{"id":184753,"date":"2025-12-30T14:50:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T12:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/?p=184753"},"modified":"2025-12-30T17:50:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T15:50:28","slug":"sandy_koufax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/en\/sandy_koufax\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandy Koufax: A Jewish Baseball Hero Turns 90"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One play on the Sunday afternoon of August 21, 1966, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, is imprinted in Wes Parker\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The St. Louis Cardinals had scored a run in the top of the first inning and loaded the bases with two outs. Although early, the Cardinals had the Dodgers\u2019 Sandy Koufax, the best pitcher in Major League Baseball, on the ropes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTim McCarver hit a rocket \u2014 I mean, a rocket \u2014 down the first-base line. I dove and wasn\u2019t even sure I caught it. I flipped it to Sandy, and he caught it six inches before McCarver reached the bag,\u201d Parker, the Dodgers\u2019 first baseman that day, recalled in a phone interview in late November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koufax \u201ccame over to me and said, \u2018Nice play,\u2019\u201d Parker said. \u201cYou didn\u2019t get many compliments from Sandy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident was memorable, as were the season and postseason \u2014 but nothing like the bombshell that soon followed.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Sandy
Sandy Koufax at the 1963 World Series, The Los Angeles Times<\/em>\/UCLA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Dodgers beat the Cardinals 4-1 that day for Koufax\u2019s 20th victory of the season. He would lead the majors in 1966 with 27 wins, 317 strikeouts and a 1.73 earned run average, earning the Cy Young Award as baseball\u2019s best pitcher and finishing second in the balloting for the National League\u2019s Most Valuable Player. The Dodgers reached the World Series for the third time in four seasons, losing to the Baltimore Orioles.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Sandypic
From the October 8, 1965, issue of the Detroit Jewish News<\/em>\u2069<\/a>, the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Six weeks later, Koufax retired \u2014 at just 30 years old. His decision shocked the baseball world but was sensible to Koufax. The chronic arthritis afflicting his elbow \u2014 in the left arm that earned him a living, thrilled Dodgers fans and made him a legend \u2014 threatened his quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there were a man who did not have use of one of his arms and you told him it would cost a lot of money and he could buy back that use, he\u2019d give him every dime he had,\u201d Koufax said at a press conference announcing his retirement. \u201cIn a sense, maybe this is what I\u2019m doing; I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve got a lot of years to live after baseball, and I would like to live them with complete use of my body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Sandy
Left to right: Frank Sinatra, Sandy Koufax and Dean Martin, December, 1963, The Los Angeles Times<\/em>\/UCLA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Indeed, nearly six decades have elapsed since Koufax\u2019s retirement and December 30 marks his 90th birthday. He\u2019s the dean of the living Hall of Famers, with only two others\u2019 playing careers dating to the 1950s. Just four players from the Dodgers\u2019 tenure in Brooklyn, Koufax\u2019s hometown, remain \u2014 and the great lefty is the sole survivor of the Brooklyn Dodgers\u2019 only World Series championship, in 1955. In fact, he threw the last pitch by a Brooklyn Dodgers player, striking out the batter, the Philadelphia Phillies\u2019 Willie \u201cPuddin\u2019 Head\u201d Jones, in September 1957. The franchise then relocated to California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elder Koufax looks healthy and vibrant, judging by his appearance this autumn at two World Series games in Los Angeles, where he sat near the Dodgers dugout and cheered on his former team to its second consecutive championship.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Samsung
Sandy Koufax in 2014, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Koufax\u2019s brief, meteoric career included monumental moments in what is known as the Fall Classic.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Opener
The Dodgers barely made the World Series in 1965, but Koufax made clear he would sit out the opener even if they did – and that was exactly how things played out. From the October 1, 1965, issue of The Indiana Jewish Post and Opinion<\/a><\/em>, the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Most famous was the decision by the Jewish hero, on the eve of the 1965 World Series, to not pitch in the opening game because it fell on Yom Kippur. He would win two games in that series, including the championship clincher in Game 7, when, on just two days\u2019 rest (three or four days off between starts is the norm), he pitched a complete-game three-hitter to defeat the Minnesota Twins, 2-0. In 1963, he established a World Series record by striking out 15 New York Yankees batters.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The
From the October 15, 1965, issue of The Indiana Jewish Post and Opinion<\/a><\/em>, the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

