World Series: Did You Know?

Three of the first four batters Sandy Koufax faced in his first ever game were Hall Of Famers.

The lefty came into game one of the 1959 Fall Classic with his Los Angeles Dodgers down 11-0. The game was already over. The Chicago White Sox and their fans were enjoying this blowout immensely! Sandy did his best to try and give Los Angeles some hope. However, it seemed like a case of, "Good luck there, pal", as the Sox had routed Roger Craig, Chuck Churm before Clem Labine got some assemblence of order by getting the last three Chicago batters out in the fourth. Labine left the game for a pinch hitter in the top of the fifth, however. Los Angeles was running out of pitchers for this game. Of the 35 games that Sandy Koufax had pitched that year, 23 were starts. So this must have felt like an odd assignment. Not helping matters was the fact that Koufax had only pitched only six times in Los Angeles' last twenty-five games.

Sandy took the hill in the bottom of the fifth. And behind by eleven runs, he had to do something to stop the bleeding! Jim Rivera, not in the Hall Of Fame, was the first batter to face him. Sandy got him to fly out to Norm Larker in right. Early Wynn became the first Hall Of Famer for Sandy. Who would have thought that it was one great pitcher, on his way to Cooperstown, batting against someone else who would also be there?

But Sandy fanned him, for the second out of the inning. When Luis Aparicio lined out to left, Sandy was 2-2 in facing immortals in this affair.

Nellie Fox led of the bottom of the sixth for Chicago. And Koufax got him to line out to left, as well. That's three straight Hall Of Famers! Sandy wasn't done yet. He retired Jim Landis on a grounder to shorts. When Ted Kluszewski also grounded out, but to second, the inning was over. Koufax had retired the first six batters to face him.

Koufax left the game in the top of the seventh as Ron Fairly pinch hit for him. Los Angeles held Chicago to just one more hit and no runs the rest of the way, but the Dodgers never touched home at all in this game. So it was no big deal.

But it must have been to Sandy. Los Angeles had sort of given up on him in September of 1959, despite the fact that he fanned 18 batters on August 31st of that year. In the two starts surrounding that, he fanned 23 batters in only 19 innings. His record was 8-5 and his ERA was 3.68 after those three gems. Yet Los Angeles was in a pennant drive and didn't seem to think they needed him. They did in game one of that year's Fall Classic, however. And Los Angeles would need him again before the World Series was over.

Sandy took the hill in game five, as the Dodgers came back and won games two, three and four. Sandy did more than enough to close it out, as he allowed just one earned run over seven innings of work. When the game was over, however, that run proved to be the only time that someone touched home. Sandy had to settle on a fine, five-hit loss. Aparicio and Fox went 3-7 in the game, and Early Wynn did not pitch.

The Dodgers also had some Hall Of Famers on the field. In addition to Koufax, you had Don Drysdale, another pitcher. Then you had Duke Snider, the outfielder. But only Snider had it wrapped up at that point. Drysdale was coming along. Sandy was not getting the outings, but was sure proving he was capable.

With a sixteen strikeout performance earlier in the season, to go along with his eighteen K game in August, Sandy Koufax was beginning to serve notice. He finished the year with only a 8-6 record (and 0-1 in the World Series) and a 4.05 ERA. But with 173 K's that year in only 153 1/3 innings pitched, plus two fine performances in the battle for world supremency in baseball, he was turning into a dandy Sandy!


References


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