This post began percolating in my mind when I heard that today would be the release date of Jane Leavy’s new book, Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It. I’ll be picking up my copy today at Rainy Day Books. I’m a fan of the author and have read her four prior books.
The release date of this book coincides with the 60th anniversary of the perfect game pitched by Sandy Koufax in 1965, and the timing was no accident. In 2002, Leavy published her acclaimed biography, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, and the book was structured around a retelling of the perfect game, inning by inning (table of contents below). Alternate chapters touched on social changes over Sandy’s career (TV, civil rights), baseball’s labor movement, Koufax and the Jewish community, etc. The book is a masterpiece.
Below, more on the perfect game, a few other baseball stories from September of 1965, and a shoutout to two centenarians.
September 9, 1965 – Sandy Koufax: Los Angeles Dodgers v. Chicago Cubs at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. Below, Koufax on the mound, no outs in the top of the 9th inning. No Cub had yet reached base in the game.
When the 9th inning started, radio announcer Vin Scully, sensing that history might be in the making, told his crew to record his play-by-play. Koufax graciously cooperated by striking out the side to complete his perfect game. Scully’s call can be heard here (3 minutes).
The opposing pitcher for the Cubs was Bob Hendley who pitched the best game of his career. He gave up an unearned run in the 5th when he walked Lou Johnson who went to second on a sacrifice, stole third and scored when the catcher’s throw was wild. Hendley gave up his only hit in the 7th, a bloop double to the pesky Lou Johnson who was the only runner for either team that day.
Koufax finished the season with 26 wins and a 2.04 ERA. Next up, the World Series, and he was the obvious choice to pitch Game 1. But…
This is a well-known story, famously referenced in the movie The Big Lebowski when John Goodman described Judaism as “Three thousand years of beautiful tradition from Moses to Sandy Koufax.” For a more detailed look at what this meant to Koufax and the Jewish community, see Leavy’s book, Chapter 17 (“King of the Jews”), which ends with, “On Yom Kippur, 5726, a baseball immortal became a Jewish icon.”
In the World Series against the Twins, Don Drysdale lost Game 1 and Koufax lost Game 2. The Dodgers finally got a win in Game 3 behind Claude Osteen. Drysdale won Game 4 and Koufax Game 5, but Osteen lost Game 6. Koufax, pitching on two days’ rest, threw a three-hitter to win Game 7 and the World Series. See Scully’s interview with Koufax after the Series victory (video here).
In 1966, Koufax came back to win 27 games and his third Cy Young Award. It was his last season. He retired at the age of 30. At the time, the medical options for his deteriorating arm were limited, and he prioritized his future health over his career, saying he would like to live the rest of his years “with the complete use of my body.”
Jane Leavy Bibliography: Her five books to date:
1990 – Squeeze Play (a novel)
2002 – Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy
2010 – The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood
2018 – The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created
2025 – Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It
Leavy’s bios of Koufax, Mantle and Ruth are well known in the sports world. I want to put in a plug for Squeeze Play, a novel that is hilarious, raunchy and full of smart baseball. It portrays a female sportswriter in the early years of entering male locker rooms (as Leavy had done as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News and the Washington Post). A world that she called a mix of “chivalry and Animal House.” A major protagonist in the book sounds loosely based on Mickey Mantle who Leavy interviewed before she wrote Squeeze Play. Her bio of Mantle came out 20 year later. If you liked Dan Jenkins’ Semi-Tough or the movie Bull Durham, you would like Squeeze Play.
September 2, 1965 – Ernie Banks: Ernie Banks hit his 400th home run. He would finish his Hall of Fame career with 512 homers.
Banks began his pro career with the Kansas City Monarchs where he played in 1950, followed by two years of military service, and then a return to the Monarchs in 1953. Near the end of the 1953 season, Banks signed with the Chicago Cubs where he became the first Black player for the team. His manager during his Monarchs years was Buck O’Neil, and Banks has said, “Playing for the Kansas City Monarchs was like my school, my learning, my world. It was my whole life.” Check out this wonderful video of Buck’s influence on Ernie (3 minutes).
In 1956, Buck became a scout for the Cubs, and in 1962 became a coach, reuniting him with Ernie Banks (below).