His legend is such that Marc Brettler, who was just eight years old when Koufax retired, considers it a career highlight to have written the text on the back of a baseball card of the Dodgers great that was part of a set issued in 2003 to honor 140 Jewish MLB players going back to 1871.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koufax signed the card for Brettler, who framed it and displays it in his house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKoufax is an important symbol for being visibly Jewish even when it is difficult,\u201d said Brettler, a retired Biblical scholar who said he often conducts research at the National Library of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Abramowitz, who launched the card series, said that Jewish fans frequently request that new Koufax cards be issued in updated sets. (Koufax\u2019s agreement with Abramowitz, the latter explained, was for his card to be issued only in the initial set.)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Sandycard\"
A 1962 Bell Brand Sandy Koufax baseball card<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cSome people want [Koufax\u2019s card] for the high value,\u201d Abramowitz said of its draw. \u201cAlso, Koufax does have this heroic stature among American Jewish fans that relates to the Yom Kippur [decision] and that one of the best all-time happened to be one of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For resting that game and for holding out with fellow Dodgers star pitcher Don Drysdale for better contracts before the 1966 season, Koufax stands as \u201cthe conscience of the game,\u201d said Jane Leavy, author of the 2002 biography Sandy Koufax: A Lefty\u2019s Legacy<\/a><\/em>. A discussion with Koufax and fellow Hall of Famer Joe Torre about the sport\u2019s problems today led to her new book, Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Book\"
From Sandy Koufax: A Lefty\u2019s Legacy<\/a><\/em>, by Jane Leavy, New York: Harper Collins, 2002, the National Library of Israel collections<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Koufax was known for a jaw-dropping curveball and a blazing fastball that he struggled to master, such that he walked an average of nearly 100 batters per season for a four-year stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His turning point occurred after a Dodgers catcher, Norm Sherry, went to the pitching mound during a jam and advised Koufax not to seek to throw each fastball through a brick wall, but to let up a bit to better control it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went back behind the plate. Good God! He tried to ease up, and he was throwing harder than when he tried to. We came off the field, and I said, \u2018Sandy, I don\u2019t know if you realize it, but you just now threw harder than when you were trying to.\u2019 \u2026 He struck out the side,\u201d Sherry told me in a 2016 interview<\/a>. (Sherry, his brother Larry and Koufax were three Jewish players on the Dodgers at the time of the incident.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From that point on, Sherry said, Koufax \u201cgot really good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk about an understatement. Koufax\u2019s last six seasons are the stuff of legend: three Cy Youngs, four no-hitters (including a perfect game, which, through 2025, has occurred only 24 times in MLB history), an MVP and an average of 21 wins and 285 strikeouts per year.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Intermountain
From the September 9, 1966, issue of the Intermountain Jewish News<\/a><\/em>, the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Koufax, who lives with his wife in Pennsylvania, keeps a low profile and rarely grants interviews, but stays connected to baseball by tutoring Dodgers pitchers at spring training and attending games and alumni gatherings in Los Angeles. He became a close mentor of the most recent Dodgers pitching star and fellow lefthander, the recently retired Clayton Kershaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s an aura about him, it\u2019s because he\u2019s one guy who didn\u2019t capitalize on the fame that came to him because of his accomplishments on the field and his religion. He simply didn\u2019t want to be someone who auctioned himself off for sound bites,\u201d Leavy said of Koufax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s official historian, Mark Langill, chuckled at a telling example of Koufax\u2019s under-the-radar-in-almost-full-view presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wearing face masks during the period of the COVID-19 epidemic, the two men walked along a Dodger Stadium concourse. Plenty of fans wearing facsimile Koufax jerseys went by, oblivious to the legend\u2019s proximity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI thought: If you only knew who you just passed!\u201d Langill said. \u201cHe had no entourage. I never saw him recognized with the mask. He\u2019s just low-key, very down to earth, just a gentleman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer-editor Hillel Kuttler can be reached at <\/em>hk@HillelTheScribeCommunications.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sitting out an important game on Yom Kippur, setting pitching records and retiring young for health reasons combined to make the iconic Dodgers pitcher a legend in the 1960s. He remains so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":450,"featured_media":184754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[1737,234,5077],"tags2":[2784,2686,3067,5078],"class_list":["post-184753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diaspora","tag-american-jewry","tag-diaspora","tag-jews-in-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSandy Koufax: A Jewish Baseball Hero Turns 90<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sitting out an important game on Yom Kippur, setting pitching records and retiring young for health reasons combined to make the iconic Dodgers pitcher a legend in the 1960s. 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