Rating: 
Summary: An Icon Among Icons
Review: There has never been a better role model in sports for kids then the great left-hander from Brooklyn. Classy and modest on and off the field he was respected by opponents, liked by his teamates, and loved by his fans. I was one of those kids growing up in the 60's lucky enough to see him perform on tv and even luckier to see him pitch in person. For all his greatness on the field his star never shown brighter then when he would not pitch that day of Yom Kippur. His immortality was defined that day. Enjoy a great book about a great person and role model.
Rating:
Summary: If Only Leo Mazzoni Had Been Around in 1955
Review: The Koufax story, as we remember it, and as author Jane Leavy depicts it, has some of the trappings of a medieval morality play. A 1954 Brooklyn boy improbably becomes a "bonus baby" with his hometown Dodgers. So wild and unpredictable a hurler, his manager dreaded to use him. He labors six years but never loses faith. Suddenly, in 1961, the fidelity of this Dodger Job is redeemed. He rolls off six years of impeccable performance that earn him a berth in the Hall of Fame. To paraphrase Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything, including premature retirement when a left arm becomes irreparably damaged. And then he disappears to a privacy of his own doing.
This is an interesting work that features memory and impression over sabermetrics. Koufax did win eleven games in 1958; he was not exactly a stiff before 1961. And if one looks at the stats closely, he was not that far from his peers even at his best: in his memorable six-season span, 1961-1966, he bested Juan Marichal in wins by a slim 129-124 margin and Don Drysdale by 129-111. [Marichal would win another 113 after Koufax retired.] Thus, the difference between Koufax and his peers like Marichal, Bob Gibson, and Drysdale must lie elsewhere than in sheer statistics. Jane Levy seeks to find that "otherness," focusing upon the atmosphere of postwar Brooklyn, the influence of Judaism upon the pitcher, and the mixed emotions of Koufax and his admirers alike when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. Leavy captures what stats guru Bill James uses as the ultimate criterion for admission to the Hall of Fame: his contemporaries thought of Koufax as the best at his position.
Koufax's career covered twelve years, much shorter than Marichal's or Warren Spahn's. In retrospect, however, he seemed to have pitched in two different eras of the game. In those grainy black and white films of the 1955 World Series, when Dodger outfielder Sandy Amoros started the mother of all double plays near the left field foul line, a very young Koufax watched from the Dodger bench. He was there the next year to see Larsen's perfect game; he moved with the team to Los Angeles; he pitched in the Coliseum with its "Wally Moon home run porch" and was a member of the 1959 World Series Championship team, posting an 8-6 season record. Aside from winning big in the 1960's, he and Drysdale attempted the first "collective bargaining" strategy and started the ball rolling for Curt Flood and Marvin Miller.
Amazingly during his Brooklyn high school days Koufax was not considered prospective baseball material, and certainly not a pitcher. His sport, ironically, was basketball, and on February 10, 1953, Koufax and his Lafayette High School five [which included a scrappy Alan Dershowitz] embarrassed a New York Knicks team paced by Harry "The Horse" Gallatin and Al McGuire. He might never have attempted organized baseball were it not for a serendipitous encounter with one Milt Laurie, Braves' prospect turned truck driver. Laurie was impressed with the speed of Koufax's delivery, if not his control, and eased him into the world of Brooklyn amateur baseball. Later, at the University of Cincinnati, baseball coach Ed Jucker [yes, that Ed Jucker, better known for his coaching on hardwood floors.] complained that none of his catchers would go near Koufax for fear for life or limb. It is unclear who among the Dodger organization first caught sight of Koufax-though Walter Alston had seen him play basketball at Cincinnati-Al Campanis appears to have spearheaded the recruiting and signed the lefty.
Koufax, as Leavy observed, came to the Dodgers at roughly the same time as Alston. The latter's conservative and basic outlook on the game was never quite at peace with the unpredictable Koufax. Their relationship was tense. Leavy overstates the case when she argues that Alston was flat out afraid to use him-Koufax started 25 games in 1958-but she is correct that the Dodger organization did not know how to manage him. As a result, Koufax developed his unique windup and delivery pretty much on his own. Leavy devotes an entire chapter to his delivery, including kinetic sketches--admirable until one realizes that this very delivery nearly destroyed his left arm. When the reader considers how Leo Mazzoni has nurtured flame-thrower John Smoltz through near twenty profitable seasons, the tragedy of Koufax's shortened career comes into clearer focus.
