Won Doney
August 30, 2001
This should be the game where Tug McGraw beat Sandy Koufax.

Joe
November 27, 2001
Yes, Mets beat Koufax for the first time ever! SK had been something like 20-0 against them over the years, including a no-hitter in '62. Considering that Koufax lost only 8 games in '65 and the Mets won only 50, this was a rare occurance for both sides!

DAN HEIDEL
March 14, 2003
It was a warm, humid night and the game had an electicity about it. I was with a group of guys from work and our seats were in deep left field. The only Dodger player I can specifically recall was the left-fielder Len Gabrielson who was right below our field of vision of the field. It was a classic match-up of David against Goliath with the great KOOFOO matched against the Tugger. Over the years, I have never forgotten the score of 5- 2 and I was hopeful in reading the most recent biography of Sandy Koufax that some mention of this game would have been made. Were it not for the Tugger's grave condition today, I never would have thought about doing a look-up. Tug was the man over Koufax on that great and wonderful night and he provided many other wonderful thrills in the pennant years of 1969 and 1973. He was the quintessential man playing a boys game and his enthusiasm and can do attitude "You Gotta Believe" made the players around him play better.

Michael
March 15, 2003
Yes, I was there with my Dad; it's one of those great memories. The news of Tug's condition led me to look up the game as well. It was indeed, one of the dog days of August and one of the first noteworthy Met victories. The Met were still a terrible team. Imagine, beating Sandy Koufax! Great fun. God bless my Dad, and God bless Tug.

son of the bronx
June 27, 2003
My first Met game. Dad got us mezzanine box seats a few feet away from the left field foul pole, providing us with a view of the Worlds Fair fireworks set off at 9 pm if I recall.

Yep, McGraw became the first Met to ever beat Koufax, and from 1966 at least thru 1973 [the You gotta believe year], McGraw's Topps baseball card reminded you of this fact.

But the best part of the game for this 5 year old was watching Joe Christopher and Ron Swoboda (?) hit back-to-back homers, both of which cruised right past me on the fair side of the pole.

Joel
August 9, 2003
Len Gabrielson was not on the Mets or Dodgers in the 1965 season, he was on the Giants. I was a big Koufax fan and this game made me sick. Ron Swoboda I remember making a lucky catch to save two runs. Big deal the Mets beat Sandy Koufax. As if he never lost in his life! This was his first game after the Roseboro - Marichal incident.

Lenny
September 30, 2003
Was at the game with my friend Paul and his Dad. I remember that the traffic was so bad driving out from NJ that we didn't get to our seats (upper deck, right field) until the 3rd inning.

I was/am a huge Giants fan so I loved every minute...for some reason I also remember that Don Drysdale pinch-hit for Sandy that night.

Art
January 6, 2004
I was 9 years old and sitting along the right field sideline with my dad. He kept telling me, "This is incredible, nobody beats Koufax." I read of Tug's passing today and I had to find this game. Did my childhood imagination make this up? Did it really happen? It happened. Tug beat Koufax.

Mr. Ed
September 18, 2006
Yes, this was the FIRST time ever the Mets beat Mr. Koufax. I too was there that night sitting on the first base side field level seats! My dad, mom and 3 older brothers were rooting for the Dodgers (what with them starting their baseball years with the Brooklyn Dodgers) and I was the lone Mets fan among us! Well, I was not a happy camper when I found out KouFou was pitching, but I was as honored as can be just to watch him pitch live and in person! A foul ball also landed in the box next to ours, the closest I've ever come to one, but I would have been crushed by my brothers in a fight for it. But, I got the happy ending by Tug beating perhaps the greatest pitcher of ALL time and I was there! The ride home was quiet since my brother told me to be quiet when I brought up the win!

Dave
March 28, 2013
My brother and I were there with our parents. I was 13 at the time. We were big Sandy Koufax fans. We took a bed sheet and wrote "All the way with Sandy K" on it and hung it on a railing before the game started. I remember many Dodger fans cheering when we unfolded it. We were sorry to see Sandy lose.

I'm trying to find out if the game was video recorded and if a recording of it is available, either from the Mets, the Dodgers or the TV station that broadcast the game, if in fact it was on television.

