Sandy Koufax played hard ball when Lou Brock opted for small ball.
In a game at Dodger Stadium, Koufax intentionally drilled Brock in the shoulder with a pitch. The Dodgers ace was miffed at Brock because in his previous at-bat he bunted for a base hit and then swiped two bases, leading to a run.
Getting plunked by a Koufax fastball was as painful as one would imagine and knocked Brock out of the Cardinals’ lineup. It also messed with his mind.
“He almost ended my career,” Brock said to the New York Daily News.
Tough to solve
Like many who faced Koufax in his prime, Brock struggled mightily against him. In 1963, Koufax fanned him seven times in 11 at-bats. The next year, when he split the season with the Cubs and Cardinals, Brock hit .143 versus Koufax.
In Brock’s autobiography, “Stealing Is My Game,” his collaborator, Franz Schulze, wrote, “No one was harder on him than the great Koufax … Sandy could turn Lou into a flopping marionette with his curve and fastball.”
Brock, who had been swinging from the heels against Koufax, decided to try a different tactic. He was determined to bunt and use his speed to reach base.
“Brock’s bunting was the only thing that threatened Koufax,” Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson said in his autobiography, “Stranger to the Game.”
Lighting a fuse
The first time Brock got to test his new approach against Koufax came on May 26, 1965. After Julian Javier led off the game and struck out, Brock stepped in and bunted a pitch toward the mound. A flustered Koufax fielded the ball with his glove and, hurrying, shoveled it wide of first baseman Wes Parker as Brock streaked across the bag with a single.
With Curt Flood at the plate, Brock took off for second and beat catcher Jeff Torborg’s throw. Flood then bounced a grounder into the hole at shortstop. Maury Wills knocked down the ball but couldn’t make a throw. Brock held second as Flood reached first with a single.
Koufax was unhappy. The Cardinals hadn’t gotten a ball out of the infield but he was in a jam. The cleanup batter, Ken Boyer, was up next. Turning up the pressure, Brock and Flood executed a double steal.
With the runners on second and third, one out, Boyer hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Brock. The next batter, Dick Groat, grounded out, ending the threat, but Brock had shown the Cardinals a way to get to Koufax.
“I got under his skin by bunting back at him … Koufax couldn’t handle the bunt,” Brock said to Dick Young of the New York Daily News.
In the book “Sixty Feet, Six Inches,” Bob Gibson said, “We were helpless against Koufax until Brock figured out that he could bunt on him. Once he was on first base, he could run on him, too, because Sandy didn’t have a pickoff move.”
Koufax decided he had to do something to dissuade Brock from trying that again.
Sending a message
After the Dodgers tied the score with a run in the second against Curt Simmons, Javier led off the Cardinals’ third and flied out. Brock then came up for the first time since his electrifying performance in the opening inning.
According to author Jane Leavy in her book, “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy,” Koufax took aim at Brock and fired. The ball smashed hard into Brock’s shoulder blade. “So darned hard,” Torborg told Leavy, “that the ball went in and spun around in the meat for a while and then dropped.”
From his perch in the dugout, it sounded like “a thud that had a crack in it,” Cardinals outfielder Mike Shannon recalled to Leavy.
In her book, Leavy wrote, “It was the first time, the only time, Koufax threw at a batter purposefully.”
(Years later, according to Leavy, Koufax said, “I don’t regret it. I do regret that I allowed myself to get so mad.”)
Despite the hurt, Brock went to first base. Then he swiped second.
Brock struck out against Koufax in the fifth, and was replaced in left field by Carl Warwick in the bottom half of the inning.
The Cardinals won, 2-1, with Bob Uecker scoring the tie-breaking run against Koufax, but the cost was high. Brock, their catalyst, was in trouble. Boxscore
Mind over matter
X-rays taken after the game were negative, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, and Brock traveled with the team to Houston. The next day, according to the newspaper, “he could not even lift his bruised left shoulder.”
Brock wasn’t in the lineup the next five games and the Cardinals lost all five. He came back on June 1, but “he couldn’t swing or throw as of old,” The Sporting News reported.
Brock went hitless in his first 17 at-bats after returning to the lineup. Collaborator Franz Schulze noted, “He was just suddenly scared to death of all inside pitches. So he kept retreating in the batter’s box.”
Brock told the New York Daily News, “Because of fear, I was jumping away from anything inside, expecting to be hit again. I was afraid.”
