Harvey Kuenn singled in his last big league at bat off of none other than The Left Arm of God, Sandy Koufax. Though Kuenn was proud of that moment, it was another Koufax encounter that remains vivid in the minds of many baseball fans.
That came on September 9, 1965 when Kuenn was in the twilight of his career and Koufax was at his apex. The Dodger lefty retired 25 straight batters before Cubs skipper Lou Klein summoned Kuenn to take the on-deck circle. From there Harvey watched teammate Joe Amalfitano become the fifth consecutive Chicago batter to go down on strikes. As Amalfitano walked back to the dugout he told Kuenn, “Watch out, Harv. He’s really humming.”
Kuenn, who came into the game hitting .224 replied prophetically, “Wait here, Joe. I’ll be right back.” When the former batting champ swung and missed on a 2-2 fastball, Koufax completed the finest performance of his career, a 14- strikeout perfect game.
The image above shows the reverse of the 1963 contract between Picture Pal and Kuenn who has affixed his signature at the bottom. So how did Kuenn actually fare against Koufax during his career? He had more strikeouts than hits and tallied a .114 average in 70 lifetime at bats.