Sandy Koufax' commentary on his third-to-last start in 1962 before being sidelined by his finger injury, as published in his autobiography, provides us with a window into the events that transpired on Sunday, July 8, 1962, in a pivotal game between the Dodgers and Giants:
By the time I was warming up in San Francisco the finger had turned reddish and was beginning to feel sore and tender. When I pressed my finger against the ball in throwing the curve, it was as if a knife were cutting into it. If I didn't rest the finger against the ball, I had no feel on the curve ball.
Alvin Dark noticed that I kept looking down at the finger while I was warming up. Once the game began, it took him about two innings that I was throwing nothing but fast balls.
I had a good fast ball, though, and I was putting it where I wanted. I actually had a no-hitter until the seventh inning, when a ground ball caromed off the second baseman's arm. Until Bob Nieman singled to open the ninth, the official scorer was getting some very dirty looks from the Los Angeles writers.
By the ninth inning my hand had gone numb through the webbing between the thumb and the finger. With a two-ball count on Mays, I had to come out of the game. Don Drysdale came in and got the final two outs.
There are some inaccuracies/omissions in this account: Jim Davenport's questionable infield hit in the seventh was followed later in the inning by a clean single to center by Orlando Cepeda; with men on first and third, Koufax fanned Felipe Alou to end the Giants' threat.
And the Giants' rally in the bottom of the ninth, when they were down just 2-0, kept the game in great suspense until the final batter. Koufax gave up the hit to Nieman, followed by a ten-pitch duel with Harvey Kuenn that ended with a called third strike on a 3-2 count (his ninth strikeout)
Sandy then went 3-2 on Jim Davenport before walking him (his second walk), putting men on first and second and bringing Willie Mays up as the potential winning run for the Giants. It was at this point that Koufax lost feeling in his hand, throwing pitches that were noticeably out of the strike zone. Drysdale, pitching on two days rest, was brought in and was given time to warm up before continuing with Mays, but his first two pitches were wide, completing a walk that was charged to Koufax.
As it turned out, walking Mays may have been the best possible move. Drysdale induced Orlando Cepeda to pop out to catcher Johnny Roseboro in foul territory, and Felipe Alou followed by swinging at the first pitch, hitting a grounder to Maury Wills, who tossed the ball to Larry Burright for a game-ending force at second base. Final score: Dodgers 2, Giants 0.
The pitch anatomization chart (above) reminds us again of the higher pitch counts that were more prevalent in games during this time frame, and shows how much Koufax labored in the final three innings. (It's probably unnecessary to point out that we're looking at a man with an evolving but apparently still-unreported injury that's about to disable him for two months who is throwing in excess of 130 pitches, but it's the kind of thing that has sent many latter-day analysts into conniptions.)
At this point, Koufax is ready to seek medical attention, but the All-Star game intervenes: the NL decides that the Dodgers' request to have Koufax skip the game in order to see a doctor is an attempt to protect their pitching rotation; thus they deny the request. As a result, Sandy will make two more starts while clearly in a compromised health situation.
SEASON RECORD: LAD 58-31, SFG 57-31
