LA Dodgers Sandy Koufax Hall of Fame Bobblehead

Sandy Koufax is an American former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played his entire career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. He has been hailed as one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history; he was a member of World Series champions in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles

Koufax was an All-Star in each of his last six seasons,[2] leading the National League (NL) in ERA each of his last five years, in strikeouts four times, in wins and shutouts three times each, and in winning percentage, innings pitched and complete games twice each; he was the first NL pitcher in 20 years to post an ERA below 2.00, doing so three times. After setting a modern NL record in 1961 with 269 strikeouts, in 1963 he became the first pitcher in 17 years and the first left-hander since 1904 to strike out 300 batters. In 1965 he set a major league record with 382 strikeouts; it was broken in 1973 by Nolan Ryan, but remains the top mark for NL pitchers and left-handers. He was the first pitcher to record a 300-strikeout season three times, and set a then-record of 97 games with at least 10 strikeouts (he is now sixth on the list)[3]; he twice tied a modern record by striking out 18 batters in a game. Koufax won the Cy Young Award in 1963, 1965, and 1966 by unanimous votes, winning the Triple Crown[4][5][6][7] and leading the Dodgers to a pennant in each of those years; he was the first three-time winner of the award, and the only pitcher to do so when a single award was given instead of one for each league. He was also named the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1963, and was runner-up for the award in 1965 and 1966, behind Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente, respectively.

Koufax was the first major league pitcher to throw four no-hitters and, in 1965, became the eighth pitcher and the first left-hander in the modern era (post-1900) to pitch a perfect game. He was named the World Series MVP in both 1963 and 1965, earning two wins in each Series and striking out 52 batters to lead the team to another pair of titles. He is also notable for being one of the outstanding Jewish athletes in American sports; Koufax's decision not to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur garnered national attention as a conflict between religion and society, and remains a notable event in U.S. Jewish history.[8][9]

Upon his retirement, Koufax's career ERA of 2.76 trailed only Whitey Ford among pitchers with at least 2,000 innings pitched since 1925; his .655 winning percentage ranked third among both left-handers and modern NL pitchers. Despite his comparatively short career, his 2,396 career strikeouts ranked seventh in major league history at the time of his retirement, trailing only Warren Spahn (2,583) among left-handers; his 40 shutouts were tied for ninth in modern NL history. He was the first pitcher in history to average more than one strikeout per inning, and the first to allow fewer than seven hits per nine innings pitched. At age 36, Koufax was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1972, becoming the youngest player ever elected. He has since worked for the Dodgers organization in a variety of capacities.