Harmon Killebrew

Bob Allison

Zoilo Versalles

Jimmie Hall

Jim Perry

Jim Lefebvre

Maury Wills

Don Drysdale

Claude Osteen

Ron Perranoski


Mudcat Grant pitches in Game 1


Don Mincher smacks a HR off Don Drysdale in Game One.

Grant touches home after his roundtripper in Game 6, the first AL P to hit one in 45 years

Jim Kaat

For the first time since 1945, the Yankees were not a factor in the AL pennant race. Their sixth-place finish was the franchise's worst since 1925.

• That opened the door for a new contender, the Minnesota Twins, who had finished sixth themselves in 1964. The Twins won the franchise's first pennant since 1933 in their fifth season in the midwest after moving from Washington, where they were known as the Senators.
• They won by seven games with a power attack and a surprisingly good pitching staff.
• Minnesota led the AL with a .254 BA behind Tony Oliva's league-best .321.
• When someone said "Twins Power" in the early '60s, you thought of Harmon Killebrew. But he clouted only 25 HRs in '65, his lowest total since he became a regular in 1959. That still led the club, followed closely by LF Bob Allison's 23, 1B Don Mincher's 22, and CF Jimmie Hall's 20. Part of the reason for Killebrew's low total was that he missed six weeks because of a dislocated elbow.
• But it was SS Zoilo Versalles who won the MVP award because of his outstanding fielding and leading the league in runs, doubles, triples, and total bases (as well as strikeouts).
• Mudcat Grant emerged as the star of the mound staff with 21 victories, six more than he had won before in his eight-year career that began with Cleveland. He would never win more than 13 again.
• Steady southpaw Jim Kaat contributed 18 wins, and Jim Perry added ten. The staff's 3.14 ERA was good for third place in the junior circuit.

• The '65 Dodgers were the classic speed and defense team.
• They finished dead last in the majors in HRs. Their 78 roundtrippers were a little over half the Twins' 150. 2B Jim Lefebvre and LF Lou Johnson led the squad with a mere 12 four-baggers each.
• LA didn't have a single .300 hitter and finished eighth in the ten-team league with 608 runs.
• SS Maury Wills led the league in steals for the sixth straight year with 94, his best total since setting the all-time record of 104 in 1962. He also topped the Dodgers with his .284 average.
• The Big Two, southpaw Sandy Koufax and righty Don Drysdale, led the staff that allowed the fewest runs in the league. Koufax led the NL with 26 victories, against only eight losses, 2.04 ERA, 27 complete games, 335 2/3 innings pitched, and 382 strikeouts. Drysdale wasn't far behind in victories with 23 to go with a 2.77 ERA. Another lefty, Claude Osteen, threw in 15 victories but, despite a 2.79 ERA, also lost 15. Ron Perranoski led the bullpen with 18 saves.
• The Dodgers had a tougher time clinching their pennant. They had to win 15 of their last 16 to finally overtake the San Francisco Giants.

The oddsmakers installed the Dodgers as 7-to-5 favorites. However, they started the series with several challenges.

• First, LA GM Buzzie Bavasi riled everyone in the Twin Cities by saying that he thought his NL champs can win four straight, just as they in '63 against the Yankees. VP Fresco Thompson poured fuel on the fire by saying that the NL "has 20 better pitchers than Grant."
• Twins lefthander Dick Stigman responded, The Dodgers are making a mistake if they underrate us. We know they have speed and pitching, but we have that and power too.
• Minnesotans felt their team won the pennant because they didn't rely solely on homers but learned to bunt, steal, and hit-and-run - what would come to be known in a later age as "small ball." Dodger scout Al Campanis: They started playing the game the way we play it in the National League.
• Furthermore, Alston would not be able to start his ace, Koufax, in Game One because October 6 fell on Yom Kippur, the most sacred of Jewish High Holidays. Instead, Drysdale would start the opener - not a bad choice. The lanky righthander finished the season with a five-game winning string, including shutouts in his last two starts.
• By not appearing until Game 2, Koufax would probably not be able to start three times if the Series went the distance.
• The Twins feared Wills. Stigman: We had some good baserunners in our league, but nobody like Wills. I remember how bad the Dodgers made us look in an exhibition at Vero Beach last spring. Grant, the Twins' opening game starter, didn't remember ever facing the Dodgers. I pitched against Wills in the Coast League eight years ago, but that was before Maury became such a much better player. He was nothing then, compared to now.
• Fans looked forward to the duel between the opposing shortstops: Wills and Versalles.
• Grant stirred up some waters of his own when a newspaper story quoted him as saying, Drysdale has a reputation for knocking down hitters. If he does it to our guys, there'll be some Dodgers on their backs too. Mudcat admitted he said it but claimed it was all in fun. I'm not trying to start anything.
• One question mark for Minnesota was whether Tony Oliva would show any ill effects after missing the last five games with a pulled leg muscle.

