The call from the Hall
Neil Leifer photo
A year after the voting writers pick no one for the Hall of Fame, they find themselves 52 years ago today electing a trio for enshrinement with pitchers Sandy Koufax and Early Wynn, and catcher Yogi Berra.
The incomparable Koufax receives 344 of a possible 396 votes from the writers to become only the fifth former player inducted in his first year on the ballot after the inaugural Class of 1936 that features Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.
Early Wynn
The four first-ballot selections prior to Koufax are Bob Feller and Jackie Robinson in 1962; Ted Williams (1966) and Stan Musial (1969).
In his first time on the ballot, Koufax receives 86.9 percent of the vote, well over the 75 percent candidates need for induction.
At only 36 years old, Koufax also is — and remains — the youngest inductee in history.
Conversely, the 52-year-old Wynn receives 301 votes, reaching the minimum 75 percent he needs by only four votes in his fourth year on the ballot.
After coming the closest of anyone in 1971 with 67.2 percent of the vote in his first year on the ballot, the 46-year-old Berra receives 339 votes – 85.6 percent – to join Koufax and Wynn 52 years ago today.
“Mine was a career that began ingloriously,” Koufax says during his induction speech in August 1972.
“I thought after my first six years in baseball, it was going to be, ‘Go out and look for another job.’ ”
Koufax spends most of the first half of his 12-year career trying to throw strikes.
Once Koufax figures out home plate doesn’t move and that, yes, he indeed can throw strikes, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ left-hander becomes the game's most dominant pitcher.
Koufax wins 111 of 145 decisions with four no-hitters from 1962 through 1966, while leading the National League in earned-run average and strikeouts over those five seasons.
Alas, he is not done in by the hitters, but rather by an arthritic left elbow that forces him to retire after the 1966 World Series.
Yogi Berra
Koufax is equally as splendid in the postseason, posting a 0.95 earned-run average over 57 innings in eight World Series appearances.
Eighteen of those innings come in a pair of victories over Berra’s Yankees in the Dodgers’ four-game sweep of New York in the 1963 Series.
Those two victories cap a 1963 season in regular season in which Koufax goes 25-5 while leading all of the major leagues with a 1.88 ERA, 306 strikeouts in 311 innings and 11 shutouts.
He also wins the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1963, as well as the Cy Young Award back when that award goes to one pitcher in the majors rather than to one pitcher in each league.
“I can see how he won 25 games,” Berra says of Koufax’s 1963 season. “What I don’t understand is how he lost five.”