The move to Los Angeles marked a bittersweet time for Koufax and the Dodgers. Koufax's best game to that point was the first one he had pitched at old Ebbets Field, and now he was part of a team undergoing a gradual youth movement and a changing of the guard. The Boys of Summer -- Robinson and Reese, Newcombe and Erskine -- had become the men of winter, and were giving way to Gilliam and Wills, Koufax and Drysdale.

Infielder Randy Jackson was acquired from the Cubs to replace Jackie Robinson at third, and he could see right away when he joined the Dodgers that Koufax, despite not pitching much, had potential.

Koufax wasn't always so sure. His three years in Brooklyn had seen him start 28 games but go the distance only four times. The Dodgers' move west to L.A. in '58 did little to improve his situation. He went 11-11 in '58 with a 4.47 ERA and improved only slightly the next season by going 8-6 with a 4.06 ERA. The '59 season was a roller-coaster ride for Koufax. In one relief appearance in April, he surrendered four hits, four walks, and five runs in two-thirds of an inning. During one 11-inning stretch, Koufax gave up 15 runs on 19 hits and 17 walks to run up an ERA of 12.27.

He struggled to find his rhythm on the mound, and Dodger pitching coach Joe Becker could see his frustration. "He has no coordination," Becker told confidants, "and he has lost all his confidence. His arm is sound, but mechanically, he is all fouled up."

When writer Roger Kahn asked veteran Dodger pitcher Joe Black about Koufax's problems, Black pointed to his temple. "Up here," he told Kahn. "The problem has to be up here."

Privately, Koufax felt the Dodgers were ready to give up on him, and his only thought was that if he was put on waivers, whoever claimed him would keep him in the big leagues and not send him to the minors.

Alston, however, refused to quit on Koufax. The skipper's attitude towards his young lefty had changed since '56, and despite Koufax's control problems, Alston gave him three straight starts in mid-June.

"You can't give up on him," Alston told reporters, and Koufax responded to the vote of confidence with a career-first three complete games. Included in that was a 16-strikeout performance against the Phillies, at that point a record for a night game.

Koufax's performance earned him an August 31 start in a crucial three-game series against the rival Giants. San Francisco entered the L.A. Coliseum with a two-game lead over the Dodgers, and maintained that slight edge by splitting the first two games.

Alston started Koufax in the third and final game of the series on a Monday night, and 82,794 fans packed the Coliseum, the largest crowd of the year. Koufax struck out the first two hitters he faced, then gave up back-to-back doubles to Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda as the Giants took a 1-0 lead. Of the first 10 outs he recorded, Koufax had just three strikeouts. In the fourth inning his fastball began exploding on the hitters, and as the game wore on, his curveball was exploding as well. By the ninth inning, Koufax had 15 strikeouts, two short of Dizzy Dean's National League record and three shy of Bob Feller's major league record.

Koufax set the side down on just 10 pitches. He started Eddie Bressoud off with a curveball for a called strike, got Bressoud to foul off a fastball, then fanned him with another fastball. Danny O'Connell looked at a fastball for a strike, swung and missed on the curve, and was called out looking at another fastball.

Realizing Koufax had just tied Dean's league record of 17 strikeouts in a game, the crowd cheered on every pitch as he faced Jack Sanford. Throwing nothing but fastballs, Koufax struck Sanford out swinging on four pitches.

The Dodgers won the pennant in '59 by defeating defending league champion Milwaukee two games to none in a best-of-three playoff series. Koufax pitched in relief in the second game, but worked just two-thirds of an inning after retiring the first two batters and then walking the bases full.

In the World Series, the Dodgers faced one of history's most colorful teams, the "Go-Go" White Sox and their high-octane offense of Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, Jim Landis, and Ted Kluszewski.

Koufax was still so little known that Series announcer Mel Allen referred to him as "Koo-fax" when he entered Game One in the fifth inning of a White Sox romp: "He had an 8-6 record in the regular season and of course, turned in a magnificent performance this year when he struck out 18 men to tie Bob Feller's record. He's got a good curve but his control is sometimes erratic."

Koufax was anything but erratic in his first Series appearance. He pitched two perfect innings of relief in the Series opener, and then was named the Game Five starter in L.A. Owning a 3-1 Series lead, Koufax was in position to pitch the Dodgers to a world championship. A standing-room-only crowd of 92,706 packed the Coliseum on October 6, and Koufax pitched well, allowing just one run, an RBI groundout from Sherm Lollar that scored Jim Landis in the fourth. Duke Snider pinch-hit for Koufax in the seventh in a game L.A. eventually lost, 1-0. The Dodgers wrapped up the Series two days later with a 3-0 win, and Koufax finished with nine innings pitched over two games, seven strikeouts, five walks, and a 1.00 ERA.

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