Sunday, September 18, 2016

Common Denominator: 1963 Dodgers

"Appeared on Mister Ed, and won the World Series the same year."

That would be the 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers. Putting together the great talents of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale together, they sure put a lot of fear into the opposition. One run, game over.

Meanwhile the popular television series, Mister Ed, had taken off since going on air in 1961. Coincidentally, that was the same year Koufax really put it all together. There had been a previous unaired pilot called, "Wilbur Pope And Mister Ed" which was produced for 1958, the same year the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

But by 1963, both were in the right place at the right time. The Dodgers were going all the way. All the way to television, too. On September 29th of that season, they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, ending the regular season with 99 wins.

On that day, a few of them appeared with the horse on the episode, "Leo Durocher Meets Mister Ed," as Koufax, Johnny Roseboro, Willie Davis, Moose Skowron, Durocher and even announcer Vince Scully.





But all that aside, and despite a three-game losing streak to end the season, the 1963 Dodgers won the World Series, their second in five seasons, over the New York Yankees. Koufax won games one and four. Drysdale (Who didn't appear on Mister Ed) won game three.





The Dodgers were a formidable team back then, and somehow, I don't think they lacked any horsepower despite Mister Ed not making the team that year or any other.

Oh, and one final coincidence" Mister Ed left television in 1966, the same year Los Angeles was swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series! And Sandy Koufax would announce his retirement not long after. Both Ed and Sandy had put on quite a show since 1961, right?


References



Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

TV.com - Free Full Episodes, Clips, Show Info and TV Listings Guide. CBS Interactive. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <www.tv.com>.

Youtube. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/>

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