In 12 seasons in the majors, Sandy Koufax made just one Opening Day start for the Dodgers. It came 60 years ago, April 14, 1964, against the Cardinals.
Koufax, 28, was considered to be at the top of his game then, coming off a dominant season. The left-hander won both the National League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards in 1963. He was 25-5 that season, including 4-0 versus the Cardinals, and led the majors in wins, ERA (1.88), shutouts (11) and strikeouts (306). Koufax also won Games 1 and 4 of the 1963 World Series, a Dodgers sweep of the Yankees.
Yet, as he approached an Opening Day start for the first time, Koufax admitted he was nervous. “Sure I feel it,” he said to columnist John Hall of the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve been getting worked up for days. It’s a thrill … I always get excited before every start, but the first game of the season is something extra.”
As it turned out, the prominence of the assignment wasn’t the sole reason for the jitters. Koufax’s pitching arm didn’t feel right.
Profit share
During contract negotiations for the 1964 season, Koufax proposed a “formula he worked out whereby he would participate in gate receipts on nights he worked,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner columnist Melvin Durslag noted, but Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley “made it clear he wanted employees only, not shareholders.”
Koufax met with his former teammate, Jackie Robinson, who advised the pitcher to press the Dodgers for a share of ticket revenue. “He made a difference of 10,000 to 15,000 in attendance a game near the end of the (1963) season when he pitched,” Robinson told The Sporting News.
O’Malley wouldn’t budge in his opposition to the idea. He told Durslag that “the Hollywood and Las Vegas influence … tend to give people in our business delusions of grandeur. Our boys hear talk in terms of residuals, capital gains, percentages and pieces of the action, and they are misled into applying these patterns to baseball.”
On the day before the Dodgers’ team plane headed to spring training at Vero Beach, Fla., Koufax agreed to a contract of $70,000 for 1964, a doubling of the $35,000 salary he got in 1963, The Sporting News reported.
Ready or not
In his 1964 Florida spring training outings, Koufax threw mostly slow curves and changeups, but the Dodgers said it was nothing to worry about _ he was working on making his off-speed pitches better, The Sporting News reported.
Privately, Koufax confided his left arm was hurting, according to author Jane Leavy in her book “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy.”
On April 10, 1964, four days before the season opener, Koufax was feted at the Los Angeles baseball writers banquet at the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard. An overflow crowd of 1,500 attended the $20-a-plate dinner and was treated to entertainment from Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Nancy Wilson and emcee Phil Silvers.
The next night, Koufax started against the Angels in an exhibition game at Dodger Stadium and looked terrific in his two-inning tune-up, striking out five and allowing only an infield hit.
Good reads
Noting that Koufax “probably set a major-league record by reading more books in one season than any pitcher in history,” the Los Angeles Times asked him on the eve of the season opener to compile a list of books he’d recommend for teens.
Under the category of modern novels, Koufax suggested “Lord of the Flies” (William Golding), “Catcher in the Rye” (J.D. Salinger), “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee), “A Separate Peace” (John Knowles), “I, Robot” (Isaac Asimov), “The Ugly American” (William Lederer and Eugene Burdick), “On the Beach” (Nevil Shute), “Jamie” (Jack Bennett), “Fail-Safe” (Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler) and “A Very Small Remnant” (Michael Straight).
A sampling of some of Koufax’s other recommendations included:
_ Adventures: “Annapurna” (Maurice Herzog), “Deliver Us From Evil” (Thomas A. Dooley), “The Edge of Tomorrow” (Thomas A. Dooley), “The Man Who Never Was” (Ewen Montagu).
_ Biographies: “Portrait of Myself” (Margaret Bourke-White), “The Diary of a Young Girl” (Anne Frank), “Surgeon” (Wilfred C. Heinz).
_ Histories: “Hiroshima” (John Hersey), “Profiles in Courage” (John F. Kennedy).
_ Humor: “The Education of Hyman Kaplan (Leonard Q. Ross), “Platypus At Large: A Nonsense Book of World Politics” (Emery Kelen).
_ Observation: “The Craft of Intelligence” (Allen Dulles), “Romance of Philosophy” (Jacques Choron), “The Fire Next Time” (James Baldwin).
_ Science: “The Universe and Dr. Einstein” (Lincoln Barnett), “Gods, Graves and Scholars” (C.W. Ceram).
