Here’s my test, Charles. If you pick one pitcher in his prime to win a ballgame for you, who is it? Once Koufax got control, he was an almost unhittable machine.
“If you pick one pitcher in his prime to win a ballgame for you, who is it?”
Dodger manager Walter Alston made that decision in the 1965 World Series, and decided Koufax on two days rest was a better bet to pitch game seven than Hall-of-Famer Don Drysdale on three. The result was a 2-0 Dodger victory, and drew this comment from Minnesota manager Sam Miele:
“If anyone would like to make the World Series the best five out of nine games I would be willing to go on with it right now. But Koufax is murder. Great! The best I believe I have ever seen. You hate to lose, but we didn’t disgrace ourselves. We were beaten by the best pitcher that there is anywhere.”