Just four years after moving from the nation’s capital to the Twin Cities, the Minnesota Twins made their first World Series appearance in club history. They took a very good Los Angeles Dodgers team to seven games before ultimately falling in that decisive game to a pretty great starting pitcher.
You may have heard of him: Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.
The series also spawned some pretty cool other things. Here’s what the official souvenir program looked like:
And beyond that, you might recognize the voice broadcasting the games. That’s right, it’s legendary Dodgers play-by-play man Vin Scully, who just retired at the end of last season after spending 67 glorious seasons calling games for the team.
He may be verging on 90 years old right now (89 last November), but he was a spry 38-year-old scamp when he called the Game 7 duel between Jim Kaat and Koufax on Oct. 14, 1965.
There was no shortage of great moments in the ’65 World Series. Bob Allison made an incredible catch in the top of the fifth of Game 2 off the bat of Jim Lefebvre, the father of future Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball standout Ryan, who also spent time with the Twins as a broadcaster before his current role with the Royals. The play preserved a 0-0 tie at the time — this was the first of three duels between Koufax and Kaat in the series — and kept Ron Fairly anchored at first.
Kaat won the first battle between the two lefties at Metropolitan Stadium, with Koufax returning the favor at Chavez Ravine in Game 5 to set up the showdown at the Met in Game 7.
The last game wasn’t much of a duel, as Koufax played Aaron Burr to Kaat’s Alexander Hamilton. Kaat hit the showers after just three-plus innings, while Koufax barely broke a sweat in a complete-game shutout.
So sit back, and enjoy Game 7 of the 1965 World Series, presented by BigTMLB on YouTube. This game was played in a crisp two hours, 27 minutes.
They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz8d5MBvUyw&t=554s
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