1. Wednesday, October 6 @ Minnesota: Twins 8 Dodgers 2
   WP: Mudcat Grant; LP: Don Drysdale
2. Thursday, October 7 @ Minnesota: Twins 5 Dodgers 1
   WP: Jim Kaat; LP: Sandy Koufax
   
3. Saturday, October 9 @ Los Angeles: Dodgers 4 Twins 0
   WP: Claude Osteen; LP: Camilo Pascual
4. Sunday, October 10 @ New York: Dodgers 7 Twins 2
   WP: Drysdale; LP: Grant
5. Monday, October 11 @ Los Angeles: Dodgers 7 Twins 0
   WP: Koufax; LP: Kaat
6. Wednesday, October 13 @ Minnesota: Twins 5 Dodgers 1
   WP: Grant; LP: Osteen

Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington MN, 1965 World Series

• Drysdale's hot finish didn't carry over as he didn't last three innings in the opener, an 8-2 Twins romp. Then Kaat outpitched Koufax in Game Two.
• However, the Dodgers dominated in their home park, winning all three by a combined 18-2. Drysdale and Kaat got revenge on Grant and Kaat.
• But the trend of the home team winning every game continued in Game 6 as Mudcat pitched a complete game on two days' rest.
• The Dodgers had checked out of their hotel the morning of Game 6 and had to scramble to find accommodations for another night.

Drysdale or Koufax?

• That was the headline in newspapers across the country the morning of Game 7.
• After Game 6, Alston pronounced himself undecided. I haven't completely decided yet who'll pitch. I really don't know. I may decide tonight when I give it more thought, or they both might warm up. Drysdale's had the extra day of rest, but everything being equal, I'd rather pitch a lefty against this club. The Dodger skipper revealed that Drysdale hurt his hand the other day when the bat broke in half while he was batting. However, he didn't think that would affect Don if he decided to start him. Drysdale said his hand had been swollen after Game 4 but that the swelling had subsided. There's nothing really wrong.
• When asked what would happen if the predicted rain fell, Walt said he would start Koufax with the extra day's rest.
• Alston denied that he had complained to the umpires about the condition of the field for Game 6. Just before game time, the ground crrew appeared to be clearing the top layer of dirt or sand off the first base line and around the base. A ploy to blunt the Dodgers' speed? I made no complaint, he said. We turned it over to the umpires. All we asked the men to do was look at it.
• When asked about what the ground crew had done, the fleetest Dodgers, Wills, refused to talk.

Alston revealed his pitching choice at a team meeting that morning.

• He and his coaches, Preston Gomez, Danny Ozark, and Lefty Phillips, decided Wednesday night to go with "the lefthander." However, none of them told either Koufax or Drysdale of their decision before the two mound stars heard the decision with the rest of the team. In fact, both of them arrived at the park unshaven, which was the habit of the Dodgers starter.
  Koufax had assured Gomez after Game 6 at his locker that "I'm okay for tomorrow."
  Fred Wilpon, a high school classmate of Koufax who later became majority owner of the New York Mets, told biographer Jane Leavy that Koufax "didn't want to be known as a person who couldn't have the strength and the ability to take the ball on two days' rest."
  Alston told L.A. sportswriter Mel Durslag that it was the hardest decision he ever made as manager. Durslag recalled: He was worried about Drysdale's feelings and afraid of saying something anti-Semitic. He was an uptight guy, not a loose guy. People intimated - he was a farmer from the middle of Ohio - that he might have been anti-Semitic. Maybe he felt if he didn't give it to Koufax, he'd look anti-Semitic.
  The players were nearly unanimous is their choice. They wanted Sandy. Captain Wills later said, We might not have gone on the field if he hadn't.
  After the brief meeting in which Alston told his club We're going to start the left-hander, Koufax told 2B Dick Tracewski, He called me "the lefthander." Tracewski recalled, He felt he should have called him by his name.
• Part of Alston's reasoning was that, if Koufax faltered, he could bring in a righthander, Drysdale, to "flip" Twin batters, then close up with another southpaw, Perranoski.
• Twins manager Sam Mele also sent out a man with only two days' rest, Jim Kaat. Thus Game 7 would provide the third matchup of the two lefties.
• The rains came in the wee hours of Thursday morning, but the weather cleared by daybreak Helicopters helped dry out the outfield. The temperature at game time was 60° with a light haze.
• Neither manager pulled any surprises in his lineup. Alston had to go with Dick Tracewski at 2B due to the injury to Jim Lefebvre, who would have completed an all-switch-hitting Dodger infield.
  Kaat recalled the pregame handshake of the starters for the photographers. Jim's eyes started to water, then tear, then burn. He got away from Koufax as quickly as possible to escape the smell of Capsolin, a powerful anti-inflammatory ointment that Sandy lathered on his aching left elbow.

