This story, by frequent contributor Bob Burnes, first appeared in the Oct. 19, 1963, issue of The Sporting News under the headline “Sandy Spins Strikeout Tale — 15 Yankees Get Message”. Los Angeles icon Sandy Koufax set the record for most strikeouts in a World Series game in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. Koufax was the NL MVP and Cy Young Award winner, as well as TSN’s Player of the Year that season. Below that story is an unsigned editorial that first appeared in the Dec. 3, 1966, issue, after Koufax, only 27 at the time, announced his retirement because of arthritis in his pitching elbow, bringing a premature end to a remarkable career.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — “The whole story of the first game could be summed up in two words -- Sandy Koufax."
That was the way Yankee Manager Ralph Houk put it in the clubhouse after Koufax set an all-time World Series strikeout record. Koufax fanned 15 New Yorkers while his mates, led by catcher John Roseboro, clubbed Whitey Ford early and sent the Dodgers off in front, 5-2.
This was Sandy's day before 69,000 at Yankee Stadium, October 2.
Ten years to the day after Carl Erskine struck out 14 Yankees in a dazzling performance at Ebbets Field, Koufax went him one better and admitted afterwards that he had mixed emotions about setting the record.
"I'm such an admirer of Carl," he said, "that I almost hated to take the record away from him."
But if Koufax had mixed emotions, the crowd did not. They had come to root the Yankees home, but early in the contest they sensed that something big was in the offing. By the fourth inning, they were urging catcher Roseboro to let foul balls drop. When the last batter, Harry Bright, trickled a roller down the third base line, they groaned, then cheered when it veered foul.
Then they let out a mighty roar of approval when Koufax fired a third strike past Bright to end the game and set the record.
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In all, three strikeout records were fractured, another was tied.
Erskine's Mark Falls
Koufax broke Erskine's 14-strikeout mark. (Erskine, incidentally, won his game, 3-2, on a yield of six hits. He fanned Mickey Mantle four times. Mantle was a Koufax victim twice.)
The three Yankee pitchers fanned 10, and the aggregate of 25 also was a record, topping the mark of 22 established by Mort Cooper of the Cardinals (12) and Denny Galehouse of the Browns (10) in the fifth game of the 1944 World Series. Roseboro set a putout record of 18 (despite the crowd's pleas, he latched on to three fouls, plus the strikeouts), breaking the record of 14 held by Mickey Cochrane and Roy Campanella. Cochrane did it twice, on October 8 and 9, 1929, and Campanella was Erskine's receiver. Finally, by fanning the first five men he faced, Koufax tied Mort Cooper's feat of October 11, 1943, and fell just one short of the all-time Series record of six strikeouts by Hod Eller in 1919.
Sandy played no favorites. He fanned everybody in the lineup at least once except Clete Boyer. Bobby Richardson was his prime target, going down three times. Only in the sixth did the Dodger southpaw fail to strike out a man.
The issue was settled in the second inning.
Ford, seeking his eleventh World Series victory but settling for his sixth loss instead, breezed through the first inning, retired Tommy Davis in the second and then ran into trouble. Frank Howard lashed a drive to the base of the center field wall, 460 feet away, for a double. It was a tremendous clout. Ex-Yankee Bill Skowron quickly brought him home with a single to center.
Dick Tracewski, filling in for the injured Ken McMullen, singled to short center. Then Roseboro lofted a high curve into the lower right field seats, fair by only a few feet. During the season, Roseboro had only nine homers, none off a southpaw.
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Skowron drove in another run with a single in the third after hits by Jim Gilliam and Tommy Davis. Ford worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, and that was the last Dodger sortie. Stan Williams and Steve Hamilton blanked them for the remainder of the way.
For four and two-thirds innings, it looked as though Koufax might be on his way to a real spectacular. He retired 14 in a row, ten on strikeouts, before Elston Howard broke the spell with a single to right. Joe Pepitone followed with a single to the same area. Boyer lined one toward center which second baseman Tracewski knocked down by diving at the ball, thus preventing a run. With the bases loaded, Hector Lopez batted for Ford and struck out.
Richardson and Tom Tresh walked in the sixth as Koufax appeared tired, but both Mantle and Roger Maris popped up. Then in the eighth, Tony Kubek beat out an infield hit and Tresh lined a fastball into the left field seats for a two-run homer. When Mantle walked, Manager Walter Alston came out to talk to Koufax. Maris then grounded out, and Koufax breezed home from there.
Skipper Put Brakes on Sandy
The Dodger southpaw was a student at Lafayette High School in Brooklyn when Ford made his first World Series appearance in 1950, but Sandy was far superior to the old master in the vital opening game of the '63 fall classic.
