LOS ANGELES (Sept. 9, 1965) - In 1963, the year Sandy Koufax became the most dominating pitcher in baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers statistician Allan Roth was asked to describe the brilliance of the 27-year-old left-hander.

"It's reached the point now that when anybody gets a hit off him, people turn to each other and say `Gee, I wonder what he did wrong?'" Roth said.

On a typically pleasant September evening in Southern California, dead smack in the middle of the torrid 1965 National League pennant race, no one at Dodger Stadium had the need to ask that question.

Twenty-seven Chicago Cubs stepped into the batters box that night against Koufax and 27 trudged back to the dugout shaking their heads as Koufax pitched the eighth modern-era perfect game in baseball history.

"Sandy Koufax could drive you to drink," said Ron Santo, Chicago's slugging third baseman, following the Dodgers' 1-0 victory.

Added first baseman Ernie Banks: "He was just great, it was beautiful. He was getting the curve over real good the first five innings, then he got tremendous momentum. I thought he might weaken some later on, but he just kept throwing the ball right on through. And he was throwing strikes."

IT WAS THE FOURTH AND LAST NO-HITTER of Koufax's career. Not only did it further enhance his aura of invincibility, it provided another reminder of how far Koufax had come since the early portion of his career when it was once written that he could throw a grape through a battleship, if only he could hit the battleship.

During his first six years in the majors, Koufax was just 36-40 because he was unable to harness his raw power.

"The trouble was, I'd get a chance to pitch, and then I wouldn't get another chance for weeks. There's your control problem," Koufax recalled. "It wasn't the club's fault, they were always in a pennant race, they couldn't take a chance with me.

"And I had a lot of faults. I'd get mad at myself every time I made a mistake, and it seemed like I made a mistake every time I threw the ball. So then I'd try to throw a little harder, and I'd get a little wilder, and then I'd finally get the ball over, and they'd hit it."

When the 1960 season concluded, Koufax seriously thought about quitting, but he didn't, and during spring training in 1961, Dodgers catcher Norm Sherry gave Koufax the piece of advice that turned his career around.

Sherry told Koufax to ease up on his fastball in favor of control, and to throw more breaking balls and changeups to get the hitters off balance.

KOUFAX WON 18 GAMES and led the NL with 269 strikeouts in 1961, and despite missing about one-third of the 1962 campaign, he threw his first no-hitter, and won the first of his five consecutive earned-run average crowns.

As it turned out, Koufax was just teasing hitters, because in 1963, he turned into a monster - the most effective, feared pitcher in the game.

That season, Koufax led the major leagues in wins (25), earned run-average (1.88), strikeouts (306) and shutouts (11), threw his second no-hitter, and won the National League's Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards. For an encore, he pitched two complete game victories to lead the Dodgers past the Yankees in the World Series.

And he posted those numbers despite the fact that batters around the league considered him a pitcher who telegraphed his pitches.

"We called every pitch he threw," said former Cub Ed Bouchee. "When Koufax threw his fastball, his hands would be way over his head during his windup. When his hands went way back, we knew it was his curveball. Still we couldn't hit him."

Concurred former St. Louis Cardinal Tim McCarver: "With Sandy, you knew what was coming on almost every pitch. A batter could guess with him easier than any pitcher. That you still couldn't hit him was a credit to his greatness."

DURING AN INJURY-PLAGUED 1964, Koufax went through what by now was considered a down year. Still, he twirled another no-hitter, led the NL with seven shutouts, won 19 games, and won his third straight ERA title with his lowest mark ever, 1.74.

But in 1965, he was back in top form and while every team was helpless against him, the Cubs set a new futility standard.

"I got stronger as I went along and that's something that had not happened to me before this year," said Koufax, who struck out 14 and permitted only seven balls to be hit out of the infield. "In the last three innings, I had my best fastball in a long, long time. Early in the game, I had a great curve."

As untouchable as Koufax was, so too was Chicago starter Bob Hendley. Hendley wound up tossing a one-hitter, and the only run Los Angeles scored was unearned.

"I can sympathize with Hendley," said Koufax. "It's a shame to lose a game the way he did."

In the fifth inning, Los Angeles left-fielder Lou Johnson walked, took second on Ron Fairly's sacrifice, stole third and continued home when Cubs rookie catcher Chris Krug threw the ball wildly into left field for an error.

HENDLEY LOST HIS NO-HITTER IN THE SEVENTH when Johnson blooped a double. Hendley pitched out of that jam, but it didn't matter because his teammates never had a chance against Koufax.

Koufax struck out the final six men he faced. In the eighth, Santo, Banks and pinch-hitter Byron Browne were the victims. In the ninth, Krug and pinch-hitter Joey Amalfitano went meekly and it was left for former American League batting champ Harvey Kuenn to break up Koufax's perfect game.

As Amalfitano was walking back to the dugout, he passed Kuenn and whispered to him "It's not worth it, Harvey, you might as well not even bother coming to the plate." Kuenn went anyway, and he whiffed to end the game.

