(Updated Oct. 7, 2020)
Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax were scheduled to start against one another in a September 1962 showdown of two of the premier pitchers of the era.
The matchup never materialized.
Gibson broke his leg before the game and Koufax was knocked out without completing an inning.
The unlikely standout that night: Cardinals right fielder Charlie James.
On Sept. 21, 1962, at St. Louis, Koufax was making his first start in more than two months. The Dodgers left-hander had been sidelined because of an injured pitching hand. News reports called it a circulatory problem in the index finger of his left hand. The injury was much more serious _ a crushed artery in the palm of his hand, according to Jane Leavy in her book “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy.”
Though, Leavy reported, the hand injury had bothered Koufax since April (by July, the tissue was close to gangrene, she wrote), he entered the September start against St. Louis with a 14-5 record and 2.15 ERA.
Gibson was 15-13 with a 2.85 ERA. The Cardinals right-hander had lost his last four consecutive decisions and was looking to finish on a high note in his final three starts of the 1962 season, beginning with the Friday night game against the Dodgers.
Trouble occurred before the game started.
Wearing new spikes, Gibson participated in batting practice. Turning away sharply from a pitch, his spikes caught in the ground and he toppled over in pain, The Sporting News reported. Gibson fractured a bone above his right ankle and his leg was placed in a cast.
“It sounded just like a twig snapping,” Gibson told The Sporting News. “I could hear it and feel it tear.”
Gibson was replaced by Curt Simmons, a left-hander who had made one start since late August.
Koufax, meanwhile, was making his first appearance since a one-inning start July 17 at Cincinnati.
Relying mostly on fastballs against the Cardinals, Koufax walked the first two batters, Julian Javier and Curt Flood.
When Stan Musial struck out looking and Ken Boyer flied out to left, it appeared Koufax had found his groove, but he walked Bill White, loading the bases.
That brought to the plate James, a right-handed batter with a .277 average. James hadn’t hit a home run or driven in a run all month.
With the count 2-and-2, Koufax was a strike away from getting out of the jam. The next delivery was high and away. James swung and launched a shot onto the pavilion roof in right for a grand slam.
In a six-year big-league career, James hit 29 home runs. His only grand slam was the one off Koufax. James told New York Times columnist Arthur Daley the grand slam “gave me the most personal satisfaction and the most surprise” of any home run he hit.
“I was merely trying to meet the ball and was astonished to see it land on the roof in right field,” James said.
Years later, James told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “You couldn’t hit Koufax’s 100 mph fastball, but if the ball started at the knees, it would rise to belt high by the time it got to the plate. That was the only way you could hit it.”
Koufax walked the next batter, Gene Oliver, and was relieved by Ed Roebuck.
“If he had got out of that first inning,” Dodgers manager Walter Alston said about Koufax, “no telling how long he might have gone.”
Asked whether the left index finger still bothered him, Koufax replied, “My finger doesn’t feel 100 percent … but it does feel as good as it did the two or three games before I went under the doctor’s care.”
The Cardinals won, 11-2. Boxscore
Two years later, April 22, 1964, James hit another first-inning home run off Koufax, a three-run shot in a 7-6 Cardinals victory. Boxscore
In a 12-year big-league career, Koufax yielded 204 home runs, including six grand slams.
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