Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy

Well, I recently got my hands on a biography on Sandy Koufax, and I must say, it was quite the read. To quote Austin Powers, "It was smashing, baby!" But to be honest, I had my doubts. I mean, who wants to read about a guy who just throws a ball all day? But this book had me hooked from the get-go, and I couldn't put it down. As Ron Burgundy would say, "I don't know how to put this, but it was kind of a big deal."The author really did a great job of capturing Koufax's life and career, and I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite movie quotes from Anchorman: "He's a man, but he's got the hair of a little girl." I mean, Koufax was an absolute beast on the mound, but he had this boyish charm that was just so endearing. It's no wonder he became such a legend.One thing that really stood out to me was how Koufax struggled with injuries throughout his career. It just goes to show that even the greatest athletes are human. As the great Yoda once said, "Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?" And that's exactly what Koufax did. He didn't let his injuries define him, he just kept pushing forward.Overall, I would highly recommend this biography to anyone who loves sports, or just a good read. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, "It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic." Okay, so maybe that quote doesn't really apply here, but trust me, this book is pure magic. So go out and get yourself a copy, you won't regret it.

Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy is by far the best book about Mr. Koufax that I have read. My rating reflects that. Nevertheless, the book will be most meaningful to those who are interested on Mr. Koufax's effect on his fellow players and fans. A successful biography requires a sense of the subject's inner life, and Mr. Koufax's steadfast quietness about his thoughts makes that impossible. What's new in this book are a large number of interviews with those who played with and know Mr. Koufax. These interviews help fill in his legacy for us all.The book has an unusual format and focus that you will either love or hate. The continuing story line is Mr. Koufax's perfect game on September 9, 1965 against the Chicago Cubs. The game is related in 10 chapters that alternate with the biographical/sociological material that forms the rest of the book. The end leafs of the book also portray a scorecard from that game. The first chapter of this material is called "The Pregame Show" and sets the stage. Every other chapter covers an inning. It's nicely done, including little known facts like how a little of the game ended up being recorded for posterity. However, no one would buy a book just to read the details of this game.So the book's appeal rests on its biography of Mr. Koufax, and the related material on how his life affected others. The beginning of the book stresses the biographical, because he was more visible then to those who knew him than after he became the Dodger superstar. I found that that material was fresh and interesting, and added meaningfully to my understanding of his formative influences and early life style. As his fame rose, Mr. Koufax became less visible as a person and his sociological impact increased.His legacy is treated more seriously than in other books. Basically, it comes down to having had a pioneer's advanced understanding of the mechanics of baseball pitching, performing at an extraordinary level during his career without resorting to underhanded tricks, behaving with modesty and decency, and setting a good example because it was his nature to do so.Some aspects of that legacy have echoed more loudly than others, such as his choice to sit out the opening game of 1965 World Series because it was on Yom Kippur. His observant example seems to have had a large impact on many Jewish people and increased awareness of the Jewish faith among non-Jews. You will read a lot about that. The book also fills in with what else people were thinking and saying at the time. As these days recede, this contextual information becomes more important in understanding Mr. Koufax and his legacy.The end of the book seemed to tail off slowly like a hanging curve for me. The material goes into his incredible pain at the end a bit too much, his holdout with Don Drysdale to get a raise, his post-playing baseball activities, his failed marriages, and his continuing search for privacy in a world where many are obsessed with him. To me, those aren't really part of the legacy I feel.I became a Dodger fan in 1955 when I watched my first World Series on television and fell in love with the team. I felt like my life was complete when they soon moved to Los Angeles, near my home in Southern California so I could see them play in person. During the greatest of Mr. Koufax's playing years, I scraped together a few dollars by working after school and on the weekends, begged or borrowed a ride to the ball park, and tried to see every one of Mr. Koufax's starts I could. The experience at the park was what I imagine being in Heaven must be like. Often having seats in weird spots (because we couldn't afford to buy tickets in advance), I came to reflect on his fast ball and curve from dozens of different angles and distances. The degree that the curve broke and how rapidly it broke were almost impossible to believe. Your breath would catch when it happened. The pop in the catcher's glove from his fast ball would still be echoing in the stands after the ball was back in Mr. Koufax's glove. And he was so serious and yet so serene on the mound. It was as though an angel had joined us for a brief time. To me, Mr. Koufax will always be the unassuming, decent, and quiet man who was a truly worthy baseball hero. We could use more like him today. I believe that's his broadest and most important legacy. He deserves much credit for keeping that legacy pristine. Thank you, Mr. Koufax!!I feel indebted to Ms. Leavy for extending my understanding of Mr. Koufax and how he has affected the lives of others. Her persistence and effort have added important nuances to our understanding of that quiet hero.I would like to specially compliment Ms. Leavy for her choice of photographs. If she had only added one showing the time-lapse flight of one of his curve balls, they would have been perfect.My family also comes in for special praise for giving this book to me as a gift. I'll treasure it (and them) always.After you finish this fine book, I suggest you think about what your contributions have been and legacy will be. What would Ms. Leavy have to say about you? How could you improve upon that?

