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.

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 as the only one won at home.

Starting pitchers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres and ace reliever Ron Perranoski combined to give up only four runs in four games.

Summary

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

Matchups

Game 1

Wednesday, October 2, 1963 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York

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—something he hadn't been in one game his entire career. (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.

Dodger catcher Johnny Roseboro's three-run homer in Game 1 was the only home run all year that Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford allowed to a left-handed batter.

Game 2

Thursday, October 3, 1963 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York

Game 3

Saturday, October 5, 1963 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California

Don Drysdale pitched a masterful three-hitter in his complete game win, Walter Alston said of Drysdale's performance "One of the greatest pitched games I ever saw". The lone Dodger run in the game occurred in the bottom of the first on a Jim Gilliam walk, a wild pitch and a single by Tommy Davis.

Game 4

Sunday, October 6, 1963 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California

The Dodgers scored first in the bottom of the fifth on a monumental Frank Howard home run. The Yankees tied it on a Mickey Mantle home run in the top of the seventh. But in the bottom of the inning, Gilliam grounded to Clete Boyer at third and got all the way around to third base when Joe Pepitone lost Boyer's peg in the white-shirted background. Gilliam scored a moment later on Willie Davis's 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.)

Popular culture

• 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 Bobby Richardson, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and the Yankees 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.
• This was Yankees announcer Mel Allen's final World Series broadcast. Allen was suffering from severe laryngitis at the time of the Series, and while doing play-by-play in the second half of 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. Allen was fired by the Yankees the following season.
• The MVP award was made to Koufax in New York City. He was presented with a new car. As soon as they handed Koufax the keys to his new car, a New York City police officer stepped forward and handed Koufax a ticket for parking on the sidewalk.

Low scoring

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

Series quotes

Two men out, two balls, two strikes the count. Koufax has struck out fourteen. That ties Erskine's record. The left-hander gets a pinch at the resin bag, takes a look down as Roseboro, checks the baserunner Pepitone, at the belt, here's the 2–2 pitch to Bright, and swung on and missed, he struck him out!

—Joe Garagiola, calling Sandy Koufax's fifteenth strikeout in Game 1 over NBC Radio.

I can see how he won 25 games. What I don't understand is how he lost five.

—Yogi Berra, commenting on Koufax's Game 1 performance.

He didn't. We lost them for him.

—Maury Wills, in response to Berra's statement.

The Dodgers win two to one and sweep the series in four straight. ... Never before in all of their wonderful years had the Yankees lost four in a row in the World Series.

—Vin Scully, narrating the final out of Game 4 in the 1963 World Series highlight film.

I waited seventeen years to bat in a World Series and when it finally happened, everyone was rooting for me to strike out!

—Harry Bright, Yankees' pinch-hitter and fifteenth strikeout victim of Koufax in the first game. Bright had played in his first professional game when Sandy was 10 years old.

Notes

References

• Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. The World Series. 1st ed. New York: St Martins, 1990. (Neft and Cohen 298–301)
• Reichler, Joseph, ed. (1982). The Baseball Encyclopedia (5th ed.), p. 2171. MacMillian Publishing. ISBN 0-02-579010-2.
• Forman, Sean L.. "1963 World Series". Baseball-Reference.com – Major League Statistics and Information.. http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1963_WS.shtml. Retrieved 2007-12-09. 

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.