October 14: Koufax Dominates the Twins

Sandy Koufax pitched his second shutout of the World Series on this date in 1965, as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Minnesota Twins, four games to three. This was the Series in which Koufax declined to pitch the opening game because it fell on Yom Kippur; when his replacement, Don Drysdale, was shellacked by the Twins for six runs in the third inning, he said to manager Walter Alston, “I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, too.” Koufax had ended the season with five starts in fifteen days, winning four and pitching three shutouts while receiving a steady course of Cortisone shots in his arthritic left elbow (the condition that eventually forced his early retirement). He completed his season (which included a perfect game) with twenty-six victories, an earned run average of 2.04, and 382 strikeouts — leading the league in all three categories. After losing the second game of the World Series to the Twins, Koufax came back with a 7-0, four-hit victory over the Twins in Game Five and then, only three days later, a 2-0, three-hit performance. Not a single relief pitcher was used by either team in the Series. In 1971, Sandy Koufax became the youngest player ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“Either he throws the fastest ball I’ve ever seen, or I’m going blind.” --Richie Ashburn

Follow every pitch of this historic Game 7 of the 1965 World Series (two hours, thirty-five minutes):