60 years later, Sandy Koufax’s perfect game is still amazing : NPR

Sandy Koufax des Los Angeles Dodgers launches Chris Krug des Cubs de Chicago at the top of the ninth round, en route to her perfect play in Los Angeles, California, September 9, 1965.

Harold P. Matosian / AP

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Harold P. Matosian / AP

Los Angeles – For baseball enthusiasts, the name Sandy Koufax is almost legendary.

In the 1960s, Koufax gathered what was generally considered to be the greatest duration of five seasons for a launcher in the history of the major league. And 60 years ago, on September 9, 1965, Koufax had his most magical evening when he became the sixth launcher of the modern era to launch a perfect game.
The stories about Koufax, which is now 89, sometimes seems fictitious.
“He had a beauty about this that was difficult to describe,” recalls Wes Parker, who was the first basic player with the Los Angeles Dodgers team in Koufax in 1965.
“If you saw a ballet dancer. He had this kind of beauty of movement. Like a beautiful animal, like a racing horse, something like that,” he said.

Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodgers launcher, is organizing four baseball balls in Los Angeles, California. September 10, 1965. It was the day after his perfect match for a 1-0 victory against the Cubs of Chicago, making him the first major Leagger to play four games without sure.

Harold P. Matosian / AP

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Harold P. Matosian / AP

And his field achievements supported the distinctions. In 1963, when he led the Dodgers to a four-game scan in the World Series on the Powerhouse New York Yankees with Mickey Mantle, Koufax had a regular season record of 25-5.
“I can see how he won 25,” said recipient Yankee, Yogi Berra, during the ’63 World Series. “What I don’t understand is how he lost five.”
With a dazzling quick ball and a devastating curve ball, Koufax was unrivaled. He won three Cy Young awards in four years and led the National League on average of a deserved race for five consecutive years. He also led the league to the stick on the stick four times, including 1965 when he attracted 382 strikers, then a major league record.
In the middle of his domination, some players, including the great Willie Mays of the Dodgers, for a long time and sometimes bitter, the Giants of San Francisco, realized that Koufax changed his land. It made no difference.
“I knew every ground he was going to throw and I still couldn’t hit him,” said Mays on an ESPN documentary.
During the night of the perfect match of Koufax in 1965 against the Cubs of Chicago, the Dodgers were in a tight pennant race against the giants of Mays.
The programming of the Cubs this September evening presented three future trade in: Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo.

Sandy Koufax (32) of the Los Angeles Dodgers is rushed by teammates as he leaves the mound of the launcher at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. September 9, 1965. Koufax launched a perfect match against the Chicago Cubs. Ron Fairly is in the center, and Willie Davis (3) is on the left. The Dodgers won 1-0.

