Talk:Sandy Koufax

Wasn't Koufax a Bonus Baby? I can't remember for sure --Just me 10:52, 7 Apr 2006 (EDT)

Yes, Koufax was a bonus baby, and one of the few who went on to real stardom. --Roger 16:45, 7 Apr 2006 (EDT)

What Did not pitch

What year did Mr. Kaufax refuse to pitch because of a religious holy day. This is why I admire the man.

1965. Yom Kippur fell out during the baseball season that year. - --Mischa 08:27, 7 December 2006 (EST)

fredddy, 8-14-2007:

I've just completed a number of additions and a few revisions to this web page. I am a lifelong Dodger fan who attended his first game in 1958, and Koufax was one of my favorite players. I believe my additions are solid and, I hope, interesting.

For the record, I want to explain some of the changes, because the page was in decent shape before I got here.

Before I revised the page, it referred to the Los Angeles Coliseum as a hitter's park. The Coliseum, where the Dodgers played from 1958 through 1961, was not so much a hitter's park or a pitcher's park as it was one of the most oddly configured fields in the history of Major League baseball.

It was notorious for its short left field, about 250 feet down the line. This was partially compensated for with a 40-foot-high screen. Thus, routine high-fly outs became home runs, while line-drive home runs became doubles and often singles off the screen.

Right field was a completely different story. While just 300 feet down the line, it almost immediately jutted out into the vast reaches of the Coliseum -- a stadium designed first for football and then used for the 1932 Olympics. In the Dodger inaugural year of 1958, the power alley in right-center field was 440 feet.

The two New York expatriate teams now on the West Coast, the Dodgers and the Giants, started the season with home and away series against each other. After sizing up the field, a gleeful Willie Mays greeted Duke Snider by saying in effect look what I got and look what you got. Mays hit right and Snider left. (See The Duke of Flatbush, Duke Snider with Bill Gilbert, Pages 201-202) Partial excerpt [1]

Here, I'm relying on memory and I've not used these numbers on any web page. In 1958, homers by home and road teams to left field, almost 160; to center, 7 or 8; and to right, 1. Center was somewhat closer to the plate than right center. In 1959, right center was shortened to 400 feet or so, but still a deep power alley.

So, the Coliseum was not a great hitter's park overall. I changed that reference from the previous entry about the Coliseum to refer more accurately to the problems Koufax faced there against right-handed pull hitters.

"Critics had noticed that Koufax had relatively high ERA's for the time, but had not realized the extent to which his ERA's were affected by the home-field disadvantages. In fact, he pitched relatively well in those parks."

Except for the change to "home-field disadvantages," I left this passage alone because it's at least arguably correct. But I may eventually rewrite it. In his early years, Koufax lacked the fine control of pitches he had in later years. He also chafed in his role as a part-time starter. Dodger Stadium is and was a pitcher's park, and it helped him. But from everything I've read, his success relied more on maturity and a new willingness not to try to throw every pitch through a brick wall.

"Among other young pitchers trying to make the Dodgers were Don Drysdale and Tommy Lasorda (who claimed that he and Koufax were the two young players trying to be the #25 player on the 1955 team, and for some reason the Dodgers chose Koufax over him)."

I eliminated the word "young" twice from that passage. Drysdale was indeed young, pitching his first Dodger game at 19 in 1956. However, Lasorda was 27 at the start of Koufax's first season in 1955. He was already far more the wily minor-league veteran than the young phenom.

"Just blow them away." This my from memory and I hope my memory is good. It comes from Johnny Roseboro's autobiography, the more recent Janet Leavy biography of Koufax or the Ken Burns multipart baseball documentary for PBS. I'll try to pin down the quote and add the proper citation.

Koufax Home/Road

Actually, Koufax absolutely benefited by the move to Dodger Stadium. In Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?, Bill James gives the following Koufax stats:

• Road
  • 1960-1961 2.88 ERA 16-12 record
  • 1962-1963 2.71 ERA 21-7 record

• Home
  • 1958-1961 4.46 ERA 17-22 record
  • 1962-1966 1.37 ERA 57-15 record

The road stats show that Koufax did mature as a pitcher, but the home stats show he got a huge help by getting rid of the right field screen in the Coliseum. --Jeff 13:29, 14 August 2007 (EDT)

Worth a watch: https://twitter.com/nut_history/status/1595574422953496581