Koufax

by Edward Gruver

Book Overview

This book chronicles his turbulent life and focuses on the reverential mystique that envelopes the Los Angeles Dodger even this day. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0878331573
• ISBN13: 9780878331574
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Koufax Acquaintance From N.Y.

"Koufax", as written by Ed Gruver, is a highly focused book that covers the life and times of this most private man with flair and tact.The strength of this book is the combination of the author's narrative with the insightful quotes from interviews he conducted with Sandy's friends and former teammates.Gruver covers Koufax's life and career through the spectrum of one game - Game 7 of the 1965 World Series. It's an interesting approach, and it works here since this game is regarded as the defining game in Koufax's great career. (Interesting that Jane Levy's book, published one year later, uses the same format, though with a different game)."Koufax" is a wide-ranging story of the life and career of the man many consider the greatest left-handed pitcher in history. It's filled with interesting anecdotes and brings to life a highly private individual.Overall, I found it an accurate portrayal of one of sports' most enigmatic figures.

A MUST READ for any baseball fan

I was one of the 69,000 in attendance who jammed into Yankee Stadium to see Sandy Koufax top Whitey Ford in the World Series opener in 1963 . . . in doing so, he set a World Series record of 15 strikeouts . . . I also remember the game because Frank Howard hit the hardest ball I've ever seen . . . if memory serves me correctly, it hit the bottom of the center field fence on a fly . . . but I digress . . . I mention the preceding because i recently finished KOUFAX by Edward Gruver, the story of the three-time Cy Young award winner and Jewish icon who refused to pitch on High Holy days . . . this is a MUST READ for any baseball fan . . . it provides insight into the elusive, enigmatic hero who left the spotlight at the height of his powers.There were many memorable passages; among them:Koufax was aware of the edge his fastball gave him in pitcher-batter confrontations, and he used it to his advantage. "The art of pitching," he said, "is to instill fear in a man by making him flinch."Koufax enjoyed the confrontations with great hitters. Baseball, he said once, is a form of warfare. He never believed in fraternizing with opposing players, because the guys in the other uniforms represented the enemy. He never wanted to get to know an opponent well enough to feel anything towards them except, as he put it, "sheer hostility."[on loss of income when he was forced to retire] ". . . let's put it this way. If there was a man who did not have the use of one of his arms and you told him it would coast a lot of money if he could buy back that use, he'd give every dime he had, I believe. That's my feeling, and in a sense, maybe this is what I'm doing. . . . I don't regret one minute of the last twelve years, but I think I would regret one year that was too many."

This review isn't helpful but I really don't care.

While thinking about what to say in this review I was reminded of some commentary written about Miles Davis where a jazz critic I have long since forgotten observed, "Miles plays for himself. The listener's appreciation is merely an irrelevant by-product." Under no circumstances do I consider myself to be the literary equivalent of the musician (and artist) that was Miles Davis however the spirit of the quote is a fair assessment of the following review. If Ed Gruver had written a biography of commensurate quality about any other baseball player, at most I would have rated it four stars. Imposition of the name Koufax, establishes an entirely unique dynamic for me. Throughout my childhood, every member of my family and basically every adult I knew well were Dodger fans, nevermind the fact the team was initially 600, and eventually 3000 miles removed from where I lived. I must have been enveloped by a steel industry induced rust belt fog for my pre-teen, adolescent and young adult years because up to the point of Jackie Robinson's death the basis for our unwavering support never occurred to me. No one ever said a thing, it was just the way it was. My family would gather around and listen to Bob Prince's call of Pirates' games just so we could find out how the Dodgers were doing. If the Dodger's were on NBC's game of the week, it became an event comparable to today's Superbowl parties.As a lefthanded kid who fancied himself a future major league pitcher and a Dodger fan to boot, Sandy Koufax was the embodiment of perfection. I'm forced to smile in consideration of my now obvious hypocrisy when I think about the number of times I admonished my children regarding adulation of sports figures, chiding them to remember the athlete should be admired for accomplishments on the field but heroes should be sought from other disciplines. This coming from a man who a few years ago came across an old elementary school autograph book where some erstwhile friend had written, "to the boy who thinks he's Sandy Koufax but is not and never will be," thereby terminating our friendship on the spot. Not only did I consciously attempt to emulate the Koufax delivery, but while recently watching some tapes of my son, I realized when I taught him to pitch, his delivery became a right-handed version of the Koufax form. My first job was hawking newspapers in the stands of Forbes Field during Pirates games. I found out that way I could get in for free. In 1965, I was fortunate enough to be at a doubleheader where the Dodgers starting pitchers were Koufax and Drysdale. Koufax gave up first inning homers to Bob Bailey and Donn Clendenon, then he shut down the Pirates, went all nine (naturally) and the Dodgers won 5-2. I don't have the slightest clue what happened with Drysdale in the second game. Without question, baseball is the american sport with the most time-tested adages and overwhelming conventional wisdom. The book says a fastball cannot rise and in the late innings, hit

Where have all our heroes gone?

On a balmy, summer's evening in Southern California during the mid-60's, I tune my transistor radio to KFI, and loop the handstrap around my bicycle's handlebar. Peddling aimlessly through the darkening twilight, my thoughts are solely on the vision conjured up by the Voice of the Dodgers, Vin Scully. I remember as if it was only yesterday..."On the mound tonight for the Los Angeles Dodgers ... number 32 ... the great left-hander... Sandy Koufax"."Koufax", by Edward Gruver, brings it all back. It's more than just a straightforward biography. The backbone of the book is a narrative of Sandy's gutsy, phenomenal performance in the seventh game of the 1965 World Series with the Minnesota Twins, relived batter by batter and pitch by pitch, at roughly one inning per chapter. The author fleshes out each inning's action with the story of Koufax's life: parents, childhood, education, religion, early baseball career, peak baseball career, teammates, adversaries, pitching style, injuries, retirement, and post retirement. And enough pitching stats to satisfy even the most hardball of fans. My only criticism might be that the author's evident hero worship of his subject is almost slavish. However, who am I to criticize considering the knuckle-biting attention I paid to Sandy's every outing, every pitch and every decision? This is a must-have book about a truly great gentleman and ballplayer.Thirty-four years after my hero's final walk to the mound, I'm no longer a baseball fan, much less a follower of the Dodgers. Nowadays, star baseball (and football, and basketball) players seem to get more media attention when they abuse drugs, commit felony assault or rape, or are just downright obnoxious. Yes, I suppose professional athletes have always had their darker side, but the paying fans rarely heard about it, and the reputation of The Game was the better for it. For me, there are no present-day heroes. But, if I surrender to memory on a balmy, Southern California, summer evening, I can still hear Vin Scully across the decades ..."Sandy looks in to Roseboro for the sign ... He goes into his wind-up ... Now the pitch... FASTBALL! ... Swung on and missed! Strike three!... Oh, my!"

Sandy Koufax

I love the way the book is written using the seventh game of the 1965 World Series and alternating between that and Koufax's life,which the author sees as the height of Koufax's career. And shows how painful it must have been to pitch with agonizing pain. Koufax is put together from past interviews and interviews from the players childhood friends teammates and others. I felt it gave a great overall story about the legendary pitcher.