Sixty years ago today, fans witnessed the most perfect game of all time. Perfect on the mound because of Sandy Koufax and perfect in the booth because of Vin Scully.
It’s that second part that people remember just as much as the game itself.
“Whatever Vinnie did, every night it was just something special,” Koufax said. “He was so good, it was almost better listening to it than doing it.”
The recording of Scully calling the ninth inning, in which Koufax strikes out the side, has been replayed many times over the years and is widely considered the best piece of baseball broadcasting ever.
“There are so many memorable and pitch-perfect Vin Scully calls,” Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Costas said. “But if you had to pick just one to impress upon somebody his unique and surpassing talent, his feel for the game, its pace and rhythm and its history all bundled into one, you would choose that half-inning.”
Koufax and others spoke to MLB.com earlier this summer to reflect on the 60th anniversary of his historic night — Sept. 9, 1965 — and Scully’s accompanying narration.
“You start out every game to pitch a perfect game,” Koufax said, reflecting on the moment. “You’re not going to, and you know it. You just give up your goals grudgingly as you go. This one, I didn’t have to give it up.”
Like Koufax, Scully had been here before, too. Eight perfect innings were in the books, and now it was time to pursue the final three outs. Here is how the Hall of Fame announcer opened the ninth:
“Three times in his sensational career has Sandy Koufax walked out to the mound to pitch a fateful ninth where he turned in a no-hitter. But tonight, September the ninth, nineteen hundred and sixty-five, he made the toughest walk of his career, I’m sure, because through eight innings he has pitched a perfect game.”
“He has struck out 11, he has retired 24 consecutive batters and the first man he will look at is catcher Chris Krug, big right-hand hitter, flied to center, grounded to short.”
Krug stood at the plate looking for redemption. His error had allowed the game’s only run to score in the fifth inning after Lou Johnson walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and stole third. Krug’s throw sailed into left field, and Johnson trotted home easily.
“I wasn’t thinking anything about the perfect game, I was just thinking about being a hitter,” Krug said.
Koufax threw two quick strikes.
“And you can almost taste the pressure now. Koufax lifted his cap, ran his fingers through his black hair, then pulled the cap back down, fussing at the bill.”
Koufax insists the only pressure he was feeling was only about winning the game, the Dodgers having fallen a half-game behind their archrivals, the first-place Giants.
“At that time we were in a pennant race,” Koufax said. “This was September, and this was a one-run game. That was the number one thing at the time.”
Krug stayed alive by tapping a 1-2 pitch foul, and Scully took a moment to set the fielding alignment.
“The Dodgers, defensively, in this spine-tingling moment — Sandy Koufax and Jeff Torborg. The boys who will try and stop anything hit their way: Wes Parker, Dick Tracewski, Maury Wills and John Kennedy; the outfield of Lou Johnson, Willie Davis and Ron Fairly.
“And there’s twenty-nine thousand people in the ballpark, and a million butterflies.”
“Every city has their favorite broadcaster, but I think Vinnie was very special,” Koufax said. “He painted pictures.”
“Koufax into his windup, and the 1-2 pitch, fastball, fouled back out of play.
“All the boys in the bullpen straining to get a better look as they look through the wire fence in left field.
“One-and-two the count to Chris Krug. Koufax, feet together, now to his windup, and the 1-2 pitch, fastball outside, ball two.”
The crowd booed, and Scully heard them.
“A lot of people in the ballpark now are starting to see the pitches with their heart.”
Finally, Koufax put Krug away.
“Sandy reading signs, into his windup, 2-2 pitch, fastball, got him swinging!
“Sandy Koufax has struck out 12. He is two outs away from a perfect game.”
You read that right: Scully said the words “perfect game” — not once but twice — before it was over. Broadcaster jinx?
“I’m afraid I don’t believe in that,” Koufax said, laughing. “You know it [when you’re pitching a no-hitter]. The [opposing team’s] third-base coach is telling you you’ve got a no-hitter. The other team, every time you walk off the mound, they’re trying to jinx you. If you pitch a no-hitter, you’ll pitch a no-hitter — doesn’t matter what anybody says to you.”