Only four sports books made Koufax’s list: “The Four-Minute Mile” (Roger Bannister), “Basketball Is My Life” (Bob Cousy and Al Hirshberg), “Lou Gehrig: A Quiet Hero” (Frank Graham) and “Playing For Life” (Bill Talbert and John Sharnik).
Same Sandy
The book on Koufax was he looked good in pitching a six-hit shutout in a 4-0 Opening Day victory at Dodger Stadium. All six Cardinals hits were singles and only one Cardinal base runner advanced as far as second base. Boxscore
Koufax became the first Dodger to pitch an Opening Day shutout since Whit Wyatt did it in 1940 against the Braves at Boston. Boxscore
Cardinals team captain Ken Boyer told the Post-Dispatch, “Sandy’s curve got better as he went along. If you’re going to beat him, you’re going to have to do it in the early innings.”
Koufax and Cardinals starter Ernie Broglio were matched in a scoreless duel until Ron Fairly drove in Willie Davis with a single in the sixth. “That was the turning point,” Broglio told the Los Angeles Times. “You give Koufax a run and he gets pretty tough.”
Old arm
A week later, in the Cardinals’ home opener, Koufax gave up a three-run home run to Charlie James and departed after pitching one inning.
“He was slow,” Boyer told the Post-Dispatch. “It wasn’t too hard to figure something might be wrong with him.” Boxscore
Koufax was examined by Cardinals physician Dr. I.C. Middleman, who determined the pitcher had “inflammation of the elbow” and “a slight muscle tear” in his left forearm, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Middleman informed the newspaper that Koufax told him his arm had been hurting since spring training but he hadn’t mentioned it to the Dodgers.
Koufax missed his next three starts, took three cortisone shots and returned to the rotation on May 4. He found his groove in June (5-0 record) and July (5-1).
On Aug. 16, Koufax again shut out the Cardinals, striking out 13, and then was shut down for the rest of the season after being diagnosed with an arthritic left elbow. Boxscore
“Arthritis is an acute inflammation of a joint usually associated with old age,” Jane Leavy wrote. “Koufax’s elbow was old even if he wasn’t … The cartilage in his elbow was breaking down.”
Even with the ailments, Koufax managed to post a 19-5 record, with seven shutouts, and 1.74 ERA in 28 starts in 1964. He pitched two more seasons, winning the Cy Young Award both years, before calling it quits at 30.
Three unanimous Major League Cy Young Awards. In an era of great pitchers, Koufax was the best. I’m glad he retired when he did (Jim Brown, too). It would have been tough to watch him bow out like Gibson, Marichal and Mays. There was a Sports Illustrated article about him in the late 1990s (Tom Verducci) that chronicled his pursuit of excellence in everything he did (home remodeling, electronics, golf, fly fishing, marathon running). I remember him pitching. I was nine when he retired, and as much as I wanted the Cardinals to win, it didn’t bother me when Sandy Koufax beat them.
Nicely said.
In the early 1970s, Sandy Koufax and his wife Anne (daughter of actor Richard Widmark) bought an old farmhouse in Maine. In that 1999 Sports Illustrated piece, Tom Verducci wrote of Koufax, “It wasn’t enough to dabble in carpentry and home electronics–he built and installed a sound system throughout the house. It wasn’t enough to cook–he became a gourmet cook, whipping up dishes not by following recipes but by substituting ingredients and improvising by feel. Later in life it wasn’t enough to jog; he ran a marathon. He didn’t just take up fishing, he moved to Idaho for some of the best salmon fishing in the world. He defines himself by the fullness of his life and the excellence he seeks in every corner of it, not the way the rest of the world defines him: through the narrow prism of his career as a pitcher.”
He may be my all-time favorite lefty pitcher (I throw left-handed so that means something!). His highlights were occurring while I was very young, but I’ve tried to watch and read a bunch about him as I got older. I think he appreciated life as much as baseball.
You may want to brush up on your change-up, Bruce. I think most teams in the majors always are looking for reliable southpaw relievers.
Anyone going to see Sandy Koufax pitch in Philadelphia had a good chance of seeing him win. Koufax had a career record of 13-3 in games pitched at Connie Mack Stadium. Of his 18 starts there, 13 were complete games. Overall against the Phillies, Koufax was 22-8. The teams he had the most wins against were the Phillies (22), Cubs (21) and Cardinals (21).
I think I read that Koufaz biography but I gave it to a buddy of mine who is a huge Dodgers fan and don’t recall the name
This post was a gem. No doubt I will be referring to it many, many times for the book recommendations. Perfect timing too, as I was desperately searching for something to read these past few weeks.