September 8, 1965 – Campy Campaneris: The 1965 Kansas City A’s were in last place in the 10-team American League and were drawing few fans (sometimes dipping below a thousand). Owner Charlie Finley was looking for ways (stunts?) to get more fans to the games. The versatile shortstop Campy Campaneris was asked to play all nine positions in a game, something never done in the major leagues. Campy, for a “substantial” (undisclosed) sum of money, agreed and accomplished the feat before a crowd of 21,576.
The next day, the A’s drew 1,271, while out in Los Angeles at Dodgers Stadium, 29,969 fans witnessed Sandy Koufax’s perfect game.
Beatles Trivia: A year before (9/17/64), Finley brought the Beatles to Municipal Stadium. They drew 20,207 fans. Less than Campy.
September 13, 1965 – Willie Mays: The “Say Hey Kid” hit his 500th career home run. His final tally when he retired in 1973 was 660. Below, Willie facing Sandy Koufax in Candlestick Park in 1965.
September 13, 2025 – Judge Howard Sachs (100): Senior U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs turns 100 this coming Saturday. Judge Sachs was appointed to the court in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter on the recommendation of Senator Tom Eagleton. Later this month, he will retire after 46 years on the bench. In addition to his exemplary career as a lawyer and judge, Judge Sachs has a long history of commitment to equality and justice. A recent article on his career ran in the Jewish Chronicle with this photo. Judge Sachs quipped that it was a “bad hair day.”
Happy Birthday Judge!
September 18, 2025: Next week. Royals v. Mariners at the K at 1:10. I’ll be at this afternoon game with my friend Jay DeSimone. I’ve told this story before in Hot Stove, but as a reminder, Jay and I cut school together in the 8th grade to see the first A’s game in Kansas City in 1955. Seventy years ago! I switched high schools the next year, and we lost touch for 50+ years. We reconnected in 2009 and went to a Royals game in 2010. And have continued to do so every year.
Hopefully, when Jay and I are there next week, the Royals will still be in the running for the postseason. As of this morning, the Mariners have the lead among five teams fighting for the third (last) Wild Card slot. As depicted by MLB…
September 21 (All years) – Earth, Wind & Fire: It’s a 1974 song, but I can’t go past September 21 without wanting to hear “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire. Click here and you will see it starts like this…
Do you remember
The 21st night of September
Love was changin’ the minds of pretenders
While chasin’ the clouds away
September 22, 1965 – The Braves: On this date, the Braves played their last home game in Milwaukee. The franchise was in Boston from 1871 to 1952, then in Milwaukee from 1953 to 1965, and has been in Atlanta since 1966.
The Braves are the only franchise to win a World Series in three cities: Boston (1914), Milwaukee (1957) and Atlanta (1995 and 2021).
Four franchises have won in two cities. Giants (NY and San Franscisco); Dodgers (NY and LA); Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins; and Athletics (Philadelphia and Oakland, but not KC; maybe someday in Las Vegas).
September 25, 1965 – Satchel Paige: Other than the big night for Campaneris, September attendance for the last-place A’s remained low. Charlie Finley called on the legendary Satchel Paige to make his first major league appearance since 1953. Satch was 59 years old, the oldest player to ever appear in an MLB game.
And Paige delivered, on the mound and as a celebrity. Needing only 28 pitches, Satch pitched three scoreless innings with no walks and only one hit, a double by future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski (grandfather of current Royal Mike Yastrzemski). Between innings, Paige was provided with a rocking chair and nurse.
Paige drew 9,289 fans – not as much as Campy or the Beatles, but huge for the end of a wretched season for the A’s.
September 26, 2025 – Bobby Schantz (100): When the A’s moved to Kansas City in 1955, their best-known player was Bobby Schantz. The 5’6” pitcher had been MVP of the American League in 1952 (a 24-7 record). Shantz played in Kansas City in 1955 and 1956 with mixed success, and in 1957, as a Yankee, led the AL in ERA. He played until 1964, completing 16 seasons with a record of 119-99 and 48 saves,
Bobby turns 100 this month, the second oldest living MLB player. First on the list is Bill Greason who turned 101 on September 3 (played for the Birmingham Black Barons and the St. Louis Cardinals).
Happy Birthday Bobby!