The Koufax who emerges here is neither a philosopher nor a religious fanatic. He is a competitive but sociable Brooklynite who never totally succumbed to West Coast glitz nor corporate Dodger hubris. His reserve is a genuine humility, a reluctance to trade in on what he considered a physical ability, and should not be confused with the darker shadows of DiMaggio. He was loved by his teammates, and respected [and feared] by the opposition. Thanks to Leavy's extensive search for Koufax contemporaries, there is a plethora of anecdotal material from Ron Fairly, Ken Holtzman, Nate Oliver, Jeff Torborg, Maury Wills, Wes Parker, and Ed Vargo, to name a few. The ultimate in nostalgia is Leavy's reconstruction over nine chapters of Koufax's perfect game of September 9, 1965. Pieced together from a scouting film, a boy's tape recording of the radio broadcast, and memories of the participants, Leavy recounts one of baseball's greatest pitching duels, between the perfect Koufax and the near perfect Bob Hendley of the Cubs. It is proof positive that the Koufax era was an experience that lifted all boats in the tide of competition.
Rating: 
Summary: Readable but not much more
Review: So there really isn't much mystery about Sandy Koufax. Shortly after he retired he married twice, each marriage being relatively long lasting, and he led a quiet life. He attended various baseball ceremonies, raised some money for charities, and coached a bit. Leavey demolishes the "recluse" nonsense.She also sets out clearly why Sandy had to retire early. He like other starting pitchers of his era were exploited by their teams. Throwing fastballs for nine or more innings per game game after game would have ruined anyone's arm. Baseball had not yet appreciated the middle reliever and the closer. Had Sandy pitched 6 or 7 innings per game, his career would have lasted another 5 years easily. I have to admire his and Drysdale's work ethic though. The book recalls the late 50's and early 60's well and makes you realize how much society and baseball has changed. It is a fun book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Wow, so much more than a biography.
Review: The man, the mystery. Sandy Koufax. You think you know some things about him, but they are bogus. Ms. Leavy cleverly paints a brilliant picture of Koufax, his life, the era, and everything in between. I can't say enough about this book. I went through it quickly. He's just a fascinating guy and the devoted followers he has proves he is well-respected man. You probably have a lot of questions about Koufax. Well, here is the definitive answer to all of them. And no, he's not gay for god's sake.
Rating:
Summary: Fine social biography of a good man
Review: Jane Leavy had a daunting task -- writing a biography of a living ex-ballplayer who would not let her interview him. Sandy Koufax is famous for many things including: (1) pitching ability -- including one of the best 4-5 year stretches in baseball history; (2) retirement at a young age [30] to prevent additional damage to his already debilitated arm, which led to induction in the Hall of Fame at 35 (the youngest inductee ever); (3) his refusal to pitch game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it took place on Yom Kippur; (4) winning game 7 of the '65 Series in a three-hit shutout on two days' rest with only his fastball; (5) his reputation as the sporting world's reclusive equivalent of Greta Garbo or J.D. Salinger.
Leavy approached this book the right way -- she did a great deal of research, interviewed his former teammates and contemporaries, interviewed the players who have met and learned from him since his retirement and researched his background. Moreover, this is not a straight biography because Koufax is so intensely private despite his larger place in baseball history -- a Jewish icon, a superstar who struggled for the first 6-7 years of his career, a minority white who helped bridge the racial divide in the first decade-plus after baseball's racial integration, a reluctant labor leader who held out for more money during the players-as-chattel era when players were bound to their teams and could not become free agents. Leavy is able to show Koufax's integrity, professionalism, work ethic and honesty through the numerous Koufax contemporaries she interviewed.
Leavy's work is highly readable and innovatively structured: the chapters detailing Koufax's life are separated by three-four page interlude chapters recalling, inning-by-inning, Koufax's perfect game against the Cubs in 1965 (his 4th no-hitter and the 4th-straight season in which he pitched a no-hitter). Leavy is a sportswriter and some of the stylistic quirks in her writing are annoying, but inconsequential (quote attribution can be confusing, sliding from direct quotes to non-quoted vernacular) traits that many sportswriters have. She also soft-pedals the anti-Semitism of Walter Alston, Koufax's manager, that both ESPN's and Sports Illustrated's Koufax retrospectives detailed.
All told, this is a fine book that places Koufax in perspective of his sports era, his religion, and the culture of the country as baseball expanded during the transition from the 1950s to the 1960s.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Writing, great legacy
Review: I have read a great many baseball books over the years and usually don't have a particularly high hope for the writing of most biographies, especially when the subject is still alive. Either the writing comes off as trying to impress too hard or the writer is trying to make his or her reputation off the subject. That is not true in this case. Ms. Leavy is a wonderful writer and she works hard to create an honest portrait of one of the all time great pitchers, Sandy Koufax. The style of the book, intersecting his perfect game with his life will delight baseball and non-baseball fans alike. Her discussion of Koufax and his faith is thought provoking and well developed. She also provides a glimpse into the 1950's in Brooklyn that is terrific. This book certainly ranks as one of the finest baseball related books to be published in some time, and unlike the Cubs who were silenced by Koufax on that great night in 1965, this book contains plenty of hits. Read it- give it as a gift. This is a winner.
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