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- The Dodgers won the pennant with a pitching staff that strung together an earned-run average of 2.85 which tied the 1963 club for the lowest ERA in the National League since the war-time Cardinals staff. The team finished with a batting average of .251, and go into the World Series against Minnesota's big boppers with only one .300 hitter - pitcher Don Drysdale - their No. 1 righthanded pitch-hitter. But the team plugged along, using an ad-lib offense led by Maury Wills, and while it wasn't the most productive team in the league, it was the most exciting.
- Sandy Koufax has been rated the odds-on bet to become the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award twice. Koufax also set a modern era strikeout record with his 369 strikeouts, breaking Rube Waddell's mark of 349 set in 1904. But Sandy rated his No. 1 thrill of 1965 the fact he didn't miss a start, despite the arthritic threat to his elbow last spring. "In years my arm was sound, I missed more starts than this," he told The Sporting News....Don Drysdale finished with an even 200 strikeouts to set a National League record with six 200-strikeout seasons. He had been tied with Christy Mathewson and John Clarkson. The major league record of seven seasons is shared by Waddell and Walter Johnson. Koufax tied the all-time N.L. mark of five consecutive 200-plus strikeout seasons. He tied Clarkson....Joe Moeller and Bill Singer, pitching stars to the future, will hurl for San Juan this winter under Charlie Metro, a White Sox coach.
- It appears to be a close call between Los Angeles second baseman Jim Lefebvre and Houston's Joe Morgan for Rookie of the Year honors. Lefebvre led the Dodgers with 15 home runs, and was second on the team in RBI's with 83. His clutch hitting in the pennant chase, including a three-hit performance against Milwaukee in the pennant-clincher, September 30, may give Lefebvre the nod over Morgan. Lefebvre batted .306 in the final month with five home runs and 22 RBI, leading the Dodgers in both HR and RBI in September and October.