The Koufax story, as we remember it, and as author Jane Leavy depicts it, has some of the trappings of a medieval morality play. A 1954 Brooklyn boy improbably becomes a "bonus baby" with his hometown Dodgers. So wild and unpredictable a hurler, his manager dreaded to use him. He labors six years but never loses faith. Suddenly, in 1961, the fidelity of this Dodger Job is redeemed. He rolls off six years of impeccable performance that earn him a berth in the Hall of Fame. To paraphrase Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything, including premature retirement when a left arm becomes irreparably damaged. And then he disappears to a privacy of his own doing.This is an interesting work that features memory and impression over sabermetrics. Koufax did win eleven games in 1958; he was not exactly a stiff before 1961. And if one looks at the stats closely, he was not that far from his peers even at his best: in his memorable six-season span, 1961-1966, he bested Juan Marichal in wins by a slim 129-124 margin and Don Drysdale by 129-111. [Marichal would win another 113 after Koufax retired.] Thus, the difference between Koufax and his peers like Marichal, Bob Gibson, and Drysdale must lie elsewhere than in sheer statistics. Jane Levy seeks to find that "otherness," focusing upon the atmosphere of postwar Brooklyn, the influence of Judaism upon the pitcher, and the mixed emotions of Koufax and his admirers alike when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. Leavy captures what stats guru Bill James uses as the ultimate criterion for admission to the Hall of Fame: his contemporaries thought of Koufax as the best at his position.Koufax's career covered twelve years, much shorter than Marichal's or Warren Spahn's. In retrospect, however, he seemed to have pitched in two different eras of the game. In those grainy black and white films of the 1955 World Series, when Dodger outfielder Sandy Amoros started the mother of all double plays near the left field foul line, a very young Koufax watched from the Dodger bench. He was there the next year to see Larsen's perfect game; he moved with the team to Los Angeles; he pitched in the Coliseum with its "Wally Moon home run porch" and was a member of the 1959 World Series Championship team, posting an 8-6 season record. Aside from winning big in the 1960's, he and Drysdale attempted the first "collective bargaining" strategy and started the ball rolling for Curt Flood and Marvin Miller.Amazingly during his Brooklyn high school days Koufax was not considered prospective baseball material, and certainly not a pitcher. His sport, ironically, was basketball, and on February 10, 1953, Koufax and his Lafayette High School five [which included a scrappy Alan Dershowitz] embarrassed a New York Knicks team paced by Harry "The Horse" Gallatin and Al McGuire. He might never have attempted organized baseball were it not for a serendipitous encounter with one Milt Laurie, Braves' prospect turned truck driver. Laurie was impressed with the speed of Koufax's delivery, if not his control, and eased him into the world of Brooklyn amateur baseball. Later, at the University of Cincinnati, baseball coach Ed Jucker [yes, that Ed Jucker, better known for his coaching on hardwood floors.] complained that none of his catchers would go near Koufax for fear for life or limb. It is unclear who among the Dodger organization first caught sight of Koufax-though Walter Alston had seen him play basketball at Cincinnati-Al Campanis appears to have spearheaded the recruiting and signed the lefty. Koufax, as Leavy observed, came to the Dodgers at roughly the same time as Alston. The latter's conservative and basic outlook on the game was never quite at peace with the unpredictable Koufax. Their relationship was tense. Leavy overstates the case when she argues that Alston was flat out afraid to use him-Koufax started 25 games in 1958-but she is correct that the Dodger organization did not know how to manage him. As a result, Koufax developed his unique windup and delivery pretty much on his own. Leavy devotes an entire chapter to his delivery, including kinetic sketches--admirable until one realizes that this very delivery nearly destroyed his left arm. When the reader considers how Leo Mazzoni has nurtured flame-thrower John Smoltz through near twenty profitable seasons, the tragedy of Koufax's shortened career comes into clearer focus.The Koufax who emerges here is neither a philosopher nor a religious fanatic. He is a competitive but sociable Brooklynite who never totally succumbed to West Coast glitz nor corporate Dodger hubris. His reserve is a genuine humility, a reluctance to trade in on what he considered a physical ability, and should not be confused with the darker shadows of DiMaggio. He was loved by his teammates, and respected [and feared] by the opposition. Thanks to Leavy's extensive search for Koufax contemporaries, there is a plethora of anecdotal material from Ron Fairly, Ken Holtzman, Nate Oliver, Jeff Torborg, Maury Wills, Wes Parker, and Ed Vargo, to name a few. The ultimate in nostalgia is Leavy's reconstruction over nine chapters of Koufax's perfect game of September 9, 1965. Pieced together from a scouting film, a boy's tape recording of the radio broadcast, and memories of the participants, Leavy recounts one of baseball's greatest pitching duels, between the perfect Koufax and the near perfect Bob Hendley of the Cubs. It is proof positive that the Koufax era was an experience that lifted all boats in the tide of competition.

GREAT BOOK

Chapitre court, ce lit bien, point de vue pertinent de Jane Leavy.

Definitely don’t buy especially for a project!!!! Just stupid random information like conversations from restaurants...

Terrific book...made me with I had been able to see Koufax pitch in person

Read religiously until finished very good