Synopses & Reviews
In an era when too many heroes have been toppled from too many pedestals, Sandy Koufax stands apart and alone, a legend who declined his own celebrity. As a pitcher, he was sublime, the ace of baseball lore. As a human being, he aspired to be the one thing his talent and his fame wouldn't allow: a regular guy. A Brooklyn kid, he was the product of the sedate and