The fear of failure, though, became greater than the fear of pain. Brock forced himself not to flinch when a pitch came close. “I made myself do it,” he said to Dick Young. “I even closed my eyes and stepped into a few.”
When the base hits followed, the fear dissipated.
Brock was tested on June 16 when he was struck on the batting helmet by a pitch from the Pirates’ Frank Carpin. Brock stayed in the lineup. Boxscore
Two weeks later, another Pirates left-hander, Bob Veale, hit Brock in the right forearm with a pitch. “I’ve never been hit harder,” Brock said to the Post-Dispatch. “Veale throws even harder than Sandy Koufax.” Boxscore
The following night, back in the lineup against the Mets’ Frank Lary, Brock doubled, walked, scored a run and stole a base. Boxscore
In his autobiography, Bob Gibson noted, “Much of my reputation as a badass pitcher resulted from the fact that Lou Brock was on my side. There was no other player who irritated the other team as Brock did, and consequently no other who was knocked down quite as often. When somebody on the other team threw at Brock, I considered it my duty to throw at somebody on the other team.”
Brock was hit by pitches a career-high 10 times in 1965, but he played in 155 games, totaling 182 base hits, 107 runs scored and 63 stolen bases.
By the numbers
After being hit by the Koufax pitch in May 1965, Brock never successfully bunted for a hit against him again.
For his career, Brock batted .185 versus Koufax, with more than twice as many strikeouts (28) as hits (12).
Koufax hit batters with pitches 18 times. He plunked Frank Robinson twice. In addition to Brock, the ones Koufax nailed once were Frank Thomas, Billy Williams, Dick Stuart, Bob Aspromonte, Eddie Kasko, Jim Wynn, Denis Menke, John Bateman, Tim McCarver, Bobby Del Greco, Bobby Thomson, Elio Chacon, Bob Purkey, Merritt Ranew and Eddie O’Brien.
Koufax was hit by a pitch just once. The Cubs’ Dick Ellsworth did it in the 10th inning of a game at Dodger Stadium on May 4, 1964. With a runner on first and none out, Koufax tried to bunt with two strikes but the curveball hit him on the right foot. The next batter, Maury Wills, got the game-winning hit. Brock played right field for the Cubs that night and was hitless against Koufax. Boxscore
In 19 years in the majors, Brock was plunked 49 times. Two pitchers _ Ryne Duren and Chris Short _ both nailed him twice.
RetroSimba 
Great story. Whoever thought of the bunt as a psychological weapon?
Thanks, Ken. In his autobiography, Lou Brock’s collaborator wrote, “First is the only base you can’t steal … Lou has gotten there by every device in the book, and he has gotten there plenty often. Base-stealing is no more than talk as long as you’re still at the plate.”
Speed is one of the most exciting parts of the game. I’m glad the new rules have brought it back into play a bit.
The Cardinals stumbled at the start of 1965, but seemed to be going well, seven games over .500 after the May 26 game. The rest of the year was lose a few, win a few. 1965 became The Season of The Nagging Injury.
The Lou Brock injury sure took a lot of steam out of the 1965 Cardinals. After an 18-13 record in May, they were 11-20 in June. Brock hit .230 in June. The Cardinals entered July with a 34-41 record, 11 games behind the first-place Dodgers.
Great recap of Koufax vs Brock. I was fortunate to see them both play and Lou was an early hero of all St. Louis fans once he came here from the Cubs. I think Chicago forever regretted that trade…. To this day I still remember Sandy’s high foot kick windup and overhead throw as showcased on the Wheaties cereal box. His concealment of the ball was crucial to keep batters in suspense & his long arms made his fastball speed deadly. Those early to mid 60’s were the best years for baseball with only 7 teams in both leagues. And today I sure miss Houston in the NL too, but that’s another story you should tell! 😉
It’s marvelous that you got to see both Sandy Koufax and Lou Brock play.
In his autobiography, Brock said of Dodgers pitchers Koufax and Don Drysdale, “They were not just fast, but fast with control, and when all is said and done, that combination is the golden one. It distinguishes the great pitchers from everybody else nearly all the time. I prefer to think positive thoughts about those two guys. I like to remember the few happy moments they gave me rather than all the times they twisted me into a pretzel.”
I love the “game within a game” chess match between batter and pitcher in these type of situations. Great players constantly search for and exploit the other’s weaknesses…if they can find them!
Quite perceptive, Bruce, and nicely said.
