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SANDY KOUFAX by Arnold ano

SANDY KOUFAX

By

Pub Date: Aug. 7th, 1964
Publisher: Putnam

Sandy Koufax is the boy from Brooklyn who came to pitch for the Dodgers in 1955 when they were still in Brooklyn. Today he ""has come to dominate pitching as has nobody since Bob Feller or Dizzy Dean."" He has had a tremendous amount of adulation, less important to him than the good will of his teammates. He is shown to be a quiet young man who also enjoys books, records and art. And, even though his fast ball and curve ball have made him a master on the mound, there are the ""nights out there"" when ""you feel alone, scared and naked."" This is the story of his cumulative record-setting performances during the seasons and Series since he first joined up in 1955. Time off for the Army set him back as it did Podres; he couldn't find the plate when he came back. (""It was like playing Russian roulette. With five bullets. You didn't have a chance."") Koufax, however, really started to move by 1960, and by 1963, in spite of injuries, etc. established himself as the leading pitcher in the game.... Hano, an enthusiast, admittedly all ""charged up"" by baseball, is an energetic biographer but not at the expense of fact. There are all the ERA, strikeout records, won-lost percentages which youngsters commit to memory much more easily than their multiplication tables.