1963-The Sweep and Sandy

                                      Tuesday, April 9, 1963. The Dodgers were in Chicago to face the Cubs and open the 1963 season. I was a little over 2 months away from my 15th birthday. JFK was the president. Eight days earlier, on the 1st of April, the Dodgers had sold my favorite player, Duke Snider, to the Mets for cash. I was not very happy with the team at that point. Duke was one of the last Brooklyn stars on the team. They still had Jim Gilliam and Johnny Podres from the 55 World Series winner. Don Zimmer had been traded by the Reds to the Dodgers in January, this after he had been traded to the Cubs for three players in 1960. LA would deal Zim to the Senators for cash in June after he played 22 games. So, Jr. and Podres were the last men standing from 1955. 

                                      Big D, coming off of a Cy Young winning year in 62, was the ace of the staff and the opening day starter. Drysdale had won 25 games. He led the league in games started, innings pitched, Strikeouts and batters faced. The #2 starter would be Sandy Koufax. Koufax had won his first ERA title. He won 14 games, but because of a circulation problem in his finger, he missed significant time. A condition that for all practical purposes, cost the Dodgers the pennant in 62. 

                                     The team had made a couple of trades in the winter. One brought former Yankees first baseman, Bill Skowron to the team. The Dodgers had sent Stan Williams to the Yankees in exchange. Williams had lost game three of the playoffs after the Dodgers had gone into the ninth, leading the Giants 4-2. The starting lineup had Roseboro catching, Fairly at first, Gilliam at 2nd, McMullen played the most games at 3rd, 79. Wills at SS. Tommy Davis in left, Willie D. in center and Frank Howard in right. 

                                    Drysdale, Koufax, Podres, and Bob Miller were the starters. Richert, Perranoski, Sherry, Roebuck, Rowe and Calmus the relief corps. Skowron, Moon, Tracewski, Oliver and Camilli were the main guys off of the bench. Lee Walls, Al Ferrara, Daryl Spencer, Marv Breeding, also saw some action. Dick Nen, a reserve first baseman and September call up, would have one of the most important hits all year in a game at St. Louis in September. 

                                      Drysdale squared off on opening day against Larry Jackson. Jackson had come to Chicago from the Cardinals in a six-player trade in October of 1962. George Altman and Don Cardwell were the center pieces of the Cubs part of the trade. Lindy McDaniel was the other main piece for the Cardinals. Drysdale would pitch a complete game, allowing 11 hits and 3 walks, but only 1 run. The game was tied after 5 innings, but LA scored 1 in the 6th, 1 in the 7th, and 2 in the 9th for the 5-1 win.

                                     The 63 season was underway. In game 2, Koufax out dueled former Brave ace, Bob Buhl for a 2-1 win. Dick Ellsworth shut LA out 2-0 in game 3, beating Johnny Podres. By the end of April, the Dodgers were 10-11, 4 games behind the leader. By the end of May, they were 27-20 and had trimmed 1.5 games off of the lead. The offense was being led by 1962 batting champion, Tommy Davis. Davis hit .323 in May and drove in 20 runs. Frank Howard hit 6 homers in May and drove in 13 runs, but he hit just .117 for the month. Pitching wise, Koufax was 5-1 in May with a 1.52 ERA and 3 shutouts. One of the shutouts was a no-hitter against the Giants at Dodger Stadium on May 11th.

                                    From the 30th of May to the 3rd of June, they lost 5 straight games. They then won 5 in a row and moved into first place by one half game. By the end of June, the team was 43-32, 1.5 games back. Koufax again went 5-1 with a 2.51 ERA. He walked 17 and struck out 69. 17 walks would be his highest total for any month that year. Along with August 11, it would be the only month he walked batters in double figures. Davis had a stellar June, hitting .355 with 5 homers and 16 driven in. Wills hit .373 in June. Most of the Dodger offense was struggling in June. 

                                   A five-game winning streak at the beginning of July put the Dodgers up by 3 games. Drysdale lost on July 6th to the Reds, 3-1, but Koufax started another streak by shutting out the Reds, 4-0 the next day. LA went on to win 7 in a row and expand the lead to 6.5 games by July 14th. They lost 2 of their next 3 before reeling off their third winning streak of the month with 4 consecutive wins, from July 17th to the 20th. They lost 6 of their next 8 games, then finished the month winning 2 of 3. They were 64-42 at the end of July. Their lead was 4.5 games.

