Baseballville

Sandy Koufax had quite a day in Chicago on this the 16th day of May. After getting roughed up in his first start of the season, allowing 5 earned runs in three innings of work, Sandy was relegated to the bull pen. He had 5 stints out of the pen that covered 9 and a third innings, striking out 14 and walking only one batter. In those five games he won one and saved another. His recent success earned him a start against the Cubs and he made good on that too. He beat the Cubs 3-1, limiting them to only 5 hits, one was an Ernie Banks homerun (5th of the season for Ernie). While going the route, Sandy struckout 11 and walked only 2 batters. So the numbers in his last six outings are pretty impresive. One earned run in 18 and one third innings; 11 hits allowed; three walks and 25 strikeouts. Might be that Sandy is finally starting to live up to all the hype he was getting as a '55 bonus baby.
There was a promotion after the game that was going to time Koufax's fastball. They had a motorcycle dare-devil called Evil Kanevil speeding on his cycle coming from the centerfield warning track. He was to get his cycle going as fast as he could barrelling toward a target just to the left of home plate. Koufax was to time his delivery to home plate at the same time the motor bike was even with him. All of this action was put on the new Bell and Howell slow motion camera. What the camera picked up was Koufax delivering the ball about two feet behind the bike and his ball beat the bike to home plate by a little more then a foot. Kanevil had the bike at 95 mph when he reached the the line that was drawn just to the left of the pitcher's mound. He bailed out before he hit home with the bike going 97 mph. The bike collided with the Wrigley Field back stop and the only fatality was an ice cold Old Style beer that was knocked from a spectator's hand at impacked. Estimates say that the Koufax pitch was around 108mph. This mark is still 4 miles per hour slower then Steve Dalkowski's reported 112 mph time pitch at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.
Another hi-lite of the day was George Crowe hitting his 7th homerun in his last 16 at bats. That gives Crowe 12 homeruns on the season.