Harold P. Matosian / AP

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Harold P. Matosian / AP

Koufax had flirted with the size of the pitch. During the previous three seasons, he launched three without strikers. And we expected that each time Koufax was on the mound, there was a chance for another strike.
The hot Thursday evening at the Dodger Stadium, Koufax, carrying its number 32 uniform, was well done. He withdrew two of the first three strikers, including the future temple of reputation Williams.
During the second round, he removed the banks.
At the end of the third round, and with the history of Koufax of non -lukeers, many of the 29,139 people inside the stadium began to wonder – perhaps – it could be another of these nights.
The Dodgers took an advance of 1-0 in the fifth, ironically without sure. The left-hand player of Los Angeles walked, then went to the second row on a sacrifice stroke, stole third place and scored when the receiver’s throw in the third passed over the head of the third basic player.
“I did not realize that it was a perfect match before the seventh rounds,” said Parker, the first Dodgers base player at NPR earlier this year.
“I remember at the bottom of the seventh round, Jimmy Lefebvre, who was recruited that year, and I was sitting side by side on the bench. And he looked at me and I looked at him. And he said:” Are you nervous “and I said:” Yeah. “And I said,” Are you “and he said,” Yeah “. I said:” Do you want the ball to be touched “and he said:” No “. And he said:” Do you want it to hit you “and I said:” No “. We were so afraid that we were going to screw up his perfect game.”
In the seventh, the Dodgers obtained their only success of the match, a double of Lou Johnson, who had no impact on the score.
But Koufax was always perfect. He continued to remove the dough after the dough. What makes a perfect game, the rarest of non-lumps is that it implies more than abandoning a blow. In a perfect game, no one can even reach the base. There cannot be a walk or an error in play. The 27 strikers must be removed.
The ninth round is saved for posterity with a recording of the radio broadcast of the Dodgers with the legendary broadcaster of the Vin Scully team. The fact that you can relive the final round with Scully’s words is another reason why this game has a place so venerated in the history of baseball.
On the MLB Youtube site, a registration of the Manche final, accompanied by photos, has been seen almost a quarter of a million times since its publication eight years ago.
“You can almost taste the pressure now. Koufax raised his cap, passed his fingers in his black hair, then pulled the rear cap, competing for the bill”, ” said Scully during the broadcast of September 9, 1965.
Mark Warschauer, professor of education at the University of California in Irvine, was at the game at the age of 11 with his father.
“In the last two rounds, it was just explosive. And each ground and each shot was just electric,” he recalls.
The ninth round started with Chris Krug from the cubs coming to the plate. He lasted seven throws.
“Sandy Reading Signs, in her winding, two two years old, Fast Ball made him swing … He is two withdrawals from a perfect match.”
The next striker was the twinge Joe Amalfitano who, 60 years later, always has a crystalline memory of the night.
“I was the 26th victim,” said the 91 -year -old man of his home in Sedona, Ariz two weeks ago.
“He has that, he really has the case.”
Amalfitano, who put the turn on three throws, described the third strike as unwavering: “I could not strike with a telephone post. I swung and missed.”
“The strike of two throws to Joe, swung and missed the three -time strike. He is sheltered from the promised land”, ” Said Scully, the excitement building in his voice.
While Amalfitano returned to the cubs canoe, he went through the next striker, Harvey Kuenn.
“While I was going, going to the canoe, Harvey says” Joe, how does he launch? “I said,” Better to be ready. And Harvey says – and it’s classic – “Wait for me.
Kuenn was right.
“It is 9:46 p.m., two and two at Harvey Kuenn, a shot, Sandy in her drop. Here is the field. I swung and missed. A perfect match.”

The Dodgers diffuser of the Los Angeles renown temple, Scully wine, on the left, hugs the Sandy Koufax launcher during the scully wine appreciation day on September 23, 2016, in Los Angeles. Scully called Koufax’s perfect match against the Cubs in 1965.

Jae C. Hong / AP

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Jae C. Hong / AP

Wes Parker remembered having been glad it’s over. “My feeling was more than happiness for Sandy. I felt a relief that I did not mess up her perfect game.”
Joe Amalfitano said several times in the past 60 years, he and Koufax have spoken on the phone on September 9. “We remember the ninth. He is a wonderful guy, a top guy,” he said.
We contacted Sandy Koufax, and through a representative, he refused to speak. He rarely grants interviews, but he did at Sweeny Murti de MLB earlier this year. “You start each match to launch a perfect match,” said Koufax, reflecting at the time. “You are not going to do it, and you know it. You just give up your objectives as a result.
Another part of Koufax’s legendary career is that it ended up at the top.
The following year, at the age of 30, Koufax retired because of arthritis in his elbow.
No one has ever seen him lose his athletic prowess. In his last season, Koufax had a record of 27-9 with an MPM of 1.73 and 317 stick withdrawals – all the best in major league in 1966.

Publisher’s note: The official attendance of the match was 29,139 and included journalist Steve Futterman. “It remains the biggest sporting event I have ever seen. I have been calling from my friend Ben Franklin (yes, it was his name) around 5 pm to see if I could go to the game,” recalls Fil. “My mother said yes. She was already preparing dinner. I took two or three fatty lamb chops (my favorite meal growing up) with a lot of towels in the Break of the Franklin family, and we went to my favorite baseball player.”