Common Denominator: 1963 Dodgers

"Appeared on Mister Ed, and won the World Series the same year."

That would be the 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers. Putting together the great talents of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale together, they sure put a lot of fear into the opposition. One run, game over.

Meanwhile the popular television series, Mister Ed, had taken off since going on air in 1961. Coincidentally, that was the same year Koufax really put it all together. There had been a previous unaired pilot called, "Wilbur Pope And Mister Ed" which was produced for 1958, the same year the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

But by 1963, both were in the right place at the right time. The Dodgers were going all the way. All the way to television, too. On September 29th of that season, they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, ending the regular season with 99 wins.

On that day, a few of them appeared with the horse on the episode, "Leo Durocher Meets Mister Ed," as Koufax, Johnny Roseboro, Willie Davis, Moose Skowron, Durocher and even announcer Vince Scully.

But all that aside, and despite a three-game losing streak to end the season, the 1963 Dodgers won the World Series, their second in five seasons, over the New York Yankees. Koufax won games one and four. Drysdale (Who didn't appear on Mister Ed) won game three.

The Dodgers were a formidable team back then, and somehow, I don't think they lacked any horsepower despite Mister Ed not making the team that year or any other.

Oh, and one final coincidence" Mister Ed left television in 1966, the same year Los Angeles was swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series! And Sandy Koufax would announce his retirement not long after. Both Ed and Sandy had put on quite a show since 1961, right?


References



Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

TV.com - Free Full Episodes, Clips, Show Info and TV Listings Guide. CBS Interactive. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <www.tv.com>.

Youtube. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/>

World Series: Did You Know?

Despite some bad misplays, it was Willie Davis with the best defensive play of the 1966 Fall Classic. What he and his teammates needed, however, was to generate more offence. The poor guy in centre for Los Angeles no doubt wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it at one point during the World Series that year.

The Baltimore Orioles went into the World Series of '66 as the underdogs. It was the Los Angeles Dodgers who had Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen. Phil Regan, who had one of the best seasons ever by a relief pitcher, was the Dodger stopped that year. "The Vulture" was an appropriate nickname.

But Baltimore won game one, right there in Los Angeles, 5-2. Drysdale struggled, although so did Orioles starter Dave McNally. Neither of them lasted very long.



In game two, Koufax pitched well, but lost 6-0 to Jim Palmer. Off the four runs scored against Koufax (Who left after six), only one was earned. Here's where Willie Davis had his problems. In the top of the fifth with the game scoreless, Willie dropped a flyball off the bat of the O's Paul Blair. There was one on and one out at the time. The next batter hit another fly towards Davis. And again, he dropped it. For good measure, Willie made a throwing error on a peg towards third, and that allowed two runs to score. As it turns out, Davis made half the Dodger errors in this game two. So he had plenty of company as far as poor fielding is concerned.



In game three, now in Baltimore, it was Wally Bunker of the home team doing the honours. He pitched the second Oriole shutout of the Fall Classic. The second in a row, of course. The Dodgers didn't make any errors this game, and held the O's to just three hits and one run. Baltimore made good on one run and three hits. Could the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers be swept?

The answer was "Yes!" after game four. Don Drysdale came back to pitch, and was he ever solid. Baltimore got just four hits off him. But Dave McNally beat him 1-0, allowing Los Angeles just four hits as well. But, this game was not without some highlights by Los Angeles. It was Davis' time to shine.

In the top of the fourth, Boog Powell (Who had one of the four Oriole hits) came to the dish, and sent a Drysdale pitch way back to centre. But Davis, with his back to the wall, scaled it and made the catch with his glove over the wall. A great catch to keep the score 1-0. But to no avail.

The Orioles got a nice catch of their own in the bottom of the eighth by Paul Blair. Los Angeles, fighting to the end, got a single and a walk in the ninth with only one out. But Willie lined out to right and Lou Johnson flied out to centre. A sweep of the Dodgers? Yes!



The Los Angeles Dodgers had been beaten by their very Achilles Heel. All throughout their times during the Koufax / Drysdale years of pennants (1959-1966), they had a shallow offence. Except for a few years. Koufax, Drysdale and the rest of the Dodgers' staff, would often have to win games 1-0 during that stretch. And the Orioles, with a fine pitching staff of their own, exploited that in the 1966 Fall Classic. The great pitching and defence of Los Angeles meant nothing without some offence!


References

http://www.baseball-reference.com

http://www.retrosheet.org/