1965 Dodgers Win NL Flag in Replay
On September 29th, Sandy Koufax won his 25th game of the season beating the Cincinnati Reds 2-1. The victory, with San Francisco losing to the St. Louis Cardinals 8-6 in Candlestick Park, cinched the National Pennant for Los Angeles.
The Dodgers finished the month of September with a 97-62 overall record. The Giants are four games back of the Dodgers and the Reds are a distant third, nine games out. The Dodgers in the replay are two games ahead of the actual season with three games remaining.
Koufax (25-12, 2.27 era) has one more start and could match his actual season victory total of 26 wins. Don Drysdale (19-15, 2.62 era) failed in his final attempt of the season to win his 20th game. Claude Osteen (20-11, 2.95 era) has joined the 20 game winner club and Ron Perranoski has 27 saves. Overall, the team ERA is an outstanding 2.77.
Willie Davis leads the Dodger batters with a .300 average. Jim Lefebvre leads the club with 16 home runs and 75 rbi’s. The overall team batting average is a .248.
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Final Week of the 1965 National League Season
The 1965 National League pennant race is entering its last week. The Los Angeles Dodgers remain at the top of the standings with a 95-60 record. The San Francisco Giants (91-64) trail by 4 games, followed by the Cincinnati Reds (88-67) in third.
The Reds are coming into Dodgers Stadium for a critical three-game series. Sandy Koufax (24-11) lost his last two games and his ERA climbed to 2.30. Both Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen failed to reach the 20 game victory mark in their last starts.
Ron Fairly, in a rare pinch-hitting role, slammed a grand-slam homer to give the Dodgers a 8-6 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals in yesterday’s game. Ron Perranoski picked up his 26th save of the season. Willie Davis leads the club with a .306 batting average. Overall, the Dodgers continue to have a lackluster offense with a .248 batting average.
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Baseball Classics – any team, any season from 1901-2007
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1965 LA Dodgers Replay – Mid September – The Heat Is On!
Sachel Paige, Hall of Fame
The Dodgers will play the St. Louis Cardinals tonight in Busch Stadium after being blasted by the Chicago Cubs, 12-3. Chicago was powered by two three-run home runs by Ron Santo and solo homers by Billy Williams and Don Kessinger.
Sandy Koufax leads the Dodgers pitching staff with a 23-10 record and an ERA of 2.12. The entire Dodger pitching staffs has a combined ERA of 2.68. Unfortunately, the Dodger hitters have a combine batting average of .245.
Will pitching prevail and win the pennant? There is only 16 games left in the season and the Giants and Reds are breathing down the Dodgers’ neck. We will see.
www.playbaseballclassics.com
September 1965 – The Pennant Race Heats Up
Well, I’ve made to September. The Dodgers are in first place, 4.5 games ahead of the second place Giants and Reds. Nothing has really changed since my last e-mail – the overall team batting average is a poor .243 and the team ERA is an incredible 2.75. Koufax continues to dominate on the mound, but the lack of scoring has prevented him from matching his actual numbers from 1965. The same can be said for Don Drysdale. His ERA is an outstanding 2.56, but the lack of hitting has only allowed him to win fourteen games against fourteen losses.
It is really amazing to me that I am still three games ahead of the actual season record. The Dodgers have a doubleheader on September 1st in Pittsburgh. They are only 6-5 against the Pirates so far this season and are 3-8 on the current road trip. Can the Dodgers scratch and claw their way to the pennant?
Would you like to be on the top step of the dugout managing your favorite players/teams? Go to www.playbaseballclassics.com and find out how.
August – The Dog Days of Summer
“The month of August is always a difficult one for baseball players. They refer to the latter two weeks of August as “dog days” a term that refers to Sirius, know as the “dog star” that rises and sets with the sun. The star effect has not impact on the weather temperature, but the difficulty of playing major league baseball on an every day basis in an already long season, with no relief in sight of the end, shortens tempers.”
Walter O’Malley The Official Website “The 1965 Pennant Race – August”
I have reached the last two weeks of August in my 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers Replay. The Dodgers are four games ahead of their actual record, 75-47. They are currently 4.5 games ahead of the San Francisco Giants with a series being played by the Bay. You might remember the actual series back in 1965. Juan Marichal struck Dodger catcher John Roseboro with a baseball bat on August 22nd and was suspended for fifteen games.
The Walter O’Malley website made this observation of the 1965 L.A. Dodgers, “The Dodgers’ just did not have enough offense.” That is the glaring weakness of the team, LITTLE or NO OFFENSE. Sandy Koufax has an ERA of 2.44, but his record is 17-10 due to no offense. Don Drysdale’s ERA is 2.63, yet he only 13-13. Claude Osteen has become the stopper with a 17-7 record with an excellent ERA of 2.71. The pitching staff’s combined ERA is an incredible 2.74, but the team batting average is only .244. Maury Wills has stolen 86 bases, but has only scored 65 runs.