September of 1965 – UMKC Law School: While Sandy, Campy and Satchel were making baseball history in September of 1965, I was starting my second year in law school at UMKC. I’m sure I was aware of what those players did, but I was in the midst of experiencing some age-old truths of law school studies: The first year, they scare you to death; the second year, they work you to death; and the third year, they bore you to death. When we sat around a “hot stove” in the student lounge, we talked about torts and contracts, not much baseball.
One of my classmates was Jim Polsinelli, and we joined the same professional fraternity. During our second year, one of our fraternity recruits from the incoming class was David Welte. After law school, we spread out to different law firms. In 1972, Jim founded a small firm on the Plaza, and David joined him there in 1975. I came in as a new partner in 1979 when the firm expanded to nine lawyers. In 1984, David became the firm’s first “managing partner” and held that position for 14 years.
As the firm grew and lawyers came and went, the firm name changed. In 2000, it became Polsinelli, Shalton and Welte. We had grown to 120 lawyers in five locations.
Below, what Jim, David and Lonnie looked like then.
A few years later, David went in-house as general counsel for the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. Other firm name changes came, including after a merger, but eventually we wised up for an ongoing name, Polsinelli, the guy who started it all.
Jim and I retired several years ago. We are proud of how the firm has excelled under the leadership of the next generation. There are now over a thousand attorneys in 24 offices nationwide. David is also retired and has moved to Phoenix. He was in town last week for a board meeting, and the “Polsinelli, Shalton and Welte” crew, now in our 80s, got together to reminisce over dinner. It was grand.
Lonnie’s Jukebox – 1965 Edition: A great year for rock ‘n’ roll. The English Invasion and Motown were going strong. The Beatles were #1 for 12 weeks (5 songs); the Supremes, 6 weeks (4 songs); and the Rolling Stones, 6 weeks (2 songs). The Byrds and Herman’s Hermits each had two songs that reached #1.
Before getting to the #1 hits, I’ll make two selections that did not reach #1 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100.
“Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. The record peaked at #2 in June, blocked out of #1 by “Help Me Rhonda” by the Beach Boys. But “Wooly Bully” was on the Hot 100 chart for 18 weeks and became Billboard’s #1 song of the year (the first time a song of the year was not #1 in a weekly Hot 100 chart). Sold over three million copies worldwide.
“Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. His first big hit peaked at #2 in September of 1965, blocked from #1 by “Help!” by the Beatles. As a songwriter, Dylan had a #1 song that year – “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds.
The following songs were all #1 hits in 1965. Warning, a lot of earworms here.
“Downtown” by Petula Clark. I of course immediately think of a future baseball stadium in Kansas City.
“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” by the Righteous Brothers.
“My Girl” by the Temptations. Oh my, the dance steps. First of four #1 songs.
“Stop! In the Name of Love” by the Supremes. One of their 12 #1 hits.
“I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” by the Four Tops.
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. First of eight #1 songs.
“I’m Henry VIII, I Am” by Herman’s Hermits.
“I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher. The link is to the song played with clips from the wonderful movie Groundhog Day.
“Hang on Sloopy” by the McCoys.
“Yesterday” by the Beatles. A solo piece by Paul McCartney backed by a string quarter rather than the other three Beatles. Reportedly the most covered song in history with over 2,200 versions.
“Turn! Turn! Turn! by the Byrds. Written by Pete Seeger, the lyrics are almost verbatim from the Book of Ecclesiastes.
And many more good ones. A banner year.
Walk-Off Photo: Years ago, Kansas City attorney Steve Fehr introduced me to the writing of Jane Leavy by gifting me a copy of her Koufax book. Steve has done this for many friends because he believes it is a special book (and it is). Steve has for decades represented MLB players and their union. In the days before the union, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale were salary holdouts after the 1965 season, a precursor to later union success (Chapter 19 in Leavy’s book).
Steve is a friend of Jane Leavy, and he organized a dinner for three lucky couples in 2018 when she was in KC to promote The Big Fella at Rainy Day Books. Leavy is at the head of the table. Clockwise from her: Steve’s wife Cynthia Wendt, Lonnie, Rita, Cheryl Dillard, Pat Titterington and Steve Fehr.
As for the new book, below are some initial reviews. Click here for Leavy’s interview last week at NPR (7-minute listen).
Below, at Camden Yards this past weekend with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