Testing that theory next was pinch-hitter Joey Amalfitano. A big league infielder for 10 years and later a longtime Dodgers coach, Amalfitano and Koufax are old friends. He calls the left-hander every Sept. 9 to reminisce and laugh about what happened in the final moments of the game.
The first pitch from Koufax was a fastball down the middle, and Amalfitano turned to home-plate umpire Ed Vargo.
“Hey Ed, that ball sounded inside to me,” Amalfitano said, getting a laugh out of both Vargo and Torborg.
Amalfitano knew how this would end, but Scully kept building the drama.
“Sandy reading, into his windup, and the strike-one pitch, curveball, tapped foul, 0-and-2. And Amalfitano walks away and shakes himself a little bit and swings the bat. And Koufax with a new ball, takes a hitch at his belt and walks behind the mound.
“I would think that the mound at Dodger Stadium right now is the loneliest place in the world.”
“It’s pretty hard to be lonely in front of 30,000 people,” Koufax says now, with a laugh.
“Looks in to get his sign, 0-and-2 to Amalfitano. The strike-two pitch to Joe, fastball, swung on and missed, strike three!
“He is one out away from the promised land, and Harvey Kuenn is comin’ up.”
Kuenn was pinch-hitting for pitcher Bob Hendley, who had given up only one hit himself. This game still holds the record for fewest combined hits (one) in a nine-inning game.
Kuenn, a 10-time All-Star and former batting champ, sensed the inevitable. Walking to the plate, he passed Amalfitano and muttered, “Wait for me, I’ll be right back.”
From the start of the ninth inning, Scully decided to recite the time as well as the date. He explained in later years that emphasizing the exact moment in time was meant as a gift for Koufax in the future, sort of like a time capsule.
“The time on the scoreboard is 9:44. The date, September the ninth, 1965.”
Asked about the gesture, Koufax said, “All the years I talked to Vinnie, we had never talked about the recording or the game. This is the first time I heard about that. If that’s the case, I appreciate what he did. But I didn’t know anything about him doing that as a present to me. That comes as a surprise to me right now.”
“One-and-one to Harvey Kuenn. Now he’s ready. Fastball, high, ball two. You can’t blame a man for pushing just a little bit now.”
Scully focused his gaze on Koufax, expertly describing his every move.
“Sandy backs off, mops his forehead, runs his left index finger along his forehead, dries it off on his left pants leg. All the while Kuenn just waiting.
“Now Sandy looks in. Into his windup, and the 2-1 pitch to Kuenn, swung on and missed, strike two.”
And then, one pitch from perfection, the final call.
“Two-and-two to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away. Sandy into his windup, here’s the pitch … swung on and missed, a perfect game!”
The next 38 seconds of audio was nothing but crowd noise. When Scully finally took the mic again, he summed up the night as if they were lyrics to the final stanza of a classic poem.
“On the scoreboard in right field it is 9:46 p.m. in the City of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of 29,139 just sitting in to see the only pitcher in baseball history to hurl four no-hit, no-run games. He has done it four straight years, and now he capped it. On his fourth no-hitter he made it a perfect game.
And Sandy Koufax, whose name will always remind you of strikeouts, did it with a flourish. He struck out the last six consecutive batters. So when he wrote his name in capital letters in the record books, that K stands out even more than the O-U-F-A-X.”
Scully’s call of the perfect game is universally admired for both its beauty and its spontaneity.
“When you read it, it reads as if he was sweating blood and tears for hours getting it just right, but it was extemporaneous as it was happening, just off the top of his head,” said Jon Miller, the Hall of Fame broadcaster, who was listening live that night as a 13-year-old in California. “That’s what takes it into another realm past a regular broadcast and into something extraordinary, into a work of art.”
“It’s almost as if it’s poetry,” said Joe Davis, the Emmy Award-winning play-by-play man who took over for Scully on Dodgers television in 2017. “He wrote a beautiful baseball poem in real time as he covered a moment that, I can tell you, being in the big chair in some big moments, your heart gets racing.”
Scully’s artistry was so breathtaking, it has been admired by fans everywhere. And that includes the subject of his greatest work of art.
“No matter what Vinnie did, it was pretty impressive,” Koufax said. “I don’t know if there’s ever been anybody as good or even close.”
