Willie Stargell: “Somebody asked me one time, ‘What’s it like hitting off of Koufax?’ I said you ever drink coffee with a fork?”
Willie Mays: “Sandy would strike me out two or three times a game. And I knew every pitch he was going to throw, fastball, breaking ball, or whatever. Actually, he would let you look at it. And you still couldn’t hit it.”
Ernie Banks: He’s the greatest pitcher I ever saw. I can still see that big curveball. It had a great arc on it, and he never bounced it in the dirt. Sandy’s curve had a lot more spin than anybody else’s — it spun like a fastball coming out of his hand — and he had the fastball of a pure strikeout pitcher. It jumped up at the end. The batter would swing half a foot under it. Most of the time we knew what was coming, because he held his hands closer to his head when he threw a curveball, but it didn’t matter. Even though he was tipping off his pitches, you still couldn’t hit him.
Tommy Lasorda: If there was one game I had to win and I could pick any pitcher in any era, I’d pick Sandy. I’d sit in the bullpen and watch him paint that outside corner with a 98-mile-per-hour fastball and throw curves that looked like they were dropping out of the third deck. I’d think, “I’m gonna relieve this guy? With my stuff?”
Yogi Berra: I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won twenty-five games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five.
BTW…what would a prime Sandy Koufax be worth in today’s money?
I’ve never really talked about Koufax much. I love seeing the old videos of the man who would mow down batters. He retired a few months before I was born. Sometimes, people ask which baseball players from the older days could be as successful today. Sandy Koufax is at the top of my list, along with Bob Gibson. They would dominate today as they did then. They had everything modern scouts want in a pitcher.
I first heard of Sandy Koufax in 1977 while reading an article about Koufax throwing batting practice for the Dodgers. He STILL had a great fastball, and soon the Dodgers management asked him to stop for the time being…Garvey, Cey, Lopes, Smith, and others were having trouble hitting it. It was a huge rumor that he was going to come back, but of course he wasn’t.
He didn’t hit batters like Drysdale did; he didn’t have to. He was notorious for tipping his pitches, but it didn’t matter. As you saw in the quotes above, they knew what was coming, but it didn’t matter.
In 1953-1954, MLB scouts had become enamored with Koufax and invited him to tryouts. He auditioned for the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates but did not receive any contract offers. The Dodgers scout, Al Campanis, invited Koufax to try out for the organization at Ebbets Field in front of manager Walter Alston and scouting director Fresco Thompson.
The Dodgers came away impressed and signed Koufax to a $6,000 salary, with a $14,000 signing bonus. That was the best $20,000 they ever spent. Back then, with that kind of signing bonus, you had to stay on the Major League roster and not go to the minor leagues. He was what they called a Bonus Baby. That was 1955, his first year in the Majors, and he was 19 years old.
His first 6 (1955-1960) years in the majors were ok but not Koufax great. In those years, he had a 5.2 WAR, 28-27 with a 4.16 ERA, and he pitched 516 innings. He also had 22 complete games.
In spring training in 1961, his catcher, Norm Sherry, told him something after walking the first 3 batters. He told Sandy to stop throwing so hard and to let the batters hit the ball. He did…they didn’t. After he stopped throwing as hard as he could and just pitched, he started to gain success because he had control. Still, his fastball was up around 99-100 mph even after that. He also had a deadly 12 to 6 curve ball that was almost impossible to hit.
In 1961, he went 18-13 with a 3.52 ERA, and in 1962, the Koufax we all know really started to blossom. He went 14-6 with a 2.54 ERA and 269 strikeouts.
Now, from 1961-1966 was much better than his first 6 seasons. He had a WAR of 46.4, 129-47, and an ERA of an incredible 2.13 with 1713 strikeouts. He pitched a staggering 1632.2 innings with 115 complete games. In case any youngsters are out there reading this…that means 115 games of pitching 9 or more innings. That is like finding a unicorn today to have one complete game.
Sandy damaged his elbow playing basketball in college, and it soon became arthritic. In 1966, he decided that would be his last season. He didn’t want to have his elbow hurting all of his life. You would think his season would have been so-so…nope. It was one of his best, if not his best. A 10.3 WAR, 27-9, an ERA of 1.73, 317 strikeouts, pitching 317 innings and 27 complete games. He also picked up his 3rd Cy Young Award.
Frank Jobe, who invented the Tommy John surgery, said he wished he would have come up with the idea in ’66 because it would have been called Sandy Koufax Surgery instead of Tommy John.
His final numbers were
If Sandy would have figured out the “pitch to contact” method earlier…his numbers would have been even greater. He had 5 years of total dominance and won 3 World Series along with 3 Cy Youngs. His numbers in the World Series were pretty damn good. 4-3 with a 0.95 ERA with 4 complete games with 61 strikeouts. He was also a two-time winner of a World Series MVP. That stretch of 5 years may be the greatest or at least one of the greatest stretches for a pitcher.
He retired when he was just 30 years old in the year of 1966. On Aug. 7, 1972, Sandy Koufax and Yogi Berra were inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He was the youngest player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at 36.
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