1963 World Series - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

• This is the World Series that Jack Nicholson's character R.P. McMurphy lobbies unsuccessfully to watch on television (and subsequently "announces" by imagining the action) in Miloš Forman's 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He imagines quite a different scene than what occurred, however, as he describes Bobby Richardson, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and the Yankees knocking Koufax out of the box. In reality, the Yankees never led at any time in the Series, and only once in the entire Series (and that only for a half-inning) were the Yankees and Dodgers tied at a score other than 0–0. A brief clip of Ernie Harwell's NBC Radio broadcast of Game 2 can be heard in the film.
• This was Yankees announcer Mel Allen's final World Series broadcast. Allen was suffering from severe laryngitis at the time of the Series, and while doing play-by-play in the second half of Game 4 his voice gave out completely in the bottom of the eighth inning, requiring Vin Scully to take over for the remainder of the game. Allen was fired by the Yankees the following season.
• Yankee pinch hitter Harry Bright was Koufax's record setting 15th strikeout for the final out in Game 1. Bright remarked "I've been trying to get to a World Series for 10 years and now that I finally did, 60,000 people were rooting for me to strike out."
• The MVP award was given to Koufax in New York City. He was presented with a new car. As soon as they handed Koufax the keys to his new car, a New York City police officer stepped forward and handed Koufax a ticket for parking on the sidewalk.