Can anyone give me an idea on how to find out if a video recording of it exists?

Larry Bernstein
April 12, 2013
I was at that game as a 14 year old. As I recall, when Koufax was pulled from the game he shrugged his shoulders and threw his mitt into the dugout. At least that's how I remember it.

Andrew
April 1, 2014
I was 13 years old, when I attended this game with my Dad and my 12 year old brother. I was very excited to see the fabulous Koufax and curious too about the new pitcher the Mets were starting that night, a kid named Tug McGraw. Tug who was 19 was making if not his first one of his first starts in the major leagues. It seemed a true David and Goliath confrontation.

We sat in the left field upper deck, right in front of a large group of sailors. It was early in the game when the Mets scored some runs against Koufax, later after Sandy had left the game, Ron Swoboda and Joe Christoper hit back to back home runs. I was thrilled to see my Mets finally breaking through against the invincible Sandy! Tug was great keeping the 1965 World Champs in check. Later that week the newspapers ran a photo of Tug M, who had done some barbering in the Marine Corps, giving a haircut to Yogi Berra, then the Mets first base coach.

My story about this game concludes with another very special memory. It was just a few days after the death of Tug McGraw in 2004 and I was returning from Florida with my wife from a visit to my mother-in-law in W.Palm Beach. After landing at LaGuardia, we went to an airport parking lot to reclaim our car when I recognized Ed Kranepool picking up his vehicle. I realized Ed was returning from Tug's funeral in Florida, and I introduced myself as a fan and of course I offered my condolences on the death of his friend and teammate. I then told Ed that I had attended the game the night that Tug had beaten Koufax and remarked what at great game that was. Ed's face and mood brightened immediately and as we shook hands he said "Yeah, that was a great game."

Canyon Rick
July 17, 2013
I saw this game as a 16-year-old with a high school friend. Pure luck that we choose a game Sandy Koufax started. As I recall, The Beatles had performed at Shea about a week earlier and you could still see some some spots where the turf hadn't recovered yet in the area behind 2nd Base. I remember thinking it looked hopeless even before the top of the 1st was completed as the Dodgers scored. I was sure the Dodgers would score more and the Mets would never catch up. But, amazingly, they tied it and then went ahead in the bottom of the first. Roy McMillan, a good fielder, but not so distinguished at the plate, got a double. I thought he'd be an easy out for Koufax. I remember the back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the 7th. Johnny Podres had come on and I remember being about excited about seeing the hero of Brooklyn's 1955 World Series win. I guess I learned something about aging athletes when Joe Christopher and Ron Swoboda hit high arcing homers that easily cleared the wall. Many were still cheering Christopher's homer when Swoboda hit a nearly identical one. For a moment, there was disbelief as back-to-back homers by the Mets against Dodger pitching seemed unimaginable.

This, along with the 1964 All-Star game, are the games I most remember.

Les
November 28, 2014
This game is the reason I became a Mets fan. My father took me to my first MLB game - my 9th birthday was the next day, and the excitement of a sold out stadium, and seeing for the first time the deep expanse of green grass of a major league park was breathtaking. When the game ended, I thought, if the Mets can beat the best pitcher in baseball, they must be a good team to root for. The rest is history.

Bernie
January 26, 2015
I was single and a "maniac" met fan. I had a bet with the bartender at my local saloon hangout. It was to be a shot of Power's Gold Irish whiskey for the winner of the bet. Well, I won and because of Tug's fantastic victory, it resulted in an unlimited amount of a Powers! I will never forget that night!

Tom
March 12, 2015
I was there too as an 8-year-old with my dad. Then a few years ago I took my son to a game on August 26th. They had a "on this date in history" and it was McGraw's victory. Great memories of my dad and new ones with my son.

Bill
May 10, 2015
Lived in Liberty, NY and five of us drove to Shea Stadium. We were seated on the third Base side a little high off the field. I never stopped talking about that game. The next day many of my friends and customers told me they had seen me on TV that evening since a camera must have been right in back of us. Four years later I moved to the Tampa Bay area and now root for the Rays!! That was a very special game.

