Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy [Paperback]

No one has a bad word to say about him. His friends and associates appear loyal, some even refusing to speak with the writer before clearing it with Koufax.

She bases her book around Koufax's perfect game pitched on September 9 1965. Writing one chapter about Koufax followed by a chapter about that game itself describing how its perfection unfolds.

Sandy Koufax is also famous for refusing to pitch on Yom Kippur causing him to miss a World series game. But the reasoning that Leavy illicits is not because of religous fervor but further testament to this man's nature.

Leavy also deals with Anti-Semitism in baseball and Koufax's view again shows him in credible light.

This truly is an insightful book (time is spent exploring the pain he went through daily just to pitch), well written and easily read. You do not have to be an authority on baseball to understand this. A book that will please both Jew and Gentile and one that leaves you feeling that Nice Guys Dont Always Finish Last.

These were the energizing words coming over the airwaves that I lived for as a teenager in the mid-60s. I was a Dodger fan. More specifically, a Sandy Koufax fan. I never saw him pitch, but rather relied on the Voice of the Dodgers, Vin Scully, to paint in my mind's eye the picture of my hero at work. So, on September 9, 1965, it was after "lights out" at a private boarding school north of Los Angeles, and I was under the covers with my transistor radio surreptitiously glued to the final inning of Sandy's perfect game against the Chicago Cubs.

Consciously or not, former sportswriter Jane Leavy has constructed SANDY KOUFAX: A LEFTY'S LEGACY much the same as Ed Gruver's year 2000 book, KOUFAX. In each, the author alternates multiple chapters about Sandy's upbringing, professional career, and post-retirement with chapters that are a batter by batter account of Sandy's greatest diamond triumphs - at one inning per chapter. In Gruver's story, it was the last game of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins when Koufax pitched with only two days rest, and clinched the Fall Classic with grit and a fastball. In Leavy's, it's the Perfect Game pitched against the Cubs at Dodger Stadium, when Sandy's performance touched the truly sublime.

Based on a wealth of interviews with her subject's friends and former fellow players, Leavy's book provides much more information about Sandy's life and meteoric career than does Gruver's. His Jewishness, the affinity he had with Black players because of it, the racism other players felt towards him during his early years with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and his decision not to pitch the opening game of the '65 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. His perception of the pure science of pitching, and how he got the rules of physics to work to his advantage. The hard feelings Koufax still harbors against Walter Alston for mismanaging his early career. The disaster that was baseball's system of signing "bonus babies". The assault Koufax and Don Drysdale made on the Reserve Clause of the Uniform Players Contract with their famous salary hold-out before the 1966 season. Indeed, while Leavy's chapters on the Perfect Game are models of coherence, sometimes she gets into trouble in the intervening segments with non-sequiturs that left me thinking, "Uh, come again", and which imparted a certain choppiness to the narrative, as if she had failed to stitch all her information together properly. Examples:

"Koufax, a bachelor, was Doggett's guest on the postgame show every time he pitched and a collector of countless new electrical appliances." OK. So?

On Tommy Lasorda's recollections of his relationship with Koufax: "Once he got going on the subject, Lasorda didn't stop, failing to notice that one of the people to whom he was speaking had doubled over in acute pain with stomach cramps." Who was that and why is it relevant? The author doesn't say.

"The day pitchers and catchers reported (to spring training) was still an occasion observed by tomboys who wore their Mary Janes to school in celebration." Huh? Must be an inside joke.

Beyond these infrequent stumbles, Leavy has crafted a book that will surely delight and absorb anyone wishing to revel in the career of Dandy Sandy. A very nice touch in the chapter about the Perfect Game's 9th inning is a verbatim transcription of Vin Scully's radio play-by-play of the action. I can hear it as if it was only yesterday.

