The Los Angeles Dodgers will salute the 50th anniversary of their 1965 World Series championship at their Old-Timers Game today at Dodger Stadium.
Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax and 10 of his teammates from the 1965 team — Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Wally Moon, Ron Perranoski, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Ron Fairly, Jim Lefebvre, Al Ferrara and Lou Johnson — will participate in the Old-Timers festivities and in the ceremonial first pitch before the Dodger-Colorado Rockies game, which follows the Old-Timers Game.
The 1965 Dodgers combined the stalwart pitching of Koufax and fellow Hall of Famer Don Drysdale with the speed of Wills and Willie Davis to finish two games ahead of the San Francisco Giants to win the National League pennant, then defeated the Minnesota Twins in seven games in the World Series.
Koufax was the unanimous choice for the Cy Young Award after striking out a then-major league record 382 batters and leading the league with 26 victories, a .765 winning percentage and 2.04 ERA. Drysdale was 23-12.
Wills hit a team-leading .286 and stole 94 bases, then the third-highest 20th century single-season total.
The Dodgers were involved in two long-remembered incidents that season.
The first came when Giants Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal hit Dodger catcher John Roseboro on the head with a bat, after Marichal claimed Roseboro threw the ball too close to his ear when he was tossing it back to Koufax.
The second came when Koufax declined to pitch the first game of the World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.
With Drysdale pitching the World Series opener in place of Koufax, the Dodgers lost, 8-2. Koufax started Game 2, but the Dodgers lost, 5-1, and trailed in the best-of-seven series, 2-0.
The Dodgers won all three games at Dodger Stadium, but Minnesota was a 5- 1 winner in Game 6, tying the series, 3-3.
Koufax, pitching with just two days rest, pitched a three-hitter, and Johnson, who had been recalled from the minor leagues earlier in the season to replace the injured Tommy Davis, broke a scoreless tie with a home run in a 2-0 victory, giving the Dodgers their third World Series championship in their first eight seasons in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers will also acknowledge members of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodger team that won the organization’s first World Series championship — Koufax, Tommy Lasorda, Don Newcombe, Ed Roebuck and Roger Craig.
All four members of the Dodgers’ record-setting infield of the 1970s and early 1980s — first baseman Steve Garvey, second baseman Davey Lopes, shortstop Bill Russell and third baseman Ron Cey — are scheduled to play in the Old-Timers Game.
Other players include Cy Young Award winners Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershisher and rookies of the year Steve Sax, Eric Karros and Nomar Garciaparra.
Introductions for the Old-Timers Game will begin at 4 p.m. Auto gates and stadium gates will open at 3:30 p.m. The first pitch for the Dodgers- Rockies game is set for 6:10 p.m. The first 40,000 fans in attendance will receive a replica 1965 World Series ring.
