World Series Showdown

By Paul Robert Walker

	Sandy Koufax fires a pitch in the seventh game of the 1965 World Series.

Sandy Koufax sat in the locker room with his left elbow in a big tub of ice. The elbow was sore and swollen, and the ice would help to bring down the swelling.

Koufax went through this treatment after every game; it was the only way he could keep pitching. And on October 2, 1965, it had been very important that Sandy Koufax keep pitching.

A few minutes earlier Koufax and his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates had defeated the Milwaukee Braves to clinch the National League pennant. They were headed for the World Series!

Before the 1965 season, doctors had discovered that Koufax had a painful condition in his elbow called arthritis. At first it appeared that his pitching career might be over, but Koufax refused to quit. Instead he came up with a plan: he would not throw at all between pitching starts and would ice his elbow after every game.

The plan worked. Not only did Koufax continue to pitch, but he pitched better than anyone else. With a blazing fastball and a hard-breaking curve, Koufax won twenty-six games that season while losing only eight. He set a Major League record by striking out 382 batters, and he led the majors in earned run average, innings pitched, and complete games.

The Dodgers faced the Minnesota Twins in the 1965 World Series. The Dodgers—nicknamed “the hitless wonders”—were a weak-hitting team that depended on speed, defense, and pitching. Much of the pitching came from Koufax and the big righthander Don Drysdale. The Twins, on the other hand, had a power-packed lineup that had hit nearly twice as many home runs that season as the Dodgers had.

The first game was played in Minnesota. Usually the best pitcher on each team starts the first game of the World Series. That way, if the Series goes the full seven games, the best pitcher can pitch three times with his normal three days’ rest between games. Dodgers manager Walter Alston would have loved to start with Koufax.

But in 1965, the first day of the World Series was also Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish religion. Koufax would not pitch on that day. Like most Jewish people, he spent Yom Kippur praying at a synagogue. He did not even go to the ballpark.

Although the team respected Koufax’s religious beliefs, they struggled without their star pitcher. Don Drysdale gave up six runs in the first three innings, and the Dodgers lost, 8-2.

The next day, Koufax returned. Pitching in a cold drizzle, he struck out nine batters in six innings and held the Twins to two runs, one caused by an error. But the Dodgers only scored one run, and after Koufax left the game so a pinch hitter could bat for him, the Twins went on to win, 5-1.

Even in losing, Koufax was impressive. Minnesota manager Sam Mele said, “Koufax is the best lefthander we’ve seen.”

With the Dodgers down two games to none, the Series moved to Los Angeles, where the cold Minnesota rain was replaced by southern California sunshine. Suddenly the “hitless wonders” started hitting, and the Dodgers pitchers became invincible. Los Angeles won two games behind the pitching of Claude Osteen and Don Drysdale.

“We got even with them today,” Drysdale said after the fourth game. “Tomorrow we’ve got the greatest guy in baseball going for us.”

In the fifth game, Koufax showed why many considered him to be “the greatest.” He pitched a 7-0 shutout, allowing just four hits. But he wasn’t satisfied. “My control was not what it should have been, and I got awfully tired toward the end,” he said.

Back in Minnesota, the Twins evened the Series behind the pitching and hitting of Jim “Mudcat” Grant, who held the Dodgers to one run and smashed a three-run homer. Now the World Series would be decided in the seventh game.

Although it was not his turn to pitch, Koufax took the mound with only two days’ rest. “There’s nothing to save my arm for,” he said. “If I’m going to pitch, I’m not going out there to lose.”

In the first inning, Koufax walked two batters and pitched wildly to the others, a sure sign of a tired arm. He struggled into the fifth inning but held the Twins scoreless. Finally he found his control and retired the Twins in order through the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. In the meantime, the Dodgers had taken a 2-0 lead.

As he walked to the mound for the ninth inning, Koufax was so tired that he later said he felt “101 years old.” With one out, he gave up a solid single to Harmon Killebrew. Then he struck out the next batter on three pitches.

With two outs, slugger Bobby Allison stepped up to the plate with a chance to tie the game with one swing of the bat.

Allison fouled off the first pitch and took the next two pitches for balls. Then he swung and missed for strike two.

With the season on the line, Koufax reached back and fired a hard fastball past Allison for strike three. The Dodgers were the 1965 World Champions.

In three games against the powerful Twins, Koufax had struck out twenty-nine batters and allowed just one earned run. His performance in the Series was one of the most courageous in baseball history.

Don Drysdale was right. In 1965, Sandy Koufax really was “the greatest guy in baseball.”