1963 World Series

The 1963 World Series matched the two-time defending champion New York Yankees against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with the Dodgers sweeping the Series in four games to capture their second title in five years, and their third in franchise history. Starting pitchers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Johnny Podres, and ace reliever Ron Perranoski combined to give up only four runs in four games. The dominance of the Dodgers pitchers was so complete that at no point in any of the four games did the Yankees have the lead.

This was the first time that the New York Yankees were swept in a World Series in four games (the 1922 World Series had one tie).

Of the Los Angeles Dodgers four World Series championships since the opening of Dodger Stadium, this was the only one won at Dodger Stadium. Also, of the six championships from the Dodgers franchise, it remains the only one won at home.

This series was also the first meeting between teams from New York City and Los Angeles for a major professional sports championship.^[1][2] Seven more such meetings have followed with three more times each in the World Series and the NBA Finals, and the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals.^[2]

Background

Yankees

Despite injuries that limited Mickey Mantle to just 65 games, the Yankees went 104–57 to win their fourth straight American League pennant—this one by  10 ¹⁄₂ games. Catcher Elston Howard (.287 BA, 28 HRs, 85 RBI) won the MVP Award, while Joe Pepitone, Roger Maris, and Tom Tresh also topped the 20 home run mark. Their pitching was anchored by Whitey Ford (24 wins, 2.74 ERA) and Jim Bouton (21 wins, 2.53 ERA).

Dodgers

The Dodgers' road to the World Series was much more challenging. After blowing a four-game lead with seven to play in 1962, the Dodgers again built a lead in 1963. On August 21, the Dodgers beat the Cardinals 2–1 in 16 innings to take a  7 ¹⁄₂ game lead. When they went to St. Louis for a three-game series on September 16, their lead was one game over the Cardinals, who had won 19 of 20 games. Sports fans around the country were saying how the Dodgers were going to blow it again. But the Dodgers swept the three games from the Cardinals to move four games ahead with nine to play; a 4–1 win over the Mets clinched the pennant in the season's 158th game.

Summary

NL Los Angeles Dodgers (4) vs. AL New York Yankees (0)

Matchups

Game 1

Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax

Sandy Koufax started it off with a then record fifteen-strikeout performance in Game 1. It bested fellow Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine's mark in 1953 by one, and would be surpassed by Bob Gibson in 1968. Koufax also tied a World Series record when he fanned the first five Yankee batters he faced in that game. Since "K" is the time-honored scoring symbol for "strikeout" (Vin Scully once remarked that "Koufax's name will always remind you of strikeouts"), some newspapers' headlines for the game coverage consisted simply of Koufax's surname prefixed by fifteen K's.

Clete Boyer was the only Yankee regular not to be struck out against Koufax. Mickey Mantle, Tom Tresh and Tony Kubek were struck out twice each, and Bobby Richardson was struck out three times—his only three-strikeout game in 1448 regular season/World Series games. (Just that regular season, Richardson had been struck out only 22 times in 630 at-bats, without even being struck out twice in one game.) Koufax also struck out three pinch-hitters, including Harry Bright to end the game.

Game 2

Willie Davis doubled in two runs in the first inning, former Yankee Bill Skowron homered, and Tommy Davis had two triples to lead the Dodger offense. Dodger manager Walt Alston went with #3 starter Johnny Podres over #2 starter Don Drysdale because he was left-handed and the Yankee Stadium was favorable to left hand pitchers. Podres delivered a six-hitter through  8 ¹⁄₃ innings; ace reliever Ron Perranoski got the last two outs, and the Dodgers headed home with 2–0 Series lead.

Game 3

Don Drysdale pitched a masterful three-hitter at Dodger Stadium in his complete-game win. Manager Walter Alston called Drysdale's performance "one of the greatest pitched games I ever saw." Jim Bouton, making his first World Series start, dueled Drysdale throughout, permitting only four hits. The lone Dodger run came in the bottom of the first on a Jim Gilliam walk, a wild pitch and a single by Tommy Davis. The final out came on Joe Pepitone's drive that backed Dodger right fielder Ron Fairly up against the bullpen gate to make the catch of a ball that would have been a home run in Yankee Stadium.

Game 4

The Dodgers scored first in the bottom of the fifth on a monumental Frank Howard home run into the second deck at the Dodger Stadium. The Yankees tied it on a Mickey Mantle home run in the top of the seventh. But in the bottom of the inning, Gilliam hit a high hopper to Yankee third baseman Clete Boyer; Boyer leaped to make the grab, and fired to first base. But first baseman Joe Pepitone lost Boyer's peg in the white-shirted crowd background; the ball struck Pepitone in the arm and rolled down the right field line, allowing Gilliam to scamper all the way to third base. He then scored a moment later on Willie Davis' sacrifice fly. Sandy Koufax went on to hold the Yankees for the final two innings for a 2–1 victory and the Dodgers' third world championship.

The World Series Most Valuable Player Award went to Sandy Koufax, who started two of the four games and had two complete game victories. To date, Game 4 is the only time the Dodgers have won the deciding game of a World Series at home.

Composite box

1963 World Series (4–0): Los Angeles Dodgers (N.L.) over New York Yankees (A.L.)

Low scoring

World Series Teams With Fewer Than Ten (10) Runs Scored (Through 1963):

Trivia

• This was longtime Yankees announcer Mel Allen's 22nd and final World Series broadcast. Allen was suffering from an attack of severe laryngitis at the time of the Series, and while doing play-by-play for NBC television during Game 4 his voice gave out completely in the bottom of the eighth inning, requiring Vin Scully to take over for the remainder of the game. (The following year—Allen's last with the Yankees—he would be passed over for the Series assignment in favor of boothmate Phil Rizzuto.)
• Yankee pinch hitter Harry Bright was Koufax's record setting 15th strikeout for the final out in Game 1.
• The MVP award was given to Koufax at a luncheon in New York City. He was presented with a new car. While the luncheon was taking place, a New York City police officer put a parking violation ticket on the car's windshield.^[8]

In popular culture

• In the 1986 novel Replay by Ken Grimwood, the protagonist bets his life savings on a Dodgers sweep, knowing they will win. His winnings total more than 12 million dollars, at the apparent odds of 100–1, with Grimwood referring to it as "one of the great upsets in baseball history".
• This is the World Series that Jack Nicholson's character R.P. McMurphy lobbies unsuccessfully to watch on television (and subsequently "announces" by imagining the action) in Miloš Forman's 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He imagines quite a different scene than what occurred, however, as he describes Richardson, Tresh, and Mantle knocking Koufax out of the box. In reality, the Yankees never led at any time in the Series, and only once in the entire Series (and that only for a half-inning) were the Yankees and Dodgers tied at a score other than 0–0. A brief clip of Ernie Harwell's NBC Radio broadcast of Game 2 can be heard in the film.

Notes

References

• Cohen, Richard M.; Neft, David S. (1990). The World Series: Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903–1989. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 298–301. ISBN 0-312-03960-3. 
• Reichler, Joseph (1982). The Baseball Encyclopedia (5th ed.). Macmillan Publishing. p. 2171. ISBN 0-02-579010-2. 
• Forman, Sean L. "1963 World Series". Baseball-Reference.com – Major League Statistics and Information. Archived from the original on November 30, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2007. 

External links

• 1963 World Series at WorldSeries.com (MLB.com)
• 1963 World Series at Baseball Almanac
• 1963 World Series at Baseball-Reference.com
• The 1963 Post-Season Games (box scores and play-by-play) at Retrosheet
• History of the World Series - 1963 at The SportingNews. Archived from the original on 2008.

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