1965 Los Angeles Dodgers

1965 Los Angeles Dodgers / Franchise: Los Angeles Dodgers / BR Team Page

Record: 97-65, Finished 1st in National League (1965 NL)

Clinched Pennant: October 2, 1965, vs. Milwaukee Braves

World Series Champs

Managed by Walter Alston

Coaches: Jim Gilliam, Preston Gomez, Danny Ozark and Lefty Phillips

Ballpark: Dodger Stadium

History, Comments, Contributions

Don Drysdale was a key player on the 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers. He not only went 23-12 as a pitcher, but hit .300 with a .508 slugging percentage. He was the only player on the team who hit .300 and the only player who slugged over .400. He appeared in 14 games as a pinch-hitter and his 7 homers also placed him among the team leaders. This would seem to point out to a hopeless squad with no hitting to speak of, but in fact the Dodgers won the National League pennant and were World Series champions.

Sandy Koufax went 26-8 while Ron Perranoski had 17 saves. Bob Miller had 9 saves. However, apart from Koufax and Drysdale, no pitcher was more than one game above .500! The number three and four starters Claude Osteen and Johnny Podres finished at 15-15 and 7-6 respectively. Not until the 1987 Minnesota Twins would a World Series-winning team rely so much on two starting pitchers.

Among the position players, Maury Wills and Jim Gilliam hit over .280 and Wills stole 94 bases. Lou Johnson and Jim Lefebvre hit 12 home runs each, making them the top sluggers on a team that was seen at the time as offensively weak, although it was the start of the second dead-ball era and the Dodgers were playing in an extreme pitchers' park. Lefebvre was the NL Rookie of the Year, beating out another second baseman, future Hall of Famer Joe Morgan.

The Dodgers defeated the Minnesota Twins in the World Series, with Koufax pitching a shutout in the seventh game. Ron Fairly and Lou Johnson were the top hitters in the Series.

Awards and Honors

• All-Stars: Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax and Maury Wills
• Cy Young Award: Sandy Koufax
• NL Rookie of the Year Award: Jim Lefebvre

World Series

NL Los Angeles Dodgers (4) vs. AL Minnesota Twins (3)

Game	Score	Date	Location	Attendance	Time of Game
1	Dodgers – 2, Twins – 8	October 6	Metropolitan Stadium	47,797	2:29
2	Dodgers – 1, Twins – 5	October 7	Metropolitan Stadium	48,700	2:13
3	Twins – 0, Dodgers – 4	October 9	Dodger Stadium	55,934	2:06
4	Twins – 2, Dodgers – 7	October 10	Dodger Stadium	55,920	2:15
5	Twins – 0, Dodgers – 7	October 11	Dodger Stadium	55,801	2:34
6	Dodgers – 1, Twins – 5	October 13	Metropolitan Stadium	49,578	2:16
7	Dodgers – 2, Twins – 0	October 14	Metropolitan Stadium	50,596	2:27

Further Reading

• 2002 Los Angeles Dodgers Media Guide, pg. 370
• Brian M. Endsley: Koufax Throws a Curve: The Los Angeles Dodgers at the End of an Era, 1964–1966, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2018. ISBN 978-1-4766-6942-7
• Greg Erion: "The 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers", in Gregory H. Wolf, ed.: A Pennant for the Twin Cities: the 1965 Minnesota Twins, SABR, Phoenix, AZ, 2015, pp. 359-362. ISBN 978-1-943816-09-5
• Ken LaZebnik: Buzzie and the Bull: A GM, a Clubhouse Favorite, and the Dodgers’ 1965 Championship Season, University of Nebraska Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1-4962-1317-4
• John Rosengren: The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption, The Lyons press, Guildford, CT, 2014. ISBN 978-0762787128

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