You can play any team or any season from 1901-present. Join the thousands of satisfied customers that are playing Baseball Classics. You can learn about the new e-games at www.playbaseballclassics.com.
115,300 Set A New Baseball Record
On Saturday, March 29,2008, I returned to the place were my love for baseball started, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Along with 115,299 other fans, we made baseball history by attending the largest crowd to watch a major league baseball game. I was ten years old when the previous record was made in the same location back in 1959. And, yes, I was in attendance at that game (Roy Campanella Night, May 7,1959) as well.
Though the Dodgers lost to the Red Sox, 7-4, it was an historic event. The Dodgers played a five-man infield where the centerfielder played shortstop and the shortstop was positioned on the grass directly behind second base. The left field foul pose was only 201 feet from home plate and the short left field was protected by a 62 foot screen.
Several of the original 1958 Dodgers were present and the proceeds were donated to the Dodgers charitable organization to find a cure for cancer.
The Dodgers
1965 Dodgers Replay – July
I have continued playing the 1965 Dodgers Replay through the end of July. In the replay, they are four games ahead of their actual record at this time in the season. Statistically, the Dodgers would be in first place, 4.5 games ahead of the second place Reds. Though Sandy Koufax has a solid earned run average (2.40), he (14-8) struggles to get wins due to the lack of hitting and power by the Dodger offense. The team is hitting only .244. Koufax’s strikeouts are well below his actual performance at this point in the season. The Dodger bullpen has combined for twenty-nine saves so far with an outstanding team earned run average of 2.77. Maury Wills is batting around the .250 mark and Jimmy Lefebvre (1965 NL Rookie of the Year) is hitting below the Mendoza line.
The dog days of summer have come as the Dodgers begin their drive for the league championship in St. Louis.
The season replay is being played on the Matrix edition of Baseball Classics. You can choose any team or any season from 1901-present. There are special game editions that will add to your baseball experience. For more information, please go to the Baseball Classics website, www.playbaseballclassics.com.
1959: The Year That Was
I have been asked numerous times why I replay baseball seasons. Doing research for the 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers season, I found a book by Donald Honig. In his book, 1959: The Year That Was, provided the best answer. From opening leaf of the book, he wrote:
It might almost be said that the most enchanting part of baseball lies not watching it, but in remembering it. No sport lends itself so effortlessly to memory, to conversation; no sport has so graphic an afterlife in its statistics; nor has any been photographed so thoroughly and excitingly.
Beginning with 1901, the year most historians identify as the dawn of baseball’s “modern era,” there has been nearly 90 seasons, with no two remotely alike. The mention of a certain year evokes the memory of a team, the image of a man, or the drama of a moment. For many fans, it is all so vivid that baseball has become for them a long calendar of historical events.
Every season begins the same, with everyone equal on Opening Day, stirring with optimism and anticipation. And every season ends the same way, with surprises and disappointments, among teams and individuals both. No baseball summer has ever been , or can be dull. No baseball summer has ever been forgotten, for every one has been a source of stories and numbers, many of which have become part of our nation’s folklore.
It is the purpose of this series of books to make it happen one more time.
Baseball is the American game. Long after the steroids era has passed, there will still be baseball. Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and all of the players of our past will still be playing as long as we continue to remember them. Each replay season, I take my place on the first step of the dugout and look out onto a diamond where the glory days of the past live on.
Through the replays I have developed not only an historical perspective of the game, but an appreciation for the role each player, no matter how small their contribution, has given to make baseball the game that it is and will continue to be.
The Nedsters
I’m Back
The last time I mlbloged was sometime last year and gave an update on the 20th week of the 1962 New York Mets season replay. They finished the season with a 67-93 record that would have been good for 8th place, instead of losing 120 games and coming in dead last. The replay of the 1962 World Series resulted in the San Francisco Giants beating the New York Yankees, four games to two.
I am currently replaying the 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers season and have found out that the Dodgers have great pitching, lousy hitting and NO power. Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale have outstanding ERA’s but suffer from no run support. I have just completed the All Star game in Minneapolis where the National League clobbered the American League, 8-0.
Rather than give a game-by-game beakdown of the season, I have decided to change the Mlblog to add selected articles, baseball history and, of course, the season replays. I hope someone out there in cyber space will enjoy the Mlblog and share some of their thoughts. With all that being said, here is an interesting update:
On March 29th, the Boston Red Sox will play an exhibition game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Los Angeles Colesium, their first home, as part of the 50th Anniversary of the Dodgers coming to Los Angeles. Some of my friends and I have tickets for the game and I will provide you with a report after the game.
So, grab a chair, get some peanuts and popcorn, fill out your scorecard and enjoy the view from behind the backstop.
Best regards,
Nedsters
mlblogsplayinginthpast
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