                                  Koufax was 5-1, 1.76 ERA with three more shutouts. Drysdale was 4-2 with a 2.89 ERA and 1 shutout. But the star pitcher was Podres, 6-1, 1.49 ERA and 3 shutouts. by far his best month of the season. Wally Moon led the team with a .345 average in July plus he hit 3 homers and drove in 16 runs. Ken McMullen hit just .224, but the kid hit 3 homers and drove in 19 runs. 

                                  They opened the season in Houston against the Colt-45s and lost the first game, 4-1 to Dick Farrell. Koufax and Podres then shut out Houston on consecutive days. They won the first two against the Cubs for a 4-game winning streak and were up by 6 games. They lost 5 of the next 6 games and on the 14th of August, the lead was cut to 3. They won the final game against the Braves, 7-5 in Milwaukee and then swept the Mets in a 4-game series in New York before coming home and beating St. Louis, 7-5, and 2-1 in the first two games of a 18-game homestand at Dodger Stadium. They went 4-6 the rest of the month and finished August with 80 wins and 56 losses. Frank Howard had been the hitting star in August. He hit .348 with 8 homers and 18 driven in. Koufax was 3-1, Dysdale, 4-4, but Perranoski was 3-0 with 2 saves.

                                   They won 5 of the next 6 at Dodger Stadium before hitting the road to San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and St. Louis for a 13-game road trip, their last of the season. They left with a 5.5 game lead over the Cardinals. They would win 9 of the 13 games. But they went into St. Louis with just a 1 game lead after dropping a 6-1 game to the Phillies. Podres won game 1 of the series, 3-1. Koufax won game 2, 4-0 to put LA up by 3 games. The next game was a nail biter. 

                                  The Cardinals jumped out to a 5-1 lead after 3 innings. they chased starter, Pete Richert, scoring 4 runs off of him and 1 off of his relief, Bob Miller. Miller would then pitch 4 innings of scoreless relief before turning the game over to Ron Perranoski in the 7th inning. LA meanwhile chipped away at the lead scoring 3 in the 8th inning off of starter Bob Gibson. LA now trailed, 5-4 heading into the 9th inning. 

                                  In the 9th, with one out, rookie Dick Nen came up hitting in what had been the pitchers spot. He had PH for Miller in the 7th. Nen homered to right tying the game. It was his only hit of the year. It sent the game into extra innings.  Perranoski would pitch 6 scoreless innings of relief, and the Dodgers would score in the top of the 13th inning on a ground-out by Wills off of Lou Burdette scoring Willie Davis, who had singled to start off the inning. Perry got the Cardinals out 1-2 3, striking out Jerry Buchek to end the game. LA’s lead was now at 4 games with 9 to play. 

                                   They came home to face the Pirates in a three-game series. Drysdale shut out the Pirates for his 19th win. They won game 2 of the series 5-3 on a 9th inning walk-off 3-run homer by Willie Davis. Koufax started the game, went 7.2 innings giving up all 3 of the Pirates runs. Miller got the win, his 20th. Veale shut them out 4-0 in the final. They were 5.5 up with 6 to play. The Mets came to town and LA swept them. Drysdale with a 4-1 win in game 1. Koufax pitched just 5 innings striking out 8. Bob Miller pitched 3 shutout innings, and Perranoski 1 for the 1-0 win. Craig lost his 22nd game, and Koufax won his 25th. Perry got his 20th save. Rowe got the win the next day when they completed the sweep, 5-4 for their 99th win. Drysdales win clinched the pennant. 

                               Philadelphia came in to finish the season. The Dodgers lost all three to finish at 99-63, winning the pennant by 6 games. Tommy Davis hit .340 for the final 26 games with 3 homers and 18 driven in. Howard hit 4 homers and drove in 11, Willie D hit .313 with a homer and 12 driven in. Wills hit .304, Roseboro had 3 homers and 11 driven in. Koufax was 5-0, 1.65, Dysdale, 2-2, 2.00, Podres,3-2, 4.32 and Perranoski, 3-1,1.24 with 8 saves. They then would face the New York Yankees in the World Series. 

