When he first arrived upon the Major League scene in 1955 as a highly-regarded bonus baby, it was said of Sanford Koufax that he could throw a ripe strawberry through the side of a battleship…if he could manage to hit the battleship.

            But thanks to a bit of sage advice from a journeyman catcher, Koufax harnessed his incredible talent in the early 1960’s and carved out a five-year stretch of pitching that rivals any in Major League history.

            A brilliant comet that lit up the Major League universe from 1961-66, Koufax was born Sanford Braun on Dec. 30, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York.  (His parents, Evelyn and Jack Braun, divorced when he was three years old.  He took the surname of his stepfather, Irving Koufax, after his mother remarried when he was nine).   At the tender age of 18, the Brooklyn Dodgers signed him to a $6,000 contract with a $14,000 bonus as an amateur free agent on Dec. 14, 1954.  (As a “bonus baby”, the Dodgers were required to keep Koufax on their 40-man roster for two years or risk leaving him vulnerable to the waiver wire).

            “There are two times in my life the hair on my arms stood up:  the first time I saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the first time I saw Sandy Koufax throw a fastball,” remarked Al Campanis, the scout who signed the lefthander and who later became the general manager of the Dodgers.

            Koufax made his Major League debut on June 24, 1955 against the Milwaukee Braves, making Bobby Thomson the first strikeout victim of what would turn out to be a Hall of Fame career.  He would go on to record 2,396 strikeouts in his career, averaging 9.3 whiffs per nine innings.

            After struggling with his control (5.27 walks per 9 innings) over the first six years of his career—Koufax was 36-40 with an earned run average of 4.10 through 1960—the talented lefty finally took the oft-repeated advice of journeyman catcher Norm Sherry and stopped trying to overthrow every pitch, taking off just enough to get the ball into the strike zone.  From 1961 until the premature end of his career following the 1966 season, Koufax went 129-47 (a .733 win percentage) with an ERA of 2.19, won three Cy Young Awards and three pitching Triple Crowns, struck out over 300 batters in a season three times and fired a then-record four no-hitters.

            Before an arthritic left elbow forced his early retirement at the age of 30, he authored two of his finest seasons in 1965 (26-8, 2.04 ERA, a then-record 382 strikeouts) and 1966 (27-9, 1.73 ERA, 317 strikeouts).

            At a time when only one Cy Young Award was bestowed each year in the Majors, Koufax captured the honor a then-record three times (1963, 1965 and 1966—all were unanimous selections) and was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1963.  (He finished second in the National League MVP balloting in both 1965 and ’66).  The Dodger southpaw claimed the pitching equivalent of the Triple Crown (most wins, lowest ERA, most strikeouts) in three seasons—1963, ’65 and ’66.  His 382 strikeouts in 1965 stood as the Major League single season record until Nolan Ryan recorded 383 whiffs in 1973.  (Koufax’s four no-hitters also stood as a Major League record until Ryan again erased his name from the record book with an eventual seven gems).   

            As great as Koufax became as a regular season pitcher, he seemingly saved his best for the post-season.  In eight World Series appearances, he posted a 0.95 ERA and 61 strikeouts in just 57 innings.  He set a World Series record with 15 strikeouts against the New York Yankees in Game One of the 1963 Classic, snapping the mark of 14 set by former Brooklyn Dodger Carl Erskine in the 1953 World Series.  (Koufax’s record would fall five years later when Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals fanned 17 in Game One of the 1968 World Series against the Detroit Tigers). 

            After facing Koufax in the ’63 Series, Yankee slugger Yogi Berra remarked, “I can see how he won 25 games.  What I don’t understand is how he lost five.”

            In the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins, the Jewish Koufax declined to pitch Game One out of respect for Yom Kippur.  After losing Game Two to the Twins, he came back to win Games Five and Seven with a pair of brilliant shut-outs.  Koufax gave the Dodgers a 3-2 Series lead in Game Five by blanking the Twins 5-0 on a four-hitter, walking just one and striking out 10.  Working on just two days rest, he came back in Minnesota to give the Dodgers their second World Championship in three years by throttling the Twins 2-0 on just three hits, walking three and fanning 10 once more to earn Most Valuable Player honors for the Series.

            The seven-time National League all-star announced his retirement at the age of 30 following the 1966 season due to a crippling arthritic condition in his left elbow.  He was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1972 after compiling a career record of 165-87 (a .655 win percentage), a 2.76 ERA and 40 shut-outs.

(Sources used for this article include Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, Wikipedia and Baseball Almanac.com)