Free Republic

Only two minutes. Sandy at his retirement announcement. Example of class compared to many of today's athletes.

The Israeli team made history Sunday by defeating South Africa 11-1 in Italy, after beating the Netherlands on Thursday and tournament host Italy on Friday.

Sandy Koufax, the great Dodgers pitcher, turns 80 today. Happy birthday, Sandy! Wikipedia article Career statistics Baseball Hall of Fame Top stats to know as Sandy Koufax turns 80 Watch Sandy Koufax Highlights on Legend's 80th Birthday Direct link to video: Legend Series: Sandy Koufax HighlightsIMDb

Lawrence Peter Berra—you know him better as Yogi—died a month ago. Berra was a devout Catholic, who also happened to be a brilliant baseball player and one of America’s most lovable wits. We pray for the repose of his soul, but this column is not about Yogi Berra. Nor is it about the hapless Chicago Cubs, who for the 107th year in a row will have to once again “wait until next year.” It is about baseball, which is on the mind of any sports fan in the country in October, the glorious month of the postseason and the World...

Half a century ago, when Los Angeles Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax chose not to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins because it fell on Yom Kippur, Elliot Strom was a 15-year-old baseball fan in Toronto. After attending services that morning, Strom, who acknowledges that at the time he "wasn't the best synagogue attender in the world," told his father he planned to stay home that afternoon and watch the World Series on TV rather than return for late services. This did not go over well. "My father was very unhappy with me,'' Strom recalls....

After the 1965 season Sandy Koufax, the best baseball pitcher on the planet, held out for a higher salary from his employer, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Koufax had won the Cy Young Award, given to the league’s best pitcher, two of the past three years, would have won it the third but for an injury, and had led the Dodgers to two World Championships in those three years. Thanks largely to his efforts, the Dodgers’ owners were profiting handsomely, but they were paying poorly. In Koufax’s holdout he teamed up, for increased leverage, with Don Drysdale, the Dodgers’ other dominating...

On the field, Sandy Koufax wasn't just any baseball player. Off the field, he wasn't viewed that way either. The Hall of Fame pitcher isn't just remembered by baseball fans as "the man with the golden arm," but is revered by his Jewish admirers as "the left arm of God" for his talent as well as the public observance of his faith, most notably during the 1965 World Series. A legendary left-handed pitcher who spent his entire career with the Dodgers, Koufax dominated batters like few ever have, atop mounds in Brooklyn and Los Angeles -- as well as just...

GLENDALE, Ariz. (CBSLA.com/AP) – Los Angeles Dodgers great Sandy Koufax was hit by a foul ball off the bat of Andre Ethier during batting practice.Koufax was standing in the bullpen down the third base line when he was hit Friday. The 78-year-old was struck on the forehead, but told reporters as he walked off the field that he was fine.

For five memorable seasons, Sandy Koufax dominated baseball as no other major league pitcher ever had before. From 1962 to 1966, Koufax led the National League in earned run average, the only pitcher ever to do that. At the same time, he compiled a record of 111-34, a winning percentage of .766, that has never been equaled. Koufax led the National League in wins, ERA, and strikeouts for three consecutive seasons. He pitched 4 no-hitters, including a perfect game. In 1963, he threw 11 shutouts, more than any other pitcher has since in one season. In 1965, he went 26-8...

"On the scoreboard in right field, it is 9:46 p.m. in the City of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of 29,139 [has seen] the only pitcher in baseball history to hurl four no-hit, no-run games. ... And now he caps it. On his fourth no-hitter, he made it a perfect game." The date was Sept. 9, 1965, and it seemed appropriate that Vin Scully, the best baseball broadcaster since World War II, was telling the world that Sandy Koufax, the most dominant pitcher of that period, had achieved the ultimate...

When you greatly admire a famous person, someone once said, avoid meeting him. Otherwise, prepare yourself for disappointment. Whoever said that never met Sandy Koufax, the great former pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the seventh grade, at age 12, I entered a poetry contest held at my Los Angeles junior high school. I wrote about my favorite player: Koufax is on the mound, The game has just begun. He gets a sign from the catcher And, zoom, strike one. Not exactly Robert Frost, so I'll spare you the rest of the poem. But after winning, I immediately sent...

Which Hall of Fame baseball hero cooperated with a best-selling biography only because the author promised to keep it secret that he is gay? The author kept her word, but big mouths at the publishing house can't keep from flapping.'' The above gossip appeared Dec. 19 in the New York Post. Yeah, I missed it, too. But Sandy Koufax caught it and thought the item was referring to him. His biographer, Jane Leavy, also saw it and thought the item was referring to Koufax and her. On Friday, the Post said it was sorry. ''The author has denied making any...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The New York Post said on Friday it will apologize to baseball great Sandy Koufax for running a gossip item insinuating he was gay. The piece reportedly led the former pitcher to sever his ties to his longtime team, the Los Angeles Dodgers.... According to a report in Friday's Los Angeles Times, Koufax told the Dodgers, for whom he pitched from 1955 to 1966, that he would have nothing more to do with the team because of a two-line Post item printed on Dec. 19 that said that an unnamed Hall-of-Fame baseball player had cooperated with...

Sandy Koufax will sever his 48 year ties with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers over a ballclub parent owned article that appeared in the New York Post that said a 'Hall of Fame Dodger player' was gay. The Dodgers had offered a formal apology to the all star in return for his particiaption in club activites