Koufax Debuted 50 Years Ago Today

[bulldog55]

Fifty years ago today, Sandy Koufax made his Major League debut as little more than a footnote, pitching two innings of relief in the Brooklyn Dodgers' 8-2 loss to the Milwaukee Braves.

Koufax would go on to win 165 games, three Cy Youngs and a spot in the Hall of Fame, but on June 24, 1955, he merited only a short mention in the eighth paragraph of the New York Times' game recap as "Brooklyn's bonus left-hander."

Under Major League rules at the time, players signed to bonuses of more than $4,000 had to remain on the Major League roster for two years before they could be sent to the Minors. It was the antithesis of player development, and while Koufax remained in the Major Leagues after his two years were served, it took him six years to earn manager Walter Alston's confidence and emerge as a frontline starter.

It was a long, inauspicious beginning for the man many came to know as "the greatest pitcher of all time," for whom the end came altogether too quickly. A slew of injuries led Koufax to retire at the age of 30, when, in the words of Thomas Boswell, "he wasn't at his peak, he was above it."

The six years Koufax anchored the Dodger rotation were perhaps the most dominant half-dozen seasons baseball has ever witnessed. In them, Koufax totaled 129 wins, 47 losses, 1,713 strikeouts, 35 shutouts and a 2.19 ERA.

Koufax finished his career with 165 wins, normally far beyond the pale for 20th-century Hall of Fame candidates: only one full-time starter (Dizzy Dean) earned election with fewer wins than Koufax. But with the Dodger southpaw, it was never a question of what he accomplished; it's a question of what he might have done had his arm not shut down his career prematurely.

"Koufax is the greatest," Hall of Fame hurler Juan Marichal has said. "He's the best pitcher I ever saw."

As longtime Dodger ace Don Newcombe noted, "Koufax quit when he had to, when he wanted to, when he needed to."

Just as Koufax left baseball earlier than most, he came to it much later than usual. He first pitched at the age of 15 and, apparently unimpressed, he didn't try it again for another two years. The 6-foot-2 New Yorker attended Cincinnati on a basketball scholarship for a year before his work on Brooklyn's sandlots started attracting the attention of Major League scouts.

Not particularly interested in his studies and too short for a career in basketball, Koufax was initially intrigued by the possibility of a large bonus, which could finance his education if he washed out of the Major Leagues. After flirtations with Pittsburgh, he signed with Brooklyn for a $14,000 bonus and a two-year, league-minimum contract. The Dodgers traded two veterans to clear a roster spot for the 18-year-old Koufax.

"The announcement was made to a vastly uninterested world as a footnote that [Preacher] Roe and [Billy] Cox had been sold," Koufax wrote in his 1965 autobiography. "What had begun started so casually, almost as a lark, had become a career."

The first years of Koufax's pro career were largely a learning experience. The kid who could always throw the farthest and jump the highest now had to learn how to pitch. In his first six Major League seasons, Koufax walked 405 men in 691 2/3 innings. One can understand, then, why Hall of Fame Dodger manager -- and former Brooklyn pitcher -- Tommy Lasorda couldn't understand why general manager Buzzie Bavasi cut him from the Major League team in June 1955, to make room for Koufax's return from a 30-day stint on the disabled list.

"When Buzzie told me I was going down, I told him he was crazy," Lasorda said. "That guy couldn't hit a barn door from 50 feet and I won 20 games down there. He said he had no choice; the guy was a bonus baby and had to stay on the big league roster for two years. So truthfully I can say that it took the greatest left-hander in the history of the game to replace me."

Lasorda was one of a very few Major Leaguers who could blame Koufax for any of their misfortunes. Nonetheless, Koufax was often painted as a recluse and a malcontent. Repeated media accounts of the day painted him as someone who didn't enjoy baseball and regretted his decision to abandon his teenage interests in the humanities and architecture.

"There is one myth that has been building through the years that I would just as soon bury without any particular honors: the myth of Sandy Koufax, the anti-athlete," he wrote on the first page of his autobiography. "Just between you and me, I think I'd enjoy being a doomed tragic figure as much as anybody. The only trouble with this tale of one man's struggle against his inner nature is that none of it is true."

Following his win in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series, Time magazine quoted Koufax as saying, "I'm just glad it's over and I don't have to do this again for another four months." The magazine interpreted it as nonchalance and disinterest; Koufax later said he was only expressing how tired he was after pitching nine innings.

"Anybody at the game could see how I leaped up at the final out, throwing my arms out in pure boredom, beaming in sheer distaste," he later wrote, flashing his trademark dry wit.

Because of that humor -- as well as his thoughtful sincerity -- Koufax was much more popular with his teammates. He was once offered $25,000 by a television network hoping to document a day in his life; he agreed to do it only if every teammate and coach was given $1,000 as well. His principles also led him to refuse to pitch on Jewish High Holy days, famously missing Game 1 of the 1965 World Series due to Yom Kippur.

Moreover, his teammates witnessed firsthand how much pain Koufax silently endured while pitching the Dodgers to World Series championships in 1963 and '65 and a pennant in '66.

As Jane Leavy recounts in her biography of Koufax, the left-hander's arthritis was beginning to disable him. He started to drop things around the house, the fingers on his left hand tingled and occasionally went numb and his arm would swell up like a basketball after every game he pitched.

Despite the pain, Koufax kept taking the ball. The race for the 1966 National League pennant was a tight one -- it wouldn't be decided until the final day of the season -- so several weeks before the end of the season, Leavy recounts, Koufax went to Alston and said simply, "Use me any way you want, whenever you want."