Kevin Smith
October 4, 2015
I was there as well to see Tugger's great win; however somehow I remember it as a day game. I may be getting old, but that win was one to remember, particularly after so many spankings by the Jewish kid from Bensonhurst with the murderous fastball!

Eugene McElroy
August 5, 2019
Looking it up, I see that the Mets had a 4-game series vs the Dodgers from 8/23/65 to 8/26/65. Drysdale beat us in the first game but then the Mets (miraculously) took the next three. Al Jackson was the winner on 8/24, "Fat Jack" Fisher defeat Claude Osteen on the 25th and then the unforgettable win over Koufax on the 26th by the rookie Tug McGraw. Ex-Brooklyn Dodger World Series hero Johnny Podres came on in relief for Sandy in the 9th. A 21 year old rookie named Ron Swoboda, was batting clean-up for the Amazins. The other future Miracle Met playing that night was Ed Kranepool. I remember the games on the 25th and 26th, now 54 years ago, like they were yesterday because I was 10 at the time and was staying for a few nights at my grandmother's apartment on Grant Ave in Brooklyn. She let me stay up to watch the games. Staying up late was a big deal to this 10 year old! Nana was a big Mets fan as well!

Michael Donlon
March 31, 2020
This is one of the few individual Met games I remember. I was sitting way out in left field near the foul pole and just above the auxiliary scoreboard. These were the best seats we could get because of Koufax's immense popularity. I remember the back of Sandy's uniform was soaked because of the heat and humidity, also that when he came to bat late in the game trailing with men on base, a guy near me yelled, "Do it to yourself, Sandy!" He didn't and the Mets beat him for the first time, and behind Tug McGraw, who is not remembered as a starter. All of us Met fans went wild because of this unexpected victory. Ah, memories!

Steven Lester
July 6, 2021
My dad and I were at Shea that night in 1965 when rookie Tug McGraw went up against Sandy Koufax and became the first Met pitcher to beat him. I was only 10 years old then, but among the things I remember include my dad returning home the next morning before breakfast after his weekly run to the bakery with a copy of The Daily News where the front page headline screamed "METS KO SANDY." Among the highlights of the game, I remember a towering fly ball that left the park way over the left field wall fairly early in the game. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't Ron Swoboda the one who hit it?

Barry Burr
May 10, 2023
Did Yogi come to the on-deck circle at some point when the Mets had two outs? One aspect of the game that box scores and comments thus far haven't told. I was entering second grade, this my first live baseball game, my Dad grew up in Brighton Beach and I couldn't have imagined til being a grown adult what seeing Sandy Koufax pitch against the Mets meant to him, just that something special was going on when he took me on a school night to my Grandma's on Brighton third street to pick up tickets that his cousin had connections on, close behind the Mets dugout.

Did Yogi come to the on-deck circle? I remembered the back to back home runs, my Dad explaining that the Dodger fans standing when the Dodgers were at bat and the Mets fans standing when the Mets were at bat, and vaguely, my Dad fixated at a time when, if my distant little kid memory recalls it right, like my Dad was the little kid wanting Yogi to come to bat against Sandy Koufax.

Do any of you remember?

Two outs, maybe men on base, and Yogi coming on deck? It was more than only my Dad, people all around noticing, wanting, hoping, but then the batter made and out and I never did get to see Yogi at bat live. Can you imagine my first baseball game ever, seeing Yogi batting against Sandy Koufax, in Yogi's last at bat ever? Do any of you remember that happening? I just can't remember more than vaguely thinking that it did.

NYB Buff
May 16, 2023
Barry, I'm guessing that you were referring to the bottom of the eighth inning when you saw Yogi Berra in the on-deck circle. I cannot verify that he was there, but it is possible with catcher Chris Cannizzaro being the next batter in the Mets' lineup when the inning ended. Wes Westrum may have intended to send Berra up as a pinch-hitter for Cannizzaro and then left him in to catch in the top of the ninth. However, it didn't work out that way.

I don't mean to disappoint you here, Barry, but Sandy Koufax was removed from the game after seven innings. Yogi would've batted against reliever Johnny Podres, who was pitching for the Dodgers in the eighth.