In his autobiography, Lou Brock said, “When you’re up against a good man, you become a good man yourself. There’s no response with no challenge. You get what you’re after only when you’re up against somebody good. It does little for you to tangle with somebody you’re sure you can beat.”
Interesting. Koufax couldn’t field his position and couldn’t hold runners on. That kind of reminds me of a guy, John Lester who was so bad at holding runners that he didn’t even bother throwing to first. I’m not sure if it was the yips or what the hell was going on.
Totally off subject (per usual) but your mention of Koufax got me reminiscing of Canters, a Jewish deli in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles. There is a bar connected to the deli (Guns and Roses hung out there before they were famous) and I went on a date there–noticing a framed picture of Koufax near the various bottles. I am still friends with the girl over a decade later even though she almost killed me in a head-on accident on the freeway. A story for another time…
Great piece and thanks for the memories, Mark. I think I’m gonna do a yoootoob search for Dodgers/Cardinals games from the 1960’s.
I am jealous that you got to go to Canter’s, Gary. (Grateful you survived the driving accident.)
Oh, how I would like to sample a Canter’s pastrami on grilled rye with a side of potato salad.
Canter’s, in Los Angeles since 1931, is open 24 hours. In 2008, a Canter’s concession stand was opened at Dodger Stadium, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.
That bar, or cocktail lounge, connected to the deli that you went to is called the Kibitz Room. According to the Canter’s Web site, “In the 1960s, bands like The Doors and The Byrds along with Frank Zappa and Arthur Lee would meet at Canter’s to exchange stories, girlfriends and eat. By the 1990s informal star-studded jam sessions began taking place in the Kibitz Room on Tuesday nights where groups would schmooze, and kibbitz. Many, including Joni Mitchell, Rick James, Slash and members of Guns N’ Roses, The Wallflowers, and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, have come to the Kibitz Room to hang out, sing, play, and most importantly to eat and drink.”
I had never heard about this incident between Sandy Koufax and Lou Brock. This is a side of Sandy Koufax that I didn’t know about. Even though Brock struggled at the plate against Koufax you have to give him credit for making up for it on the base paths. It’s interesting that along with Koufax, Brock also struggled against Ron Perranowski hitting only .167 for his career. And yet, against Claude Osteen, Brock owned him hitting .361 for his career.
You are right, Phillip, about the Lou Brock incident showing a side of Sandy Koufax most people didn’t know about. In the Jane Leavy biography of Koufax, she wrote that Don Drysdale “loved to tell” the story of Koufax intentionally drilling Brock “because for once Koufax wasn’t perfect.”
Another fascinating post Mark! The fear Koufax put in Brock’s mind reminds me of just how hard it must be to stand in there, in the batter’s box, and face big league pitching, something that is easy to forget while criticizing batters.
I’m surprised, based on what Bob Gibson said about “no other player who irritated the other team as Brock did” that Brock didn’t have more HBP’s…..maybe his athleticism enabled him to get out of the way of inside pitches?
Different subject, but the other day I was reading Koufax’s bio at SABR and was fascinated to find out that Koufax was initially a better basketball player and that he received a basketball scholarship from Univ. of Cincy and that he could dunk.
In the Jane Leavy biography of Sandy Koufax, she wrote that in Brooklyn, “Koufax was known as a quiet kid, always with the basketball … He preferred dribbling a ball to talking about himself. He preferred basketball to everything.”
In 1953, when Koufax was senior captain of the Lafayette High School basketball team in Brooklyn, the NBA New York Knicks came to the Bath Street gym to scrimmage the high schoolers. (The Knicks players included Al McGuire, the future Marquette coach, and Harry “The Horse” Gallatin, who was Koufax’s favorite.) During warmups, Lafayette coach Frank Rabinowitz had Koufax do dunks for the Knicks players. “He’d take these long strides and hang around in the air,” Rabinowitz told Leavy. “He didn’t jump and come down, see? He’d stay in the air and hang around a little bit.”
Koufax got an autograph from Harry Gallatin, but in the scrimmage, Koufax outplayed him. According to the New York Post, “When the Knicks scrimmaged against Lafayette at the Bath Beach school, pro center Harry Gallatin was so impressed by the spring and coordination of a rangy youngster named Sandy Koufax, who actually outjumped him several times, that he told (Lafayette) coach Frank Rabinowitz, ‘We’ll be coming back for this kid some day.’ “