Quote:
Originally Posted by cjedmonton
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?
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I think this small part of what you wrote (all of which I read) encapsulates the reverence of Koufax. Other than having a killer nickname (Seriously you're not doing better than the Left Arm of God) Koufax's career is the perfect blend of Greatness combined with "What If"
People saw Koufax at his peak, rattling off three Cy Young awards in four years, winning three pitching triple crowns, yet his name always comes up with "oh well if he was healthy, he'd probably have even more" His strikeout numbers for his career, while pedestrian by today's standards, were extremely impressive for the time, he ranked 7th all time, when he hung them up, despite the bulk of them coming in the latter half of his career that lasted only 12 seasons.
I think it's very hard to argue against Koufax's peak. The only thing he has working against him is the offensive climate of the league at the time, which I suppose would work in someone like Randy Johnson's favor, who pitched in a more difficult offensive environment, but I think we hit a level of greatness where it's almost impossible to distinguish, even through statistics who was better. It's more along the lines of "flip a coin" of who would you rather pitch. Because really Whether it be The Unit, Koufax, or Grove it's going to be extremely hard to pick.