1963 World Series
The Dodgers celebrate the sweep of the Yankees after the final pitch of the World Series
Team (Wins) Managers Season Los Angeles Dodgers (4) Walter Alston 99–63, .611, GA: 6 New York Yankees (0) Ralph Houk 104–57, .646, GA:10+1⁄2
Dates	October 2–6
Venue(s)	Yankee Stadium (New York) Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles)
MVP	Sandy Koufax (Los Angeles)
Umpires	Joe Paparella (AL),Tom Gorman (NL),Larry Napp (AL),Shag Crawford (NL),Johnny Rice (AL: outfield only),Tony Venzon (NL: outfield only)
Hall of Famers	Dodgers: Walt Alston (manager) Leo Durocher (coach) Don Drysdale Sandy Koufax Yankees: Yogi Berra Whitey Ford Mickey Mantle
Broadcast
Television	NBC
TV announcers	Mel Allen andVin Scully
Radio	NBC
Radio announcers	Ernie Harwell andJoe Garagiola
← 1962 World Series 1964 →

The1963 World Series was thechampionship series ofMajor League Baseball's (MLB)1963 season. The 60th edition of the World Series, it was abest-of-seven playoff that matched theAmerican League (AL) champion and two-time defending World Series championNew York Yankees against theNational League (NL) championLos Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers swept the Series in four games to secure their second World’s championship in five years, and their third in franchise history. Dodgers starting pitchersSandy Koufax,Don Drysdale, andJohnny Podres, and ace relieverRon Perranoski combined to give up only four runs in four games. The dominance of the Dodgers pitchers was so complete that at no point in any of the four games did the Yankees have the lead. New York was held to a .171 teambatting average, the lowest ever for the Yankees in the postseason. Koufax, who pitched 2 complete games with a 1.50 ERA and 23 strikeouts, was named theWorld Series Most Valuable Player. Koufax was the first player since the introduction of the award in the1955 Series to be named league MVP and World Series MVP in the same calendar year. Coincidentally, the 1955 World Series was also won by the Dodgers.

This was the first time in their history that the Yankees were swept in a World Series in four straight games — the1922 World Series had one tie.

Of the Dodgers' nine World championships to date, this remains the only one clinched in their home ballpark (although their2020 title was won as the designated "home team" as part of that year's neutral-site World Series inArlington,Texas).

This series was also the first meeting between teams fromNew York City andLos Angeles for amajor professional sports championship.^[1][2] Eight more such meetings have followed with four more times each in the World Series, three in theNBA Finals, and the2014 Stanley Cup Finals.^[2]

Despite injuries that limitedMickey Mantle to just 65 games, the Yankees went 104–57 to win their fourth straight American League pennant—this one by10+1⁄2 games. CatcherElston Howard (.287 BA, 28 HRs, 85 RBI) won the MVP Award, whileJoe Pepitone,Roger Maris, andTom Tresh also topped the 20 home run mark. Their pitching was anchored byWhitey Ford (24 wins, 2.74 ERA) andJim Bouton (21 wins, 2.53 ERA).

The Dodgers' road to the World Series was much more challenging. After blowing a four-game lead with seven to play in 1962, the Dodgers again built a lead in 1963. On August 21, the Dodgers beat the Cardinals 2–1 in 16 innings to take a7+1⁄2 game lead. When they went to St. Louis for a three-game series on September 16, their lead was one game over the Cardinals, who had won 19 of 20 games. Sports fans around the country were saying how the Dodgers were going to blow it again.^{[citation needed]} But the Dodgers swept the three games from the Cardinals to move four games ahead with nine to play; a 4–1 win over the Mets clinched the pennant in the season's 158th game.

NLLos Angeles Dodgers (4) vs. ALNew York Yankees (0)

Sandy Koufax started it off with a record 15-strikeout performance in Game 1 to outduel the Yankees' ace left-handerWhitey Ford. The 15 strikeouts bested fellow Dodgers pitcherCarl Erskine's mark in1953 by one, and would be surpassed byBob Gibson in1968 with 17. Koufax also tied a World Series record when he fanned the first five Yankees he faced.

