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I was a huge Sandy Koufax fan as a kid, even after we moved to the SF Bay Area. Wasn’t easy being a Dodgers fan there. After Koufax retired I eventually switched to being a Giants fan. I didn’t even know he was Jewish then, not that it would have mattered.
Quite a lineup the Dodgers had: Koufax, Drysdale, Osteen, Regan.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/94356/jewish/A-Pair-of-Tefillin-for-Sandy-Koufax.htm
...The day after Yom Kippur, Koufax received a visit in his S. Paul hotel room from Rabbi Moshe Feller, regional director of the Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch — the educational arm of the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement. Feller congratulated Koufax for not playing on Yom Kippur and for “the great assist he gave Rabbis and Jewish educators the world over.”
Rabbi Feller also brought Sandy a pair of tefillin. “Since you bat right and throw left,” he told the pitcher, “I wasn’t sure what type to get you.” (Tefillin are worn on the weaker arm — right-handed people wrap them around their left arm, and lefties on their right arm.) “But considering what your left arm has accomplished, I decided to get you the type you put on your right arm.”...
I’ve always hated the Dodgers with a passion but I *do* recall as a kid having heard that Koufax wouldn’t pitch on Saturdays because of his religion.
As a small boy, I clearly remembering feeling genuinely sorry watching the 1966 World Series which Baltimore swept 4 games to 0 because the great Koufax would pitch no more.
As well as seeing he and Drysdale pitch many times, I was there for his first no-hitter against the Mets.
As a kid in Chicago, I saw Koufax pitch many times, in person at Wrigley Field, as well as on television. He was the best pitcher I have ever seen. If they had had Tommy John Surgery back when he retired, he would have missed a year or so, come back, and his career wins and strikeouts would be almost double. And the surgery would be called Sandy Koufax Surgery. :-)
On the other hand, Detroit revers Hank Greenberg because he did choose to play ball during the Jewish holy days. Go figure.
Don Drysale replace Koufax on the mound that day he got nail with hits when Dysdale came back off the mound I think he told Dodger coach you wish I was Jewish LOL!
The weekly Shabbat is holier than Yom Kippur. Did he refuse to play on it as well?
“Respect,” Koufax responded before the 2014 season when asked by Jewish Week why he sat out the game.”
I thought Sandy Koufax had died.