Best pitcher in Baseball

The best player in baseball I've seen. Its haunted me for 44 years. The answer boils down to two proper names.

I better set this up. I was 12 years old and it was a fall afternoon. Oh and darn it all. If I didn't come down with some illness forcing me to stay home that day. Strange that I was coincidently sick on some of those great moments of the early sixties. And just by a stroke of incredible luck this was Wednesday October 2nd the first day of the World Series.

[You know how I did it? I hope the statute of limitations is up. This was the days of the mercury bulb thermometer. Grade six science taught me that rubbing causes friction. Only idiots say that science doesn't apply to real life. If you heat mercury it expands. If you rub the bulb between the thumb and the forefinger without mom seeing it, this is friction. And as a result, you can put that little silver line anywhere. Personally, I always liked 100.5 F.

But be conservative. Another sick day before, I was too aggressive when I wanted to watch the Shepard launch and well I put it to 104 degrees and mother came back into the room before I could knock it back down by flicking it. Phhheww I almost went to the hospital. No ma... I don't want to go to the hospital. After all there was a space flight that afternoon. What luck, my temperature dropped back down before father came home.

And my mother. A nurse always believed the instrument, lucky me. She felt my forehead and was very suspicious. "Well if you are sick you stay in bed resting mister."

"Yes mother hack hack...oh woe is me. Can I watch television from the couch? hack hack."

"Well okay, but no playing around..."

"Oh yes mother...cahha, hack, hack"}

The table was set. I was sick home. Dad was working, mom was having her afternoon nap and my little brother had to go to school. I had the whole TV to myself. Oh yeah.

The past summer was a good year. I played right field in Little League with a .400 plus batting average in my first year playing. We won the Little League title and yes... our team name was the Yankees. I was a always a fervent Yankees fan.

I know you people don't like the Yankees but this was Canada, Northern Ontario and there were only three teams to pick from,,, the Dodgers, the Cards or yes the Yankees. CBS ruled. And it was 1963.

So about one o'clock I settled down and turned on the television clicking to Channel 6. WLUC TV of CBS streaming in across Lake Superior in snowy black and white. Changing with a real knob channel changer to watch game one of the World Series when it was the real championship, no playoffs, no seeds, no steroids it was man y mano. This was the World Series.

The game was announced by the great Dizzy Dean and along with Peewee Reese. I feel Dizzy was the best game caller bar none. The reason why. Well he was a player, a great player. And he made the game fun. Carey ( I like ) Sculley, well they're great but Dean played the game well and didn't take it seriouser than other things. Its a game. Its supposed to be funner. To let you other illiterates know; Dizzy Dean and fun are spelled the same way. So this was it.

And if all that wasn't just the perfect setting for ultimate victory my team, the Yankees, the mighty Yankees. They were absolutely had the best hitting line up ever, ever to take the field. They had Mantle, Maris, Boyer, Kubek, Pepitone, Howard, Berra, Richardson, Lopez, Blanchard. There was no DH. This was punch, pure power.This was purely the best offensive lineup to ever step up to the plate.

Some can argue and will. But I seen it with my own eyes.Nothing could be better. This was it. Another pure moment that every Yankee fan seems entitled to.

Oh yes. The table is set. Now, the hang over. Nemesis in two words.

Sandy Koufax

It didn't hurt the Dodgers to have Drysdale or Podres but Koufax did that game and game four. So not fair. The score sheet did not indicate the skill that Koufax showed. He crushed the Yankees. The Yankees didn't really recover from that series even to this very day and neither did Ralph Houk. Koufax burst the bubble. Tore the paint off the walls. It was all Koufax.

Koufax showed how to pitch the Yankees. It rattled them. They didn't win another WS for another 14 years. A lot of it had to do with the George but George couldn't have bought them because the Koufax diminished their value. And he bought them for a very low price. But that was a key series of games. Sandy Koufax. The best pitcher I've ever seen to ever take the mound, and he was a Dodger. Wasted day. A waste.

(Note, I am no longer a Yankees fan. I am a Maple Leafs fan of the ICB league)


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