Don’t mean to exhume such an old debate, but I sure wish I saw this in its heyday.
Huge southpaw buff here, and in the pre-blog days (early aughts) I spent far more time than I’d care to admit analyzing/ranking any and all lefties.
While I didn’t read all 636 posts, I thoroughly enjoyed the outstanding analysis and comments supporting and critiquing each candidate.
No point adding my own list, but I did want to echo the sentiment that peak value carries tremendous weight when determining “greatness”. It almost cannot be argued that without it, Koufax’s legacy would not have existed at all.
By this I mean even if he compiled the same exact single season totals, but only staggered across his career rather than being super-concentrated as they were, we would not be talking about him in nearly the same light.
Lest we forget that it was actually his non-statistical narrative that has fuelled his mystique to this day in a way no other pitcher has. The no-no’s, the hardware, the championships, the conviction not to pitch in the World Series on his Sabbath, the early retirement after the greatest final season ever, his post-retirement reclusiveness, etc…
Sandy’s
peak cannot be overestimated because it has endured for 55 years now. 55 years and he is
still being discussed among the young and less-than-young. Among casual fans and the most ardent students of the game. Among the vast majority of us who are relegated to YouTube highlights and the privileged surviving few who witnessed his magic in person (who when you think about it, would have to be at least about 70 right now to have a vivid and full appreciation of what they saw then).
How many retired
players period are still revered the way Koufax has been…let alone for half a century+?
Say what you will about how fans tend to carry selective memories when it comes to their teams/heroes, but can millions upon millions be wrong?
Among hitters, the list is much longer of course (Ruth, Mantle (see my previous question), Mays, Clemente, Aaron, etc…), but among pitchers? I contend an honest list would be limited to Cy Young, who despite the eponymous annual award, doesn’t even qualify for this debate because he threw with the wrong hand
Curiously, Young’s mystique is nearly the polar opposite of Koufax’s as it leans almost exclusively on his otherworldly career output.
Don’t scoff when I say just Young…name one other pitcher who stopped playing before Sandy did, and who not only lives but
flourishes in our modern collective consciousness the way Koufax does?
Does Big Train (who is certainly #1 ever) honestly evoke that emotion? If not Walter, how can any other until Koufax came along? That is the essence of peak value.
Okay, let’s move the chains to post-Sandy. Nolan Ryan? Fair, but not exactly a “peak” guy the way Sandy was. Plus, that was a mere 28 years ago since he finally hung up his cleats. Double that and see if we are still gushing (spoiler alert, we are).
Pedro? C’mon, that was just 12 years ago…practically yesterday. Will we still be romanticizing his exploits in 2064 (43 years from now to match the 55 year retirement Sandy has today)?
Koufax meanwhile, while still with us, has been largely absent from the public eye for several decades, so it is not like we are being spoon fed regular reminders of him through appearances, autograph signings, commercials, etc…. His “greatness”, however you wish to define it, speaks for itself and stands on its own…sabermetrics be damned
The essence of peak value, and why he’s in the conversation in the first place.
Now career value is another matter…Spahn is my guy.