I’m glad you’re an avid book reader, Gary. Time well-spent.
Jane Leavy’s book about Sandy Koufax is quite good. In one of my favorite parts, she tells the story of Sandy Koufax, then a Dodgers rookie, taking night classes in architecture at Columbia University in the fall of 1955. After the Dodgers won Game 7 of the 1955 World Series, Koufax drove to Columbia to attend class. As Leavy wrote, “It’s unimaginable to think of any of today’s multimillionaire benchwarmers showing up for class.” Koufax asked the professor’s permission to leave early so he could attend the Dodgers’ victory party that night. Permission was granted.
I’m surprised that was his only opening day assignment. Even though he was shut down early in ’64 and the Dodgers had a relatively poor season that year, he was still their best pitcher and should have opened 1965. And then, even though ’65 was one of his best seasons, he probably didn’t get the opening day slot in 1966 because he was coming off a long, protracted holdout with Drysdale and needed more time to get into shape.
It surprised me, too. From 1956-66, the Dodgers’ Opening Day starters were Don Newcombe (1956, 1957), Don Drysdale (1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1965), Johnny Podres (1962) and Claude Osteen (1966).
It must have been something special to see Sandy Koufax pitch. And not just him, but also the likes of Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal and others from that incredible era. It’s best that I keep my opinions to myself regarding todays generation that goes crazy over a 5 inning quality start. I will say though that professional athletes from previous generations seem to be more intellectual. Maybe it’s because they made pocket change compared to what the average player today makes. And therefore they had to apply themselves more for life in the real world.
You are right about Sandy Koufax being someone, much like Bob Gibson, who applied his brain as well as his athleticism to his work, Phillip. Koufax was a thinker who looked ahead. When he was negotiating with the Dodgers for a 1964 contract, he informed club owner Walter O’Malley that pay television was on the horizon as a prominent source of revenue for baseball, and that the athlete should be given a portion of that. O’Malley conceded to columnist Melvin Durslag, “Someday, if baseball pay television should develop, the principles for deciding contracts in our game will change, but that hour hasn’t yet arrived.”
To your point about Koufax relating to life in the real world, he was stung and bitter when Dodgers management falsely leaked to the press that he was demanding $90,000 for a 1964 salary and refusing their offer of $65,000. “You can imagine how a guy making $4,800 a year must have felt when he read that I wasn’t willing to accept a $30,000 raise,” Koufax said to The Sporting News.
I miss the days when the best players were the ones making the big money. Now, all the money is big, and so are the players. Well, the money is stupid big.
Stupid big is a good and (unfortunately) accurate description. The poster boy is Joey Gallo. Ten years in the majors, never played for a pennant winner or in a World Series, career batting average .197, has more than twice as many strikeouts (1,206) as hits (528) and has been paid $36 million during his MLB career, according to baseball-reference.com.
Bill Veeck said: “I don’t mind the high price of stardom. I just don’t like the high price of mediocrity.”
Perfect.
I took a quick look at Koufax’s Baseball reference page and see that he won the Cy Young award in his last season. He must be the only one whose ever done that. I never watched him pitch, only on you tube videos, but it’s nice to remember him as a pitcher who retired on top and then moved on to something else. I happen to have the Koufax book by Jane Leavy and never read it. Now I will.
From 1956 to 1966, when there was just one Cy Young Award given in Major League Baseball (rather than one in each league), Dodgers pitchers got five of them: Don Newcombe (1956), Don Drysdale (1962) and Sandy Koufax (1963, 1965 and 1966). Others to receive the award in that period were: Warren Spahn, Braves (1957), Bob Turley, Yankees (1958), Early Wynn, White Sox (1959), Vern Law, Pirates (1960), Whitey Ford, Yankees (1961) and Dean Chance, Angels (1964).
Jane Leavy wrote a non-traditional biography of Koufax. She did a lot of original reporting and came up with many fascinating insights.
There are so many fascinating facts in this post. How is it Koufax only pitched one opening day? That must be a story in itself. At one point in the sixties he made $35k? And then there’s the MLB owner who resents a superstar ballplayer wanting “piece of the action.” Why, exactly does he think people come to the ballpark? A pretty impressive reading list as well.
Yes, indeed, Sandy Koufax was paid less than $30,000 each year from 1955 through 1962. His highest salary came in his final season, 1966, when he was paid $125,000, according to baseball-reference.com