Joe,
Thought you might enjoy this flashback in time.
Jim Smiley-Cooperstown Expert.
https://www.facebook.com/BaseballHOF/
Just five starters? No biggie in ’66 for Dodgers
Apr 5, 2004
By Larry Stone
Seattle Times staff reporter
When the Seattle Mariners used just five starters last year, it was hailed
as a remarkable achievement.
When the Los Angeles Dodgers did the same thing in 1966 — the only other
team since 1904 to accomplish the feat — it was barely noticed.
Call it a reflection of differing expectations. The extraordinary Dodgers
rotation — which included Sandy Koufax in his last year and Don Sutton in
his rookie year, along with yet another future Hall of Famer, Don Drysdale,
and Claude Osteen, who won 196 games — was far more within the lines of
commonplace production in that era.
“I didn’t realize it was a big deal then,” said Sutton, who went 12-12 as a
Dodgers rookie in ’66. “It was my first year, and I thought, well, Koufax
and Drysdale and Osteen are going to the post; I would, too. It never dawned
on me to think it was anything noteworthy. At the time, it was something
everyone tried to do — use as few starters as possible.”
Added Sutton, with a good-natured tweak at modern-day hurlers: “If you
didn’t have a bone sticking through, you’d go pitch. We didn’t have flu-like
symptoms back then.”
Those four produced all but eight of the Dodgers’ starts, with the remaining
eight going to Joe Moeller — five of those in the second game of
doubleheaders.
“It was kind of like a 4˝-man rotation,” said Moeller, now the advance scout
for the Florida Marlins. “I pitched about once a week. Here was Koufax,
Sutton and Drysdale, now in the Hall of Fame, and Osteen, who would go on to
win 20 games a couple of times. There wasn’t a lot of room. I pitched so
little, I took classes at a junior college that summer and studied in the
bullpen.”
The Dodgers’ season had gotten off to a disquieting start, when Koufax and
Drysdale engineered a joint holdout that had Dodgers fans — and management —
in a tizzy. The duo finally settled on a contract in late March, but not
before their absence caused the Dodgers to re-think their rotation.
Both Sutton and Moeller believe the holdout facilitated their place on the
team by giving them a longer look in spring training. Sutton’s spot was
solidified when Johnny Podres, a World Series hero for the Brooklyn Dodgers
in 1955, was traded to the Tigers after pitching in one game (in relief).
“I was going to send them a telegram and tell them to keep holding out,”
Moeller said with a laugh. “It gave me a chance in spring training. I made
the club because they held out.”
“If they didn’t hold out, I’d have gone to Triple-A,” said Sutton, now a
broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves.
When Koufax and Drysdale finally reported, Sutton was a rookie surrounded by
baseball royalty.
“I like to wonder, what would have happened if I had gone anyplace else?”
Sutton mused. “I’d honestly say I don’t think I’d be in the Hall of Fame.
There couldn’t have been a more ideal situation for a young pitcher to come
into. Each of them — Sandy, Don, Claude, too, who was a wonderful, nice guy
— was generous, kind with his time. They had tremendous respect for the
game, and they led me through it.”
Not surprisingly, the Dodgers won the National League pennant in a very
tight race, despite an anemic offensive attack. But they didn’t clinch until
the second game of a season-ending doubleheader in Philadelphia, Drysdale
failing to win the opener to force them to use Koufax in the second game.
Koufax beat the Phillies’ Jim Bunning, and Drysdale opened the World Series
against Baltimore on one day’s rest. They lost, 5-2, starting the Dodgers on
the way to a shocking sweep at the hands of the Orioles, who limited the
Dodgers to just two runs in four games, the last three games shutouts.
“The team was out of gas,” said Mariners announcer Ron Fairly, an
outfielder/first baseman on the ’66 Dodgers. “Just to win the pennant
completely drained us. When we got into the World Series, we were done.
There were about eight or nine teams that could have beat us.”
After the World Series, the baseball world was rocked with the stunning news
that Koufax — just 30 years old and coming off a 27-win season, had retired.
Koufax, who had battled arthritis for years, said he was unwilling to cope
with the pain any longer.
“I had no idea whatsoever that was coming,” Moeller said. “It was not
exactly the year you retire, winning 27. He decided he wanted to go out on
top, which was very good. Sandy was probably the most humble, modest person
you could meet. He threw a no-hitter in Philadelphia and got on the bus next
to me. He talked about the bad pitches he had thrown. I would have been
running up and down the aisles.”
Said Sutton: “I know he was just tired of the anti-inflammatories and the
ice. Every night he pitched on the road, the bus was late because of the
ritual he had to go through. It was a roller-coaster for him
psychologically. You could see the stress on him after games.
“Koufax was the most dominant pitcher I ever saw, and the classiest man. He
was the Fred Astaire and Cary Grant of baseball players. Some players I
consider elegant; Al Kaline and Koufax were elegant. I was blessed to spend
a year with him.”
The Mariners, Sutton said, should be proud of their achievement,
particularly in light of the change in the pitching ethos in the ensuing 37
years.
“It’s something special,” he said. “You take the ball and do your job. I
have great respect for guys who don’t feel good and still go to the post —
and if you’re a pitcher, 50 percent of the time you’re achy and sore,
conditions are not ideal.
“I was very proud of them. They should be happy to be a part of the group
they’re in.”
God’s blessings,
Joe Moeller
L.A. Dodgers/Miami Marlins
What God knows about us is more
Important than what others think.
Tim Tebow