LOS ANGELES — For baseball aficionados, the name Sandy Koufax is almost mythical.
In the 1960s Koufax put together what is generally considered the greatest span of five seasons for a pitcher in Major League history. And 60 years ago, Sept. 9, 1965, Koufax had his single most magical night as he became just the sixth pitcher in the modern era to throw a perfect game.
The stories about Koufax, who is now 89 years old, sometimes sound fictional.
"He had a beauty about that was hard to describe," recalled Wes Parker, who was the first baseman with Koufax's Los Angeles Dodgers team in 1965.
"If you've seen a ballet dancer. He had that kind of beauty of motion. Like a beautiful animal, like a racehorse, something like that," he said.
Sandy Koufax, pitcher of the Los Angeles Dodgers, holds up four baseballs in Los Angeles, Calif. on Sept. 10, 1965. It is the day after he pitched a perfect game for a 1-0 win against the Chicago Cubs, making him the first major leaguer to pitch four no-hit games.
And his accomplishments on the field backed up the accolades. In 1963, when he led the Dodgers to a four-game sweep in the World Series over the powerhouse New York Yankees featuring Mickey Mantle, Koufax had a regular season record of 25-5.
"I can see how he won 25," Yankee catcher Yogi Berra famously said during the '63 World Series. "What I don't understand is how he lost five."
With a blistering fastball and devastating curveball, Koufax was unmatched. He won three Cy Young awards in four years and led the National League in earned run average for five consecutive years. He also led the league in strikeouts four times, including 1965 when he fanned 382 batters, then a Major League record.
In the midst of his dominance, some players, including the great Willie Mays of the Dodgers' longtime and sometimes bitter rival, the San Francisco Giants, realized that Koufax was tipping his pitches. It didn't make any difference.
"I knew every pitch he was going to throw and still I couldn't hit him," Mays said on an ESPN documentary.
On the night of Koufax's perfect game in 1965 against the Chicago Cubs, the Dodgers were in a tight pennant race against Mays' Giants.
The Cubs' lineup that September evening featured three future Hall of Famers: Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo.
Koufax had flirted with pitching greatness. In the three previous seasons, he threw three no-hitters. And there was an expectation that any time Koufax was on the mound, there was a chance for another no-hitter.
On the warm Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, Koufax, wearing his number 32 uniform, got right to work. He struck out two of the first three hitters, including future Hall of Famer Williams.
In the second inning, he struck out Banks.
When the third inning ended, and with Koufax's history of no-hitters, many of the 29,139 people inside the stadium were beginning to wonder — maybe — this might be another one of those nights.
The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the fifth, ironically with no hits. Los Angeles' left fielder walked, then went to second on a sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored when the catcher's throw to third went over the head of the third baseman.
"I didn't become aware that it was a perfect game until the seventh innings," Parker, the Dodgers first baseman, told NPR earlier this year.
"I remember in the bottom of the seventh inning, Jimmy Lefebvre, who was a rookie that year, and I were sitting next to each other on the bench. And he looked at me and I looked at him. And he said, 'are you nervous' and I said, 'yeah.' And I said, 'are you' and he said, 'yeah.' I said, 'do you want the ball to be hit to you' and he said, 'no.' And he said, 'do you want it hit to you' and I said, 'no.' We were so afraid we were going to screw up his perfect game."
In the seventh, the Dodgers got their only hit of the game, a double by Lou Johnson, which had no impact on the score.
But Koufax was still perfect. He kept retiring batter after batter. What makes a perfect game the rarest of no-hitters, is that it involves more than just giving up a hit. In a perfect game, no one can even reach base. There can not be a walk or a fielding error. All 27 batters must be retired.
The ninth inning is saved for posterity with a recording of the Dodgers' radio broadcast with the team's legendary broadcaster Vin Scully. The fact that you can relive the final inning with Scully's words is another reason this game has such a revered spot in baseball history.
On the MLB YouTube site a recording of the final inning, accompanied with photos, has been viewed nearly a quarter-million times since it was posted eight years ago.
"You can almost taste the pressure now. Koufax lifted his cap, ran his fingers through his black hair, then pulled the back cap down, fussing at the bill," said Scully on the Sept. 9, 1965 broadcast.
Mark Warschauer, a professor of education at the University of California at Irvine, was at the game as an 11-year-old with his father.
"Over the last two innings it was just explosive. And every single pitch and every single strike was just electric," he remembered.
The ninth inning began with the Cubs' Chris Krug coming to the plate. He lasted seven pitches.
"Sandy reading signs, into his windup, two-two pitch, fast ball got him swinging … he is two outs away from a perfect game."
The next batter was pinch-hitter Joe Amalfitano, who, 60 years later, still has a crystal clear memory of the night.
"I was the 26th victim," the 91-year-old said two weeks ago from his home in Sedona, Ariz.
"He's got it going, he's really got it going."
Amalfitano, who struck out on three pitches, described the third strike as unhittable: "I couldn't hit with a telephone pole. I swung on and missed."
"The strike two pitch to Joe, swung on and missed strike three. He is one out away from the promised land," Scully said, the excitement building in his voice.
As Amalfitano walked back to the Cubs dugout, he passed by the next hitter, Harvey Kuenn.
"As I walked by, going to the dugout, Harvey says 'Joe, how's he throwing?' I said, 'Better be ready. He's getting it up there.' And Harvey says — and this is classic — 'wait for me. I'll be right back,'" Amalfitano recalled.
Kuenn was right.
"It is 9:46 p.m. Two and two to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away, Sandy into his windup. Here's the pitch. Swung on and missed. A perfect game."
Wes Parker remembered being glad it was over. "My feeling was more than happiness for Sandy. I felt relief that I didn't screw up his perfect game."
Joe Amalfitano says numerous times during the last 60 years, he and Koufax have spoken on the phone on Sept. 9. "We reminisce on the ninth. He is a wonderful guy, a high-class guy," he says.
We reached out to Sandy Koufax, and through a representative, he declined to speak. He rarely grants interviews, but he did to MLB's Sweeny Murti earlier this year. "You start out every game to pitch a perfect game," Koufax said, reflecting on the moment. "You're not going to, and you know it. You just give up your goals grudgingly as you go. This one, I didn't have to give it up."
Another part of Koufax's mythical career is that it ended on the very top.
The following year, at the age of 30, Koufax retired because of arthritis in his elbow.
No one ever saw him lose his athletic prowess.
In his final season, Koufax had a record of 27-9 with an ERA of 1.73 and 317 strikeouts — all Major League bests in 1966.
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Editor's Note: The official attendance at the game was 29,139 and included reporter Steve Futterman. "This remains the greatest sports event I have ever witnessed. I got a call from my friend Ben Franklin (yes, that was his name) around 5pm to see if I could go to the game," Futterman recalled. "My mother said yes. She was already making dinner. I took two or three greasy lamb chops (my favorite meal growing up) with lots of napkins into the Franklin family's station wagon, and we went to see my favorite baseball player make history."
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