Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

In 1965, Sandy Koufax declined to pitch the first game of the World Series because it was on Yom Kippur, a Jewish holy day.Drysdale pitched for the Dodgers instead of Koufax, giving up seven runs in 2 2/3 innings. When Walter Alston, the manager, came to the mound to remove him from the game, Drysdale said, "I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, too." The Dodgers lost the game to the Minnesota Twins 8-2 but went on to win the Series 4 games to 3.

those 1960s Dodgers squads are now usually recalled as the “Koufax-Drysdale-Wills” Dodgers, a weak-hitting team that triumphed by scratching out runs here and there while their two predominant starting pitchers shut down opposing batters. (Legend has it that when Don Drysdale was away from the team on business one day and learned that Koufax had pitched a no-hitter in his absence, he responded by inquiring “Who won?”)

I remember one year [mid-60s] Koufax and Drysdale threatened to hold out during spring training for more money in their respective contracts ,this was before free-agency and I think they were looking for between 80 and 100 thousand. You would have thought they were the most greedy evil players to ever play the game. Sports writer Dick Young of the Daily News went on and on about their nerve for seeking more money [ he should only be alive to see what players make today].I don't remember how it all played out ,I assume they got modest raises but it was really a big deal at the time.

O'Malley finally gave Bavasi $235,000 to split between them with the order "and not a penny more". Koufax got $125,000. Drysdale got $110,000.


More Drysdale:
Drysdale was also one of the last of the breed of pitchers who weren't afraid to knock a batter down with a pitch to get his point across. His 154 hit batsmen is still the modern National League record. Or, as Mickey Mantle once put it, "I hated to bat against Drysdale. After he hit you he'd come around, look at the bruise on your arm and say, 'Do you want me to sign it?'"

Drysdale himself talked about his rule for knocking down batters: "My own little rule was two for one. If one of my teammates got knocked down, then I knocked down two on the other team."

Thanks for also remembering that hold out episode, I was about 11 or 12 at the time and still remember Dick Young being so worked up about it. I probably was afraid also that some one would make more than the MICK so I followed the story between school and stick ball games. Bill

Dick Young was an extremely mean anti player sportswriter. Some thought he might have worked for the Mets. Today we look at new york baseball and view the mets as second bananas to the yanks, but in the early seventies fresh off the miracle mets and before Stienbrenner they were the toast of the town. The trading of Tom Seaver in 1977 precipiteted by Youngs nasty stories about toms wife started the met decline.

Here is a link to the Dick Young column that ticked off the original Tom Terrific.

http://www.metspolice.com/2011/01/24/th ... r-in-1977/

Here is a retrospective on the whole Seaver fiasco. I certainly remember everyone was in shock that the Mets would trade Seaver.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseb ... e-1.224970

Great stuff , brings back many memories. Even as a kid I remember thinking that Dick Young was a nasty SOB . When Aaron was going after the HR record it seemed as though he was rooting against him, was it racial ? I'm not sure but it felt that way. The back of the paper was always the first thing the kids in my Queens neighborhood looked at and we had bunch to see [ The Daily News, early and night owl edition ,the NY Post , the LI Press , the Mirror ] to name a few and those sports writers like Young, Lang , Phil Pepe , Red Smith and others were the links to our teams our sports heroes . It was a very different time not better or worse just different . Bill

If you ever have the chance to taste Seaver's wines, by all means do so! I'm a novice connoisseur, and I can tell you he is very serious about his wine. Hell of a bowler too!