                                Game one was on October 2nd, at Yankee Stadium. Whitey Ford against Koufax. With Ford pitching, Skowron got the start against his old mates at first base. Ford shut LA down in the first inning. Koufax did the same to the Yankees. He struck out 2, but that was just the beginning. Howard doubled off of Ford in the second and scored on a single by Skowron. Tracewski singled Skowron to second. Johnny Roseboro then hit a 3-run homer deep down the RF line to put LA up, 4-0. Skowron would single in Willie Davis in the third to make it 5-0. Meanwhile, Koufax kept the Yankees off of the scoreboard and he kept striking out hitters. 

                                Finally in the bottom of the eighth, Tresh hit a 2-run homer off of Koufax scoring Tony Kubek who had singled. But that was all the Yankees would get with Sandy throwing a complete game, striking out 15 for a new World Series single game record. Game two pitted Johnny Podres against Al Downing. Downing gave up singles to Wills and Gilliam. Willie Davis then doubled scoring both. Podres shut the Yankees down in the bottom of the inning. 

                                  Downing got the Dodgers out in the second and third innings without any scoring. Podres did the same. In the fourth, Bill Skowron led off the inning with a long homer to left. LA was up 3-0. Downing was gone after the 5th inning, replaced by Ralph Terry. The score stayed 3-0 until the top of the 8th inning. Willie Davis doubled off of Terry and came home on a single by Tommy Davis. Podres got the Yankees out in the 8th for 8 shutout innings of work. 

                                The Dodgers went quietly in the 9th. Podres went back to the mound. Hector Lopez, playing for Roger Maris, doubled off of Podres with 1 out in the 9th. Perranoski relieved Podres. Elston Howard singled off of Perranoski, scoring Lopez. Perry got the next two outs for the 4-1 win. For Podres it was his 4th career World Series win, 3 of them against the Yankees. The series shifted back to Dodger Stadium for game 3.

                                  The Dodgers faced 21 game winner, and soon to be author, Jim Bouton. Big D made his first start of the series. This game would be a pitcher’s duel. After the Yankees went down in the first, with one out in the bottom of the first, Gilliam walked. He went to second on an out by Willie Davis. Tommy Davis then singled Gilliam home. It would turn out to be the only run of the game. Drysdale was masterful allowing just 3 Yankee hits. Kubek had 2 of them. He walked 1 and struck out 9. The Dodgers were up 3 games to 0 with Koufax set to pitch game 4.

                                 Sunday, October 6th, 1963, was a beautiful fall day in LA. The stadium was packed with over 55,000 fans. Many in white shirts. Sandy Koufax vs Whitey Ford. Classic World Series matchup. The Chairman of the Board against the Left Arm of God. The Yankees were without star RF Roger Maris. He had been injured in game 2. Hector Lopez was his replacement. The game was scoreless through the top of the 5th inning. In the bottom of the 5th, Frank Howard connected off of Ford for a massive homer into the Loge level at Dodger Stadium. 

                                Koufax set the Yankees down until the top of the 7th when Mantle hit his only homer of the series to left center field. LA came up in the bottom of the 7th. Gilliam hit a high hopper to Clete Boyer, Boyer leaped to make the grab and fired an accurate throw to first. But Yankee first baseman, Joe Pepitone, lost the ball in the white shirted background. It caromed off of his leg down the right field line. Gilliam scrambled all the way to third. He then scored on a sac-fly by Willie Davis. 

                                Koufax then shut down the Yankees over the last two innings, and the Dodgers won the series in a sweep. Koufax was named the MVP of the series. LA pitchers held the Yankees to a .171 BA and allowed only 2 homers. The Yankees never led a game at any point in the series. Perranoski, who saved 21 games during the season, was the only relief pitcher used by the Dodgers in the series, and he pitched just 2/3rds of an inning. Koufax won 2, had 2 complete games, and struck out 23 in the series. LA had only 2 hits in game 4, both by Frank Howard. It is to this date the only title the Dodgers have won on their home field. 

                               It was definitely Sandy Koufax’s best year to that point. He earned his first Cy Young, the MVP award, he was MVP of the series. When Sandy was given the Award at a dinner in NYC, he was also given a new car, presented by Sport Magazine. While the luncheon was taking place, a New York City policeman, put a parking violation ticket on the car’s windshield. 1963, to me it is still the sweetest win of all. Sweeping the Yankees, who had never been swept in four games. There was one tie in the 22 World Series. The 4 runs scored by the Yankees scored was the second lowest total ever. The A’s had scored 3 in 1905. A new low would be set in 1966 when the Dodgers scored just 2 runs while being swept by the Orioles.