Clete Boyer was the only Yankees regular not to strike out.Mickey Mantle,Tom Tresh andTony Kubek each struck out twice, andBobby Richardson struck out three times—his only three-strikeout game in 1448 regular season or World Series games. Koufax also struck out three pinch-hitters, includingHarry Bright to end the game.

Ford set the Dodgers down in order in the first inning, but got into trouble in the second inning. With one out, right fielderFrank Howard doubled into left center field. A single by first basemanBill Skowron plated Howard to give the Dodgers a 1–0 lead. Second basemanDick Tracewski's single preceded a three-run home run by catcherJohn Roseboro to give the Dodgers a 4–0 lead.

The Dodgers upped the lead to 5-0 when Skowron singled homeWillie Davis with two outs in the third inning against Ford, who went just five innings.

The Yankees scored twice in the eighth inning whenTony Kubek singled with one out andTom Tresh homered with two outs to cut the lead to 5–2.^[7]

Willie Davis doubled in two runs in the first inning (afterMaury Wills and Jim Gilliam singled), former YankeeBill Skowron homered in the fourth, andTommy Davis had two triples, including an RBI triple in the eighth after a second Davis double, to lead the Dodger offense. Yankee starterAl Downing, who would take the loss, went only five innings and charged with three runs.Ralph Terry, in relief, allowed Davis's RBI triple. Dodger managerWalt Alston went with #3 starterJohnny Podres over #2 starterDon Drysdale because he was left-handed and Yankee Stadium was favorable to left-handed pitchers. Podres delivered a six-hitter through8+1⁄3 innings; ace relieverRon Perranoski, also a left-hander, got the last two outs and the save when Podres ran into trouble and allowed a run, and the Dodgers headed home with 2–0 Series lead. Yankees right fielderRoger Maris left the game in the third after hurting his left arm running into the right field foul wall while chasing down Tommy Davis's first triple and would miss the final two games of the series.

Don Drysdale pitched a masterful three-hitter atDodger Stadium in his complete-game win. ManagerWalter Alston called Drysdale's performance "one of the greatest pitched games I ever saw."Jim Bouton, making his first World Series start, dueled Drysdale throughout, permitting only four hits in seven innings for a losing cause. The lone run of the game came in the bottom of the first on aJim Gilliam walk, a wild pitch and a two-out single by Tommy Davis. Gilliam almost scored again in the eighth offHal Reniff, but was caught in an attempt to steal third. The final out came onJoe Pepitone's drive that backed Dodger right fielderRon Fairly up against the bullpen gate to make the catch of a ball that would have been a home run inYankee Stadium.Tony Kubek had two of the Yankees' three hits, but none of the hits were extra-base hits.

Aces were on the mound again in a game 1 rematch betweenWhitey Ford andSandy Koufax. This time, it was a pitcher's duel. The Dodgers scored first in the bottom of the fifth on a monumentalFrank Howard home run into the second (Loge) level atDodger Stadium. The Yankees tied it on a Mickey Mantle home run in the top of the seventh. But in the bottom of the inning, Gilliam hit a high hopper to Yankee third basemanClete Boyer; Boyer leaped to make the grab, and fired an accurate throw to first base. But first basemanJoe Pepitone lost Boyer's peg in the white-shirted crowd background; the ball struck Pepitone in the arm and rolled down the right field line, allowing Gilliam to scamper all the way to third base. He then scored a moment later on Willie Davis' sacrifice fly. Sandy Koufax went on to hold the Yankees for the final two innings for a 2–1 victory and the Dodgers' third world championship. To date, this is the only time the Dodgers have won the deciding game of a World Series at home. (The Dodgers won the2020 World Series in Game 6 while they were designated as the home team, but the game was played at a neutral site, Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic.)

