Sixty years later, many are likely astounded at how casually the matter of Sandy Koufax' finger malady was handled. In his autobiography, written with Ed Linn in the early months of 1966. Koufax tries to justify the situation:
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| At least as scary as the bandaged index finger--look at Koufax' adjacent finger, which still seems significantly swollen! (Picture dated 7/29/62). |
"The finger was getting no better. I was perfectly aware that after six weeks it should have cleared up; still, I had no concern that I might be in any real danger. With that finger, I had hit my first home run, pitched my first no-walk game, and pitched my first no-hitter, all in the space of seventeen days. To keep complaining seemed ridiculous."
What's not quite clear from this passage is whether Koufax brought the matter to the Dodgers' attention, with he and they mutually deciding to let things play out, or that his own close-mouthed nature drove him to underplay the situation. After their July 4, 1962 doubleheader with the Phillies, LA went on the road for an 18-game road trip, and Koufax reveals that the first time any kind of medical professional examined his finger was an osteopath during the Dodgers' series in New York (July 12-14, right after the All-Star game). Koufax again:
"My uncle, Sam Lichtenstein, visited me at the hotel while we were in New York. By then the color had become a sort of deep reddish-blue and the finger was all swollen up. He took one look at it and said, "Sandy, your finger looks like a grape. How can you pitch with that? Are you crazy?
I have another uncle in New York, who is an osteopath, and Sam insisted that we have him look at it. He diagnosed it as a loss of circulation, probably caused by a blood clot. He warned me that I had better get it treated at once.
I stayed with the club through Philadelphia and into Cincinnati."
We won't get any further ahead of our story; what's worth pondering, however, is the vast difference in terms of how this matter was handled sixty years ago. Certainly the game (just like America itself...) has blown up into a reddish-blue, big-money fishbowl in the twenty-first century; athletes are paid huge sums, and their health is closely scrutinized accordingly. The approach today is highly proactive, whereas the approach to Koufax' bizarre situation (pitching better than ever with a finger becoming grotesquely swollen and discolored) seems mind-numbingly passive.
With that, you'll not be surprised to discover that Koufax pitched in the opening game of a doubleheader vs. the Phillies at Dodger Stadium on July 4th, where he was treated to one of the most robust displays of run support that his teammates ever provided him. The Dodgers knocked out Chris Short in the bottom of the third, and then proceeded to eviscerate Cal McLish with seven more runs in the fourth, at which point they led 12-0.
All of the Dodgers' starters (except, of course, for the notoriously weak-hitting Koufax) had hits in the game: the final total was 18. Frank Howard led the way with 5 RBI. In his autobio, Koufax referred to this game in the context of a Dodger four-game sweep of the Phillies; going for the dry humor, he noted: "That's what I like--a safe and sane Fourth." He struck out ten, even with a finger that "looked like a grape." Final score: Dodgers 16, Phillies 1 (first game)
AT Candlestick Park, the Giants swept their twin-bill against the Mets by giving them the Willies--as in Willie McCovey (two homers, 7 RBI in the opener) and Willie Mays (two homers, 5 RBI in the nitecap). Mays' two circuit clouts--another phrase that has fallen into disuse over the past six decades--put him back in sole possession of the NL lead in homers, with 24...a figure that just happened to match the number on his back.
Thanks to the lusty overall hitting from his lineup, Al Dark was able to rest his often-dicey bullpen completely--Bobby Bolin and Billy O'Dell both scattered ten hits in fashioning workman-like complete game wins...the type of performances that no longer exist sixty years later. Final scores: Giants 11, Mets 4 (first game); Giants 10, Mets 3 (second game).
OVER in the American League, the second-year Los Angeles Angels found themselves in first place with all play concluded on Independence Day, a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians. An old adage suggested that the team in first on the Fourth was the team that won the pennant; that did not come true for the Angels, but they stayed in the hunt until mid-September, when the wheels fell off their wagon. The Yankees would go 53-33 for the rest of the year to hold off the hard-charging Minnesota Twins and would wind up in the World Series yet again, facing the Giants for the first time since 1951 (the last time they'd beaten the Dodgers in a playoff series).
NL STANDINGS: LAD 56-29, SFG 55-39, PIT 49-32, STL 45-36, CIN 43-35, MIL 40-41, PHI 34-46, HOU 32-46, CHC 30-54, NYM 21-57
AL STANDINGS: LAA 45-34, NYY 43-33, CLE 44-34, MIN 45-38, DET 40-38, BAL 40-40, CHW 41-42, BOS 37-43, KCA 37-45, WAS 26-51
