Sandy Koufax

I don't think that I had any idea who Sandy Koufax was or what a great pitcher he was when I watched my first world series in October of 1963. I was still confined to bed, this time at home, recovering from my broken hip. My parents had purchased a small television (black and white) with a remote control that I kept in a little box near the hospital bed that they set up for me on the first floor. I was in a half body cast with the right leg free. So I wasn't going anywhere. So, I watched a couple of now defunct soap operas, cartoons, Dobie Gillis, and baseball. Oh, and I was supposed to be doing homework assigned by my home tutor who was supposed to be keeping up with my forth grade class.

In those days all the world series games were played in the afternoon. I suspect that as long as I did whatever homework assignment I had, or pretended that I had done my homework, that my mother would let me watch the baseball game. It was the Yankees versus the LA Dodgers. And I was rooting for the Dodgers. If you are so inclined, there is complete box score for this series found here. The Dodgers won in four games with Sandy Koufax winning two games. I watched Sandy Koufax in one more world series, the 1965 series

As a life long baseball fan, I am still awestruck by his lifetime earned run average (2.76). He retired at a fairly young age, somewhere around 30 years of age if I recall due to arm problems, perhaps arthritis. 165 wins. And hall of famer. Imagine what he could have done if he had been able to pitch longer.

Needless to say, Sandy Koufax was one of my first heroes, along with Don Drysdal. I knew that Sandy Koufax was special and in subsequent years I would find out how special he was. When people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would respond:

I want to be the first female pitcher on the Los Angeles Dodgers.