Unlike other sports, especially college football, baseball has never had a media establishment that previews games as "The Game of the Century." After all, if a Series goes to 7 games, then, theoretically, the aces could face each other 3 times. In spite of Ford then being the defining pitcher in World Series history, and Koufax being the biggest pitching star of the season, and the hype for Game 1 being strong, this Series didn't go 7. Besides, while Koufax had become a star, he hadn't yet become a legend. It was this game that made him one.
After the 1962 season, knowing that they had Joe Pepitone coming up to play 1st base, the Yankees traded Bill "Moose" Skowron, who had helped them win 7 Pennants and 4 World Series, to the Dodgers for pitcher Stan Williams. Moose made them pay for that in this game, singling home the Dodgers' 1st run in the 2nd inning. This was followed by a single by Dick Tracewski and a home run by John Roseboro. The Dodgers were up 4-0, and the game was effectively over.
Koufax allowed 6 hits and 3 walks, but was completely dominant. He had a perfect game until the 5th inning, when Elston Howard singled. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this game is that Koufax didn't pitch a shutout: Tom Tresh hit a 2-run home run in the 8th, but that's all the Yankees got, losing 5-2.
After the game, in which he did not play, leading up to his retirement as a player and his subsequent hiring to replace Ralph Houk as the Yankees' manager, Yogi Berra said, "I understand how he won 25 games. What I don't understand is how he lost 5."
Koufax was already known to be a great pitcher. But, in those days, the way baseball was covered in the media, sometimes a player needed the spotlight of the World Series to show how great he was. Now, the whole country saw how great Sandy Koufax was.
This game would be referenced in the 1975 film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, in which the head nurse, Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher), won't let the inmates watch it on television, so Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) points them to the unplugged TV, and provides an imaginary broadcast for them. This deviates from the novel by Ken Kesey, because it was published in 1962, before the game in question.
October 2, 1963 was a Wednesday. It was the only baseball game played. Football was in midweek. And the 1963-64 basketball and hockey seasons hadn't started yet. So there were no other scores on this historic day.
Maria Ressa, Philippine journalist, and co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, was born on this day.
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