It should be noted that if one is looking for dirt, there isn't any outside of a passing observation indicating Koufax is capable of telling off-color jokes, and evidence that Sandy would occasionally sneak into the players' dorm after curfew during spring training. The adulation is slavish. Perhaps purists will say that this prevents SANDY KOUFAX from being a balanced and great book. On the other hand, in this era of tell-all journalism, maybe it's better not to know the blemishes. Why sully the rare heroes left to us? As Cubs great Ernie Banks thought while watching number 32 walk out to the mound: "It's like being in the ballpark with Jesus."

Yeah, but JC didn't have a 100 mph fastball and a curve that dropped as if off the edge of a table.

The book has an unusual format and focus that you will either love or hate. The continuing story line is Mr. Koufax's perfect game on September 9, 1965 against the Chicago Cubs. The game is related in 10 chapters that alternate with the biographical/sociological material that forms the rest of the book. The end leafs of the book also portray a scorecard from that game. The first chapter of this material is called "The Pregame Show" and sets the stage. Every other chapter covers an inning. It's nicely done, including little known facts like how a little of the game ended up being recorded for posterity. However, no one would buy a book just to read the details of this game.

So the book's appeal rests on its biography of Mr. Koufax, and the related material on how his life affected others. The beginning of the book stresses the biographical, because he was more visible then to those who knew him than after he became the Dodger superstar. I found that that material was fresh and interesting, and added meaningfully to my understanding of his formative influences and early life style. As his fame rose, Mr. Koufax became less visible as a person and his sociological impact increased.

His legacy is treated more seriously than in other books. Basically, it comes down to having had a pioneer's advanced understanding of the mechanics of baseball pitching, performing at an extraordinary level during his career without resorting to underhanded tricks, behaving with modesty and decency, and setting a good example because it was his nature to do so.

Some aspects of that legacy have echoed more loudly than others, such as his choice to sit out the opening game of 1965 World Series because it was on Yom Kippur. His observant example seems to have had a large impact on many Jewish people and increased awareness of the Jewish faith among non-Jews. You will read a lot about that. The book also fills in with what else people were thinking and saying at the time. As these days recede, this contextual information becomes more important in understanding Mr. Koufax and his legacy.

The end of the book seemed to tail off slowly like a hanging curve for me. The material goes into his incredible pain at the end a bit too much, his holdout with Don Drysdale to get a raise, his post-playing baseball activities, his failed marriages, and his continuing search for privacy in a world where many are obsessed with him. To me, those aren't really part of the legacy I feel.

I became a Dodger fan in 1955 when I watched my first World Series on television and fell in love with the team. I felt like my life was complete when they soon moved to Los Angeles, near my home in Southern California so I could see them play in person. During the greatest of Mr. Koufax's playing years, I scraped together a few dollars by working after school and on the weekends, begged or borrowed a ride to the ball park, and tried to see every one of Mr. Koufax's starts I could. The experience at the park was what I imagine being in Heaven must be like. Often having seats in weird spots (because we couldn't afford to buy tickets in advance), I came to reflect on his fast ball and curve from dozens of different angles and distances. The degree that the curve broke and how rapidly it broke were almost impossible to believe. Your breath would catch when it happened. The pop in the catcher's glove from his fast ball would still be echoing in the stands after the ball was back in Mr. Koufax's glove. And he was so serious and yet so serene on the mound. It was as though an angel had joined us for a brief time. To me, Mr. Koufax will always be the unassuming, decent, and quiet man who was a truly worthy baseball hero. We could use more like him today. I believe that's his broadest and most important legacy. He deserves much credit for keeping that legacy pristine. Thank you, Mr. Koufax!!

I feel indebted to Ms. Leavy for extending my understanding of Mr. Koufax and how he has affected the lives of others. Her persistence and effort have added important nuances to our understanding of that quiet hero.

I would like to specially compliment Ms. Leavy for her choice of photographs. If she had only added one showing the time-lapse flight of one of his curve balls, they would have been perfect.

My family also comes in for special praise for giving this book to me as a gift. I'll treasure it (and them) always.

After you finish this fine book, I suggest you think about what your contributions have been and legacy will be. What would Ms. Leavy have to say about you? How could you improve upon that?