Sandy Koufax might’ve had the most dominating 6 year stretch of any pitcher in MLB history. From 1961-1966, Sandy won 3 Cy Young Awards, an MVP, 2 World Series rings and 2 World Series MVP's. That is a lot of hardware for an entire career, let alone only 6 years. Sandy also averaged 21 wins a season and 19 complete games a season during this stretch with a 2.19 ERA. If any pitcher in todays game has 1 season like that it will be talked about forever.
But what about having your tonsils removed makes you good at pitching? Well, let's back track a little in the early career that Sandy Koufax had. Sandy Koufax played for the University of Cincinnati for one year before trying out for the Dodgers and making their team. There was a rule back then that any player that had a signing bonus of over $4,000 had to play their first 2 seasons in the Major Leagues for the team that they signed with. Koufax had a signing bonus of $14,000 which is large for 1954, but that was because Sandy was still 19 and wanted money for college if baseball didn’t work out. Oddly enough, to make room for Koufax on the Dodgers 25 man roster, they sent down Tommy Lasorda to Triple-A.
Sandy Koufax only played baseball for a few years before signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers and it took him a lot of time to develop compared to other players. No one really cared about that and this made Sandy frustrated as he never really understood why he rarely played his first few seasons. From age 19-24, when most players are developing in the Minors, Sandy was struggling to keep his head above water in the bigs. He would go back and fourth from starter to reliever and his control was terrible. He walked just about as many hitters as he struck out. He even led the league in wild pitches in just 159 innings in his age 22 season.
After the 1960 season, Sandy was frustrated with baseball and wanted to be done with it. He requested to be traded multiple times for better playing opportunities and was denied every time. Growing defeated with his play and the Dodger's front office, he threw away all of his equipment after the last game of the 1960 season. Sandy was going to be involved heavily in an electronics business that he was invested in. At this point I would like to thank Dodgers Clubhouse supervisor, Nobe Kawano, for retrieving Koufax's equipment from the trash in case he returned for spring training.
Sandy would return to spring training for the 1961 Dodgers season. The reason? He found work to be boring and decided that playing baseball really, is not that bad. During the winter, Sandy would get his tonsils removed as he kept having sore throats during the season and he felt it hindered his play. This made him return to spring training 30 pounds under his normal playing weight. Sandy had to regain his weight through proper nutrition and weight lifting during spring training. Being lighter in weight also made Sandy use his brain more instead of his muscles. Focusing on his control of pitches instead of how hard he threw them. For the rest of Sandy's career he would show up to spring training 20-15 pounds below his playing weight as he contributed his successes later in his career to when he learned to use his body better when he was weaker.
Sandy's next 6 years he would dominate the MLB with his new found style of pitching. The following are the records that Sandy Koufax held when he retired at the age of 30.
Only pitcher to win 3 Cy Young awards (all unanimous)
Only pitcher with 2 games of 18 or more strikeouts
Only pitcher to have 5 consecutive ERA titles
Most No-hitters in a career (4)
First Lefty to throw a perfect game
Only Player with 2 World Series MVP's
Single Season Strikeout record (382)
There is a lot more to Sandy Koufax’s story that I do not have the time to get into. Like the time he did not pitch in a World Series game because it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish Holidays. Or that time he and teammate Don Drysdale held out for better paying contracts. Or that time he pitched a complete game after a disc in his back slipped. Or that time the Famous Mr. Ed hit a home run off of him. Or that time he let his friend Phil Collier write an article about him retiring before announcing it so his buddy could be the first one to release the story. Or that time he took codeine after every game just so he could have use of his left arm. Or that time he... you get the point.
Koufax would be the youngest player to ever be introduced to the Hall of Fame at the age of 36 years old. He also wins my award for "didn’t know he was still alive" person of the year. You would think a guy introduced to the Hall of Fame over 50 years ago would be dead by now right.
Like and share with a baseball lover. Today was a pretty dead day in terms of current baseball events so today is a little bit of a history lesson.
That is today's Tea, with T
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