sixty years since sandy's debut

60 years ago today, sandy koufax made his big league debut.  now here's his 2015 topps museum collection sepia parallel

koufax was 19 years old when he relieved jim hughes (who had been pinch-hit for by johnny podres) in a game against the braves on june 24, 1955.  he went two innings, allowing a hit and a walk but no runs.  in fact, the first three batters koufax faced in the majors reached base - the first batter, johnny logan, singled.  the next, eddie mathews reached on an error charged to koufax, and the third, hank aaron walked.

so, koufax loaded the bases with nobody out and walter alston may have been questioning his decision to keep koufax on the roster over tommy lasorda (or not), but sandy struck out bobby thomson and then induced a 6-4-3 double play from joe adcock to end the inning.  the following innning was a 1-2-3 affair with koufax striking out his second victim, lew burdette, to end the frame and his debut.

koufax went on to pitch in 11 more games during the 1955 regular season, making five starts, two of which resulted in shutouts (one was a 2-hitter), but he did not pitch in the world series that year.