TheWorld Series Most Valuable Player Award went toSandy Koufax, who started two of the four games and had two complete game victories. He struck out 23 batters and only surrendered three earned runs, recording an ERA of 1.50. When the award was given to Koufax at a luncheon in New York City, he was presented with a new car—while the luncheon was taking place, a New York City police officer put a parking violation ticket on the car's windshield.^[8]

1963 World Series(4–0):Los Angeles Dodgers (N.L.) overNew York Yankees (A.L.)

The Yankees' four runs in the series was, at the time, the second-lowest total in a World Series, as thePhiladelphia Athletics had scored only three runs in1905. TheLos Angeles Dodgers would set a new low in1966, two runs.

The Yankees returned to the World Seriesthe next year, but lost to theSt. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

The Dodgers returned to the World Seriestwo years later, and defeated theMinnesota Twins in seven games after trailing two-games-to-none in the series.

• In the 1986 novelReplay byKen Grimwood, the protagonist bets his life savings on a Dodgers sweep, knowing they will win. His winnings total more than $12 million, at the apparent odds of 100–1, with Grimwood referring to it as "one of the great upsets in baseball history".
• This is the World Series thatJack Nicholson's characterR.P. McMurphy lobbies unsuccessfully to watch on television (and subsequently "announces" by imagining the action) inMiloš Forman's 1975 filmOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He imagines quite a different scene than what occurred, however, as he describes Richardson, Tresh, and Mantle knocking Koufax out of the box. In reality, the Yankees never led at any time in the Series, and only once in the entire Series (and that only for a half-inning) were the Yankees and Dodgers tied at a score other than 0–0. A brief clip ofErnie Harwell's NBC Radio broadcast of Game 2 can be heard in the film.
• On March 21, 1964,The Joey Bishop Show had lead character Joey Barnes host members of the 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers on his variety show.Don Drysdale sang "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," Joey had fun with 6'7"Frank Howard, and all the Dodgers sang a parody of "High Hopes" in which they celebrated their victory over the Yankees. The lyrics to this parody were written bySammy Cahn, who also wrote the original lyrics.^[10][11]
• In the documentaryMr. Pearson, filmed byD.A. Pennebaker, Canadian Prime MinisterLester B. Pearson is shown distracted at a meeting in his office while watching Game 2 on television.^[12]

• This was longtime Yankees announcerMel Allen's 22nd and final World Series broadcast. Allen was suffering from an attack of severelaryngitis at the time of the Series, and while doing play-by-play forNBC television during Game 4 his voice gave out completely in the bottom of the eighth inning, requiringVin Scully to take over for the remainder of the game. (The following year—Allen's last with the Yankees—he would be passed over for the Series assignment in favor of boothmatePhil Rizzuto.)
• Game 4 was the highest-rated sports broadcast of 1963, perNielsen ratings.^[13] Of all televised World Series games, its 39.5 rating (percentage of all U.S. television-equipped households that watched the game) has only been surpassed by Game 7 in1975 (39.6) and Game 6 in1980 (40.0).^[14]

• 1963 Japan Series
• List of World Series sweeps

• Cohen, Richard M.; Neft, David S. (1990).The World Series: Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903–1989. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 298–301.ISBN 0-312-03960-3.
• Reichler, Joseph (1982).The Baseball Encyclopedia (5th ed.). Macmillan Publishing. p. 2171.ISBN 0-02-579010-2.
• Forman, Sean L."1963 World Series".Baseball-Reference.com – Major League Statistics and Information.Archived from the original on November 30, 2007. RetrievedDecember 9, 2007.

• 1963 World Series atWorldSeries.com viaMLB.com
• 1963 World Series atBaseball Almanac
• 1963 World Series atBaseball-Reference.com
• The 1963 Post-Season Games (box scores and play-by-play) atRetrosheet
• History of the World Series - 1963 atThe Sporting News. Archived fromthe original in May 2006.

• World Series
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