Watch the entire game

Jim "Junior" Gilliam

Willie Davis

Lou Johnson

Koufax in Game 7

Joe Nossek


Ron Fairly

Wes Parker

Dick Tracewski

Frank Quilici

John Roseboro

Koufax pitches to Oliva

Johnson rounds the bases
after his homer

Al Worthington


Jim Merritt

Sandy Valdespino

Dodgers Clubhouse

• Vince Scully interviewed Koufax in the locker room for NBC TV. He reminded Sandy that, after pitching a shut out in Game 5, he said, "I feel like I'm a hundred years ago." Then Vin asked Sandy how he felt today. "101," the lefty replied with a slight smile. Then he quickly added. "No, I feel great, Vinny. I know I don't have to go out there any more for about four months." When Scully pointed out that he seemed to stick mainly with his fastball, Sandy replied: "I didn't have the curve ball at all and wasn't getting it over." He admitted he was tired but not as much as at the end of Game 5. He cited the cooler weather in Minnesota as helping his stamina. "My fast ball the last three or four innings was as good or better as earlier in game."
  His arthritic left elbow encased in ice, Koufax told writers shortly afterward: I'm going away as far as I can. I'm going to leave shortly for Hawaii and then go on from there. Where I don't know - and I really don't care right now. I think I'm entitled to a vacation. ... Dr. Kerlan (Dodger club physician) will take X rays of the arm to see if there has been any change in the condition of the arm. Right now it feels fine. That fact that I know I don't have to use it for the next 4 1/2 months makes it feel even better.
• Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley pushed through the crowd and threw his arms around his manager. Walt, it's getting to be a habit. The skipper replied: We sure did it the hard way.
• Alston added for the press: This is a club that all year long has had to battle. All year long, this team has scratched. On Koufax: He's just the best lefty I've ever seen. On his visit to the mound in the 5th: He was still throwing good. Even if Versalles' hit gets by Gilliam, I kind of doubt if I'd take him out that quickly. I know he's throwing good.
  On learning that he had passed a baseball legend for World Series championships. I was surprised at hearing that I had passed John McGraw. I had never met him or seen him play or manage. But I've heard a lot about him. As for me, I'm just thankful that I've been as luck as I have been. Believe me, I just love baseball, and I only wish I could stick around here 50 more years.
• Louis Brown Johnson, whose initials were the same as President Lyndon Baines Johnson, talked about his homer. Kaat threw me nothing but curve balls the first two games he pitched, and I figured it was about time he threw me a fast one. And sure enough, just as big as life, there was a fast ball, and I was waiting for it. It was a great thrill, but it wasn't my biggest. If I hadn't hit that home run off Joey Jay of Cincinnati in the 12th inning (in the last week of the season to put the Dodgers in first place), we wouldn't even be here. That homer gave me my biggest thrill.

Twins Clubhouse

• Mele: It took another great performance by him (Koufax) to beat us. My guys played good, dammit. I told them they did a fine job, to keep their chins up, and we'll start after another one next spring. ... Our pitchers pitched well. We just didn't hit that son of a gun. Jim Kaat wasn't throwing bad, but you give those guys two runs, and you've got to stop them right there. We stopped the rally, but they already had the two runs.
  Mele, like Alston, considered Gilliam's fielding gem in the 5th inning the turning point of the game. It meant one run for sure and a chance to score another and maybe we could have got two, depending on how it caromed off the fence. It was a great play. There's no doubt about it.
• Allison on Koufax: He's a great pitcher. I just wish I could have been hitting. It would have been entirely different.
• Killebrew: He's just one heck of a pitcher. I thought when Herb Score was throwing his best, he was better. But I'm not taking anything away from Sandy because he's great.
• Mincher: I guess he's the best I ever saw. But I think we gained their respect. That's one thing.

The Series attendance totaled 364,326.

• Each Dodger took home $10,297.
• Every member of the losing team earned $6,634.

A crowd of 8-10,000 in supposedly jaded Los Angeles welcomed the Dodgers home that night.

• We want Sandy! We want Sandy! they chanted. But Koufax, who won the Series MVP award, was hustled out a side exit to avoid a mob scene.
• Another fan favorite was Lou Johnson. I touched him! I touched him! screamed one young fan after patting Johnson on the shoulder as he moved through the crowd.
• Ron Fairly exclaimed, Greatest ball club I've ever been on and the greatest ball club I ever hope to be on.