look at him ^_^ (sandy koufax)
[ID: Black and white photo of pitcher Sandy Koufax. He is shirtless with a towel slung over his shoulders. He holds up some newspapers, all with headlines about him. /. End ID.]
POINTING. VINTAGE EARS. In looking this guy up i am finding out cool things like they called him THE LEFT ARM OF GOD??? and he played for the Dodgers omg evil baseball mention!! from my hat....
An article I dug up from 1995 - Ode to a Private Man : What becomes a legend most? When it comes to Sandy Koufax--hero, role model, enigma--it’s being left alone. (archived) -> bit of injury talk in there + drug use, be advised! my favourite passages:
When it comes to baseball heroics, the less said the better. And that goes not just for historic moments--like a perfect game--but for players as well. If you put someone on a pedestal, don’t ask them too many questions.
He was larger than life, but the appeal was also personal: If you were a left-handed Jewish kid like me, there weren’t many athletic role models. When Sandy Koufax came along, my whole world changed. Did he refuse to pitch the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it happened to fall on Yom Kippur? Mazel tov! Did he still win the final game? Break out the seltzer!
As my deadline nears, I realize Koufax is right. Better we should remember the athlete and let the private man be. For now, I’m back in the living room with my dad. We’re spellbound, as Koufax bears down for the second out:
“Sandy, fussing, looks in to get his sign. 0 and 2 to Amalfitano--the strike-two pitch to Joe: Fastball, swung on and missed, strike three! He is one out away from the promised land.”
For three long minutes, I sit numbly at my desk. Then I call up my wife and begin shouting.
“Did he say anything interesting?” she asks. “Did you at least ask him what he ate for breakfast this morning? Did you get anything at all?”
I’m stumped. “Hard Copy” would fire me on the spot. But Jim Murray, The Times’ sports columnist, said it best. When Sandy Koufax retired at the peak of his game, he wasn’t interested in bad second acts. Neither am I.