This day in Los Angeles Dodgers history saw Sandy Koufax win the 1963 National League MVP Award over second-place finisher Dick Groat of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Koufax tallied 237 points to Groat’s 190 in Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting, and received 14 of 20 first-place votes. Koufax was named MVP six days after taking home the first of three career Cy Young Awards.
He became the first Dodgers pitcher since Don Newcombe (1956) to win the MVP Award. Newcombe additionally earned the only Cy Young of his career that year. However, Koufax was the first Dodgers pitcher to win Cy Young and MVP in the same season.