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After the 1966 season ended, Sandy Koufax shocked the baseball world when he announced his retirement. Koufax, only 30, pitched 323 innings and posted a 27-9, 1.79 ERA that season.
To the casual fan, he seemed at his peak. But well known inside the Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse was that Koufax suffered from an arthritic left elbow that made pitching excruciating. Rather than continue taking pain medication for his inflamed elbow and risk permanent damage, he walked away.
For the six years leading up to his retirement, Koufax may have been the most dominant pitcher in baseball history. From 1961 through 1966, he went 132-47; won five straight ERA titles; tossed four no-hitters, including a perfect game; won three Cy Young Awards, each time unanimously; led the league in strikeouts four times; fanned 18 batters in a game twice; was voted onto seven All-Star teams; and was the National League MVP in 1963.
The last regular season game Koufax pitched, the nightcap of a crucial Oct. 2 double header against the Philadelphia Phillies, reflected all of his skills.
The Dodgers, locked in a close race with the San Francisco Giants and needing to win at least one of two on the season’s last day, sent their aces Don Drysdale and Koufax to the hill. In the opener, the Phillies behind Chris Short (20-10), knocked off the Dodgers, 4-3. The Phillies first batter, John Briggs, homered off Drysdale who was gone by the third inning.
Now it was up to Koufax, pitching on two days rest, to deliver the pennant. Even though the game was meaningless to the fourth-place Phillies, 19-game winner Jim Bunning got the nod. The game marked the first time two pitchers who had tossed perfect games went head-to-head. (Watch Koufax pitch the ninth inning of his Sept. 9, 1965 perfecto against the Chicago Cubs here.)
Koufax pitched a masterful complete game giving up two earned runs and striking out 10 while coasting to a 6-3 win. The Dodgers had led 6-0 going into the ninth.
The Dodgers then advanced to the World Series where one more start awaited Koufax.
In the series opener against the Baltimore Orioles, Drysdale, pitching poorly once more, gave up four runs in two innings and was yanked. The next day, Koufax, again on short rest, allowed one earned run over six innings. But he was no match for the Orioles’ Jim Palmer, who shut the Dodgers out, 6-0.
The Dodgers were also held scoreless in games three and four, losing 1-0 and 1-0, as the Birds completed a four-game sweep.
Koufax’s post-playing career has had ups and downs. In 1967, he signed a ten-year contract with NBC for $1 million ($6,516,000 in current dollars) to broadcast the Saturday Game of the Week. But Koufax quit after six years.
Six years later, the Dodgers hired Koufax to be its minor league pitching coach. But his uneasy relationship with then-manager Tommy Lasorda led to his 1990 resignation.
In 2003, Koufax temporarily ended his Dodger relationship when the New York Post (which, like the Dodgers at the time, had become part of Rupert Murdoch’s corporate empire) published a story suggesting that he was gay.
During his post-retirement period, Koufax’s personal life was as unsettled as his professional one. He married and divorced twice.
Happier news: the Baseball Hall of Fame elected Koufax in his first year of eligibility (1972) with 875 of the vote. The Sporting News named him No. 26 on its 1999 list of “The 100 Greatest Baseball Players.”
— Joe Guzzardi is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America who now lives in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at guzzjoe@yahoo.com, or follow him on Twitter: @joeguzzardi19. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.