came across these recordings some years ago, having had them in my collection, and I finally got the bright idea to share them with you here. This game took place on June 4, 1957 with the Chicago Cubs visiting the Dodgers at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field.
I especially like this recording because Vin Scully, himself in the early stages of his own Methuselean career, is marveling at the nascent transformation of a young (and frequently wild) fireballer, name of Sandy Koufax, into the next great strikeout artist.
Granted, this is not the Hall of Fame pitcher we gush about half a century after his rarefied peak. Koufax wasn’t even primarily a starter at this point: only 13 of his 34 appearances in 1957 were starts. In fact, this particular start was the last of five in a row for him; Koufax wouldn’t take the mound for Dem Bums for another three weeks, and only then in a relief capacity. By the time October rolled around, he’d ended this, his third season, at 5-4 with a rather pedestrian 3.88 ERA which, actually, he would not improve upon until 1961. So at this point he wasn’t close to being All-World Sandy Koufax. He was more like Adequate-at-Times Sandy Koufax.
Read the full article here: http://sabrmedia.org/2015/06/01/listen-to-a-1957-cubs-dodgers-game-featuring-21-year-old-sandy-koufax-and-called-by-29-year-old-vin-scully/
Originally published: June 1, 2015. Last Updated: June 1, 2015.