The Losses Were The Part That Made No Sense

Yogi Berra's best lines sound like nonsense until you check the math. This one is arithmetic, and he had the best seat in the house for it.

In 1963, Sandy Koufax went 25-5 with a 1.88 ERA. He threw 311 innings, struck out 306, and walked 58. He put up 11 shutouts, a total only a handful of pitchers have matched since and nobody has reached since 1985. He threw a no-hitter against the Giants in May. Hitters batted .189 against him for the entire season.

Then came October, and Yogi's Yankees.

Koufax opened the World Series at Yankee Stadium and struck out 15, a Series record at the time. He came back and won Game 4. The Dodgers swept in four. New York batted .171 as a team, the worst postseason average in franchise history. Koufax collected the World Series MVP to go with the National League MVP and the Cy Young he had already won that year.

So when Berra said he could not figure out the five losses, he was not being cute. He was filing the most accurate scouting report anybody ever wrote on Sandy Koufax. He was not asking how Koufax was good. He was saying the losses were the part that did not make sense.

Nine years later, the two of them walked into Cooperstown in the same induction class.