Alston took Koufax at his word, pitching in six of the Dodgers' final 22 games, five times turning in a complete-game victory. After most games, the Dodger trainers had to inject cortisone into his elbow just so Koufax could make his next start.

It was understandable, then, to those close to him why Koufax called a press conference in November 1966 to announce his retirement. To the rest of the baseball world, though -- who knew Koufax only as the best pitcher in the game -- it seemed hard to believe that Koufax had been so dominant while pitching with such pain.

"The question is, 'Why?'" Koufax said at his retirement press conference. "I don't know if cortisone is good for you or not. But to take a shot every other ballgame is more than I wanted to do and to walk around with a constant upset stomach because of the pills and to be high half the time during a ballgame because you're taking painkillers, I don't want to have to do that.

"If there was a man who did not have the use of one of his arms and you told him it would cost a lot of money [to] buy back that use, he'd give every dime he had, I believe. I don't regret one minute of the last 12 years, but I think I would regret one year that was too many."

And so it was that Koufax departed from baseball, on the heels of his third Cy Young Award in four seasons. Koufax, who had never sought the spotlight, disappeared from public view for long stretches at a time, but he was far from idle.

He renovated a house in Maine, was married twice, ran marathons in Europe, became an expert fly-fisherman and spent nine years as a roving Minor League pitching coach. Even now, he works with the Dodgers every Spring Training. Not in a high-profile, official capacity, but just as someone who knows a thing or two about pitching and doesn't mind sharing it with a prospect or two.

"He would impart whatever knowledge he had and he's always willing to share his experiences to help somebody," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who spent his entire playing career in the Dodger organization. "He goes well beyond the talent he showed on the mound, where he's obviously a Hall of Famer. He's a Hall of Fame person too, and that's what puts Sandy in a special class."

To everyone else, perhaps. But not to Koufax, who saw himself as just another "normal" man with a job to do.

After Sports Illustrated named Koufax its 1965 Sportsman of the Year, they sent a reporter to interview Koufax. Eventually the writer came around to the question of greatness.

"I can't picture people talking about me 50 years from now," he said. "I never even think about it."

That's OK, though, because everyone else certainly does.

http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/NA...t=.jsp&c_id=la

[rem]

that whole bonus baby rule has to the be dumbest idea ever

[Gastric ReFlux]

Why isn't this in Talk Sports?

[Gastric ReFlux]

Upon further reflection, why didn't I notice I was in Talk Sports?

[bulldog55]

Originally Posted by Gastric ReFlux

Upon further reflection, why didn't I notice I was in Talk Sports?

mad ungulate disease

[The Great Demo]

You're living in the past, man. How about some news of the first time Carlos Perez showed signs that he'd suck forever? Or how about some news on when kevin malone became the Dodgers' sheriff?

[Arlie Rahn]

IMO, Kofax may be one of the more underrated pitchers in the history of the game. Anything that brings up his name in a positive light is good by me.

[The Great Demo]

Originally Posted by Arlie Rahn

IMO, Kofax may be one of the more underrated pitchers in the history of the game. Anything that brings up his name in a positive light is good by me.

i think he likes you, Scott.

[Karros270]

Originally Posted by Arlie Rahn

IMO, Kofax may be one of the more underrated pitchers in the history of the game. Anything that brings up his name in a positive light is good by me.

[Karros270]

Great article, thanks for posting it bulldog.

[Arlie Rahn]

My dad was a bigtime Brooklyn Dodgers fan. So, while we both root for the DBacks and the Cards (grew up in St. Louis), we usually pull for the Dodgers when they are not playing either St. Louis or AZ.

[Karros270]

Originally Posted by Arlie Rahn

My dad was a bigtime Brooklyn Dodgers fan. So, while we both root for the DBacks and the Cards (grew up in St. Louis), we usually pull for the Dodgers when they are not playing either St. Louis or AZ.

I always thought you were a good guy Arlie, I just didn't know why until now.

[DamnYankees]

50 years ago tonight, baseball was blessed with royalty. We haven't really known anyone like him since. A pitcher, an artist, a gentleman. Rare combination.

Thanks for 50 years of memories. And I'm only 20.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Arlie Rahn

IMO, Kofax may be one of the more underrated pitchers in the history of the game. Anything that brings up his name in a positive light is good by me.

Overrated. Koufax is put up there in company with Johnson and Gomez - heck, he's not the pitcher Pedro is. Great great pitcher, but Koufax is anything but underrated.

[<o>]

Originally Posted by Aadik

Overrated. Koufax is put up there in company with Johnson and Gomez - heck, he's not the pitcher Pedro is. Great great pitcher, but Koufax is anything but underrated.

Didn't see that coming.

[darkhorse]

Hall of Fame quitter, no doubt.

[DamnYankees]

Originally Posted by Aadik

Overrated. Koufax is put up there in company with Johnson and Gomez - heck, he's not the pitcher Pedro is. Great great pitcher, but Koufax is anything but underrated.

I assume you mean Grove.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by DamnYankees

I assume you mean Grove.

You assume correctly- Lefty Gomez, while good, is probably not as good as Koufax..

[swampdragon]

Koufax really wasn't very good for the first half of his career. He made up for it, but the peak is too short to put him with Lefty Grove.

[DamnYankees]

Originally Posted by swampdragon

Koufax really wasn't very good for the first half of his career. He made up for it, but the peak is too short to put him with Lefty Grove.

I don't really think anyone puts Koufax above Grove. Johnson, Grove, and Young are in a class all their own, I think.