1965 World Series or "only losers use relievers"

'Tis true. The 1965 World Series, the first of which to be played in an expansion city, featured the winning pitcher in every game throwing a complete game.

In the kinescope era, there are a handful of pre-1965 World Series games available. Most of these consist of Yankee games. A few games from 1952 and 1955 vs Brooklyn. We discussed before the 1957 series Yankees vs Braves, in which most of Game 3, 4 and 7 are available with snippets of Game 6 as well.

However, 1965 marks the first World Series in which we know that the entire series is available via kinescope recordings. In fact, after 1965, 1968 is the next oldest complete series available. We will discuss that another time.

Today, I wanted to just quickly put up some information about the 1965 Series. MLB Network later this month will be broadcasting Game 7 from that series in it's entirety. That is the game that I too, have in my collection. When they show it, I'll post comparison shots to see what my seemingly 5th generation transfer looks like stacked up against what they have in their archives.


Anyways, the 1965 Series is the series in which the fabled story of Koufax refusing to pitch because of a Jewish holiday stems from. For Los Angeles, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as even though Drysdale was roughed up and Koufax got no run support in Games 1 and 2, it allowed Koufax to come back in Game 7 with Drysdale available in relief. Outside of Bob Gibson, there was no other elite World Series pitcher better than Koufax.


The game was broadcast on NBC, like every other World Series of the era. Ray Scott and Vin Scully did the broadcasting and Gillette did the sponsoring.


This series featured various camera angles. We were treated to the behind homeplate, behind the pitcher from CF, the pressbox angle and two baseline cameras that provided close up shots of the pitchers and hitters between pitches. NBC also rolled out replay, not just instant but also canned shots from earlier plays in the series.


All screenshots are from Game 7.

Games like these, featuring a popular franchise like the Dodgers should be released officially on DVD. The entire series is available in collector's circles. I have to imagine MLB has them as well. I know they have an aversion to releasing B&W broadcasts as it appears they believe fans have the attention span of a gnat but it's a crime that the general public can't see Drysdale and Koufax pitching in all their glory.

For Twins fans, it must be a blessing to have every World Series game the franchise in Minnesota played recorded for posterity. Of course, as a bitter Cardinals fan, that's not necessarily a good thing.