The first time Mickey faced Sandy the lefty threw a fastball up and in for a strike. The next pitch was a 12/6 curve on the outside corner. Mickey turned to the ump and said, "How the hell am I supposed to hit that spit?"
In the second game that Mantle faced Koufax (game 4 1963 WS), he hit a home run off of Sandy for the Yankees only run.
In the 1965 World Series, the Dodgers had this choice for starting pitcher in game 7.
They could pitch future Hall of Famer, Don Drysdale, on his normal 3 days rest, or Koufax on 2 days rest. They chose to go with Sandy. He shutout the Twins, giving up 3 hits and striking out 10.
Because of the short rest, Sandy didn't have anything resembling his normal curveball. So what did he do ? He threw 95% fastballs over the last 7 innings or so. Even though the Twins knew what was coming, they still couldn't hit it.
Statistical analysis was virtually non existent back then. But thanks to a dedicated group of baseball fans/statisticians, who inputted the data from old scoresheets, a few interesting stats have come to light.
How's this ?
The difference in lifetime road ERA between Koufax and Marichal is .01 (Marichal 3.03 - Koufax 3.04).