Important Facts About Sandy Koufax
Dodgers Ace May Have Been Baseball's Best Lefthanded Pitcher Ever
Sandy Koufax may have been the best left-handed pitcher of all time. Although the peak of his baseball career lasted only six seasons, from 1961 to 1966, Koufax made quite an impact on many of the game's greatest hitters. Willie Stargell once said that "trying to hit Koufax is like trying to drink coffee with a fork."
Pops wasn't alone in his opinion of Sandy Koufax's pitching. After the Dodger lefty beat the Yankees twice in the 1963 World Series, Hall of Famer Yogi Berra remarked of Koufax's win-loss record that year by saying: "I can understand how he won twenty-five games. What I don't understand is how he lost five." Mickey Mantle was a little more blunt about the matter. When Koufax struck him out looking with a wicked curveball in Game 1 of that same Series, the Mick reportedly exclaimed: "Jesus Christ, now how in the hell am I supposed to hit that shit?"
Sandy Koufax's entire list of accomplishments could probably fill up half of the Baseball Encyclopedia, but here are ten things that every baseball fan absolutely needs to know about Sandy Koufax.
1. He was born Sanford Braun on December 10, 1935 to Jack and Evelyn Braun. The couple divorced when Sandy was three years old. When his mother remarried, to an attorney named Irving Koufax six years later, Irving adopted the boy and Sandy took on the surname of his new stepfather. Of the elder Koufax, Sandy wrote in his autobiography, "When I speak of my father, I speak of Irving Koufax, for he has been to me everything a father could be.”
2. Koufax threw four no hitters in his career, including a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs on September 9, 1965. He held a share of the major league record until Nolan Ryan threw his fifth career no-no on September 26, 1981 while pitching for the Houston Astros.
3. In the 1965 season, a year in which he won 26 games, Koufax set a major league record by striking out 382 batters. Nolan Ryan also took this record away from Koufax; he struck out 383 batters in 1973.
4. Koufax won three Cy Young Awards (1963, 1965 & 1966) at a time when only one award was given to both leagues. He won all three awards by unanimous votes.
5. He won five straight ERA titles from 1962 through 1966. Only Lefty Grove, who won five consecutive titles from 1935-1939, has matched that piching feat.
6. In seven World Series starts, Koufax posted a 4-3 record and an earned run average of just 0.95. Two of his losses came in 1-0 and 2-1 complete game losses.
7. Koufax was the youngest player ever to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was just 36 years old when he gained induction in 1972.
8. As great as he was, he couldn't get Hank Aaron out. In 114 career at-bats against Sandy, Hammerin' Hank hit .368, and had an on base percentage of .433. In sharp contrast, all-time hit king Pete Rose, who could hit anybody, batted a miserable .175 against the Dodger great.
9. Koufax retired at age 30 because of chronic arm troubles which were so bad that he could not straighten out his left arm during the last two years of his career. Despite the pain, in those two seasons Koufax posted a record of 53-17 with an earned run average of 1.89 and a truly remarkable 699 strikeouts.
10. Koufax declined to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins because it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in the Jewish religion. Koufax ended up pitching two complete game shutouts in Games 5 and 7, however, and the Dodgers took the Series four games to three.
It is true that Koufax's peak was all too brief. At an age when many pitchers are just coming into their primes, Koufax was forced to hang up his cleats. But his accomplishments over a 12-year career, especially during his final six seasons, when he went 129-47 with 1,716 Ks, makes it pretty easy to understand why a hitter as great as Mickey Mantle simply couldn't hit that shit.
