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Yankees and Dodgers Set to Face off in 60th World Series

Oct. 1, 1963 - With two of the game’s outstanding hurlers poised for a tremendous southpaw duel, baseball’s 60th World Series will open tomorrow at Yankee Stadium. A crowd of 70,000 is expected for the clash between the Yankees, perennial champions of the American League, and the Dodgers, once of Brooklyn, now of Los Angeles and again the champions of the National League. On the mound for Ralph Houk’s Yanks will be Whitey Ford (left), a 24-game winner this season and the team’s top money pitcher for more than a decade. Opposing him will be the Dodgers’ brilliant left-hander, Sandy Koufax, whose record this season of 25-5 — along with 306 strikeouts — has stamped him as the year’s outstanding pitcher. “I did have a slight cold a few days ago,” said the Brooklyn-born Sandy today, “but I feel perfect, and I’m all set. I’m all over whatever it was.” The usual pomp and circumstance will mark the opening of the Series tomorrow, with the nice touch that Stan Musial, the newly retired Cardinal great, will throw out the first ball with Joe DiMaggio at his side. Meanwhile, Elston Howard, the Yankee catcher who could become the goat if Dodger flyboys like Maury Wills and Willie and Tommy Davis bust loose on the paths, is not worried. “Our pitchers are good at holding men on,” he said today. “I threw out Aparicio five times the year he stole 59 bases for the White Sox. They can’t be much better than he is.” The Yankees have won 20 of 27 World Series, including six of seven from the Dodgers. Television of the 1963 World Series will be carried by 220 stations in the U.S. and on almost 60 stations in Canada. All games will be telecast and radio broadcast by NBC, starting at 12:45 p.m. EST for games in New York and 3:45 EST for games in Los Angeles. NBC forecasts an average daily audience of 40 million for the telecasts.

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