"I've never seen Sandy throw as hard as he did when he struck me out in the eighth," said Santo. "He threw one fastball right by me and I was waiting for it. He seemed to get a burst of energy in the late innings."

Santo shared an amusing story about the game. Before it started, the Cubs held a meeting to go over strategy against Koufax.

"Actually, it was kind of silly," Santo said. "What are you going to learn about Koufax in a meeting? Al Spangler (once a teammate of Koufax's) got up in front of the locker room and said `Not to worry fellas, I've got all of Koufax's pitches. I know when Sandy is going to throw that curve or fastball from the stretch position.'

"I suppose we left the meeting with a little more confidence against Koufax than in the past because we had Al Spangler on our side. Once Koufax got into the stretch, he was dead meat."

It may have been a good theory, but because there was never a baserunner, Koufax never pitched from the stretch.

POSTSCRIPT: The victory improved Koufax's record to 22-7 and snapped a personal three-game losing streak. He would go on to lead the league in wins (26), winning percentage (.765), ERA (2.04), complete games (27), innings pitched (335.2) and strikeouts (382, a new major league record).

"Watching him pitch, you wondered why he wouldn't hurl more than four no-hitters in his career," said former Dodger Ed Roebuck. "There was such a talent gap between Koufax and the next best pitchers, it must have been like that with Babe Ruth and his peer group."

The Dodgers outlasted the Giants in the pennant race, winning the flag by two games, and met the Minnesota Twins in the World Series.

The Twins, who had won 102 games in the AL, shocked the baseball world by beating Don Drysdale and Koufax in the first two games. But Los Angeles won three in a row back in Chavez Ravine as Claude Osteen, Drysdale and Koufax pitched complete game victories and LA outscored Minnesota, 18-2.

The Twins took Game 6 against Osteen, but Koufax threw a three-hit shutout in the deciding game, outdueling Jim Kaat to give the Dodgers their second World Series title in three years.

"There should be a Cy Young Award for him, and another one for the rest of us to shoot at," said Twins pitcher Jim Grant of Koufax.

As a 19-year-old in 1955, Koufax made an impressive major league debut, shutting out the Reds with 14 strikeouts. Cincinnati outfielder Sam Mele was the only player to hit a ball hard off the phenom, a double in the ninth inning.

Ten years later, Mele, now the manager of the Twins, sat in his office at Metropolitan Stadium at the conclusion of Game 7, rolling his eyes in frustration. "Koufax is murder," he said. "The best I believe I have ever seen. We were beaten by the best pitcher in baseball anywhere."

Boxscore

 
 
CHICAGO        ab r h bi  LOS ANGELES    ab r h bi
Young, cf       3 0 0 0   Wills, ss       3 0 0 0
Beckert, 2b     3 0 0 0   Gilliam, 3b     3 0 0 0 
Williams, rf    3 0 0 0   Kennedy, 3b     0 0 0 0
Santo, 3b       3 0 0 0   Davis, cf       3 0 0 0
Banks, 1b       3 0 0 0   Johnson, lf     2 1 1 0
Browne, lf      3 0 0 0   Fairly, rf      2 0 0 0
Krug, c         2 0 0 0   Lefebvre, 2b    3 0 0 0
Kessinger, ss   2 0 0 0   Tracewski, 2b   0 0 0 0
Amalfitano, ph  1 0 0 0   Parker, 1b      3 0 0 0
Hendley, p      2 0 0 0   Torborg, c      3 0 0 0
Kuenn, ph       1 0 0 0   Koufax, p       2 0 0 0
TOTALS         27 0 0 0   TOTALS         24 1 1 0

E - Krug; LOB - Chicago 0, Los Angeles 1. 
2B - Johnson. SB - Johnson. S - Fairly. Att - 29,139.

CHICAGO     IP  H  R ER BB SO      
Hendley (L)  8  1  1  0  1  3      

LOS ANGELES  IP  H  R ER BB SO
Koufax (W)    9  0  0  0  0  0

IN OTHER NEWS ON SEPT. 9, 1965

Soviet general Vladimir Tolubko alleged that the United States was developing a manned orbital space laboratory to be able to bombard the earth with nuclear bombs. The allegation was the first response to President Johnson's announcement on Aug. 25 that the U.S. would develop a $1 billion space workshop devoted to defense research. "Now the Pentagon wants to use space laboratories not only for espionage, but also to accomplish direct combat tasks," Tolubko said.

THE SPORTS SECTION: The Dodgers' arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, remained a half-game ahead in the National League pennant race as Juan Marichal pitched a four-hit shutout in the Giants' 4-0 victory over Houston. It was Marichal's 10th straight victory.

South African Cliff Drysdale upset American Dennis Ralston in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open with a thrilling come-from-behind 2-6, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 8-6 victory. That left Arthur Ashe as the last American hopeful in the tournament. Ashe went on to beat defending champion Roy Emerson, but ultimately, Spain's Manual Santana won the singles title by defeating Drysdale 6-2, 7-9, 7-5, 6-1.

SOURCE LIST: The Associated Press; Sports Illustrated; Reuters; Ron Santo - For Love of Ivy, by Ron Santo; We Played the Game, by Danny Peary.