By Andy Loigu

A person would need to be older than 60 to remember watching Sandy Koufax pitch, and older than 70 to remember watching the Dodgers play in Brooklyn.

Thanks in large part to the heroic pitching of Sandy Koufax, many longtime Dodger fans living in New Jersey (and I knew my share of them when growing up) celebrated the three National League pennants the Dodgers won in the 60s, even though the team had abandoned Brooklyn and headed for Los Angeles.

Many of my high school friends, thanks to their parents, were Dodgers fans and went to see them at Shea Stadium and Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium back in those days. The Mets (lovable losers) and Phillies did not do much to inspire fans to adopt them as their favorite team in those years. My choice of the Phillies as my favorite team is a testimony to my willingness to suffer, more than anything else. I knew the Yankees had 20 world championships. I just thought it would be cool to stick with the Phillies and see them win their first.

Eventually, they did. 

Thanks to an invite from a Dodgers’ family at the end of the 1966 season, I got what turned out to be my only chance to watch the legendary Koufax pitch in front of my eyes at the ballpark. October 2, 1966 turned out to be a very special and memorable day for me.You never know what you will see when you go to a game and I had no idea that the 30-year old Koufax would pitch the final complete-game win of his career that day.

It was the final day of the regular season and the Dodgers needed one win over the Phils to clinch their third National League pennant in four years and go on to the World Series to meet the Baltimore Orioles, who clinched the AL flag over a week ago.

The previous day’s game in Philly was rained out and the second place Giants needed two Dodger losses in order to have a chance at the crown.

Everybody knew, as play began at old Connie Mack Stadium, that a second game of a doubleheader would only be played if the Phillies made it necessary with a win. 

Hoping to rest Koufax for the World Series, the Dodgers started Don Drysdale and were just six outs away from the pennant when the Phils came to bat in the eighth. Richie Allen singled off reliever Bob Miller and then Bill White laid down a bunt. Miller pounced on it, whirled and chucked the ball over the head of shortstop Maury Wills into center field. The Phils then took a 4-3 lead (the eventual final score) on a bloop single by Cookie Rojas and a dribbler by Clay Dalrymple.

So the Dodgers, now desperate, needed to start Koufax in the nightcap, on two days rest.

For eight innings Koufax was everything I’d seen on television, totally dominant. However, in the ninth he could not get his curveball over the plate and the Phillies scored three runs and there still was nobody out.
Bring in a reliever? Not the Dodgers when Koufax was on the mound.

Just throwing fastballs to hitters who knew it was coming, he struck out two of the next three batters and the Dodgers prevailed. Koufax had his 27th win of the season and became the first pitcher in history to have three 300-strikeout seasons. 

But, thanks to hundreds of hoodlums who rushed onto the field, the  Dodgers had to run for cover for their safety. The visitors’ bullpen was in the deepest corner of centerfield at that old park, and the Dodgers’ relievers went into a V-formation with arms interlocked, running through the mob and knocking over anyone foolish enough to get in their way. Thanks to the effects of “adult beverages” there were plenty of people getting knocked down.

People stole the bases off the field and anything else that was not nailed down.

Just another Sunday in Philadelphia. Just a few weeks later, Koufax surprised the sporting world by calling it a career.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.