"He was working too fast in some of the late innings," said Alston, "and we were trying to slow him down. That's why I went out to talk to him. I told him not to be too fine on Maris, just get the ball over.”
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He indicated, though, that if Maris had reached base, he would have brought in Don Drysdale to pitch to Elston Howard.
"There wasn't too much I could say." Alston added. "What do you say to someone pitching as superbly as he was?"
Stadium Sidelights
Ground Crew Delays Sandy
The Yankees said they were not going to do anything to their base paths to slow down the Dodger Speedsters and they kept their word. Apparently the only pre-game psychological warfare indulged in by anyone was a member of the grounds crew who was working in the area around home plate. His job was to rake the area and smooth it down. He seemingly lost his bearings, veering farther and farther away from home plate, and was finally laboring right at Sandy Koufax's elbow. The Dodger lefty stopped throwing until the man finally moved on.
Even with the delay, Sandy finished his warmup almost five minutes before Whitey Ford concluded his. The Yankee southpaw, pitching in a Series opener for the seventh time, breaking Red Ruffing's former record, kept on throwing until it was time to go to the mound.
Game Free of Rhubarbs
There were no close plays which produced an argument. The crowd protested ball-and-strike calls by Umpire Joe Paparella much more than the contestants did. Sandy Koufax appeared to be irritated only once. That was in the ninth inning, when he thought he had thrown a second strike to Joe Pepitone. Paparella called it a ball. Pepitone missed the next pitch, then singled. He was left stranded when Harry Bright, the last batter, became Koufax's fifteenth strikeout victim.
Bobby Richardson struck out three times against Koufax, which was one more than the Yankee infielder had fanned in 25 games in five previous Series. Bobby said he could not remember the last time he had whiffed three times in a game. Records show that he fans only once every 28 times at bat.
Three of 15 Strikeouts Called
Only three of Sandy's 15 strikeouts were called — Tom Tresh in the first and fourth innings and Mickey Mantle in the second. All the rest were swinging strikeouts. The Yankees constantly showed signs of being outguessed in the early going. They lunged, looking for one pitch, only to be surprised with another. "I kept guessing fastball," Tresh said later, "and I finally got one in the eighth."
"Everything they say about Koufax is true," said Mickey Mantle. "I don't feel so bad about striking out twice against him. When Erskine set the old record of 14 strikeouts, I struck out four times."
Yogi Berra had a comment about the Dodger ace. "I don't see how he lost five games during the season," he declared.
Harry Bright, who pinch-hit for the Yankees with two out in the ninth inning and became Koufax's fifteenth strikeout victim, said it was one of the oddest experience of his 17 years in the game. "Everyone was pulling for Koufax to break Erskine's record and I guess I'm the only guy in baseball to have 69,000 people cheering for me to strike it."
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"When they made him, they threw away the mold."
The TV faithful might put Batman in that category, and baseball fans surely would nominate Sandy Koufax. If the Koufax mold was thrown away, you can bet that big league hitters are hoping it's never recovered.
Not so the Dodgers, who probably are searching frantically for the pieces. They've merely lost the greatest pitcher of his day. The entire National League is dripping gloom. Who'll replace the customers the retired Sandy no longer can pull into the ball park?
Many of baseball's most magnetic crowd-pleasers combined unusual skills with colorful or even eccentric behavior. It is a measure of Koufax' magnificent ability that he packed 'em in with talent alone. He was not a theatrical oddball or a carouser or a popoff. He was all pitcher.
Sandy arrived late at the grand ball, and he left early. But while he was there, everybody danced to his tune. Koufax was 25 before he finally harnessed his unhittable stuff with masterful control. Once he licked that problem, the party was over. Great batsman or weak sister, it made no difference. There were no lions at home plate when Mr. K was firing. Only lambs.
Koufax alone knows the mental and physical travail his arthritic condition caused him for three years. He says his decision to retire was based partly on medical advice. Some observers, in a position to make an educated guess, have suggested that Sandy's pride was a stronger motivator than were his medical reports. They think he disliked most of all the thought of laboring with deteriorating skills.
What prompted Koufax to pack it in at the peak of his fame and earning power may remain obscure to some reviewers, but not to Koufax. Pitching caused him extreme discomfort and pain and, he points out, possibly threatened permanent harm to his health. Still, it couldn't have been easy for him to turn his back on the biggest salary in baseball. For sure, Sandy was well paid. So were the Dodgers for every cent they invested in him, though his premature exit dealt them a shattering blow.
Will baseball ever produce a pitcher who can rival Koufax’s four no-hitters in four years, 382 strikeouts in one season and dozens of other exploits? It would be rash to say never. We hope that if this superman of the mound does appear, we'll be around to see him. He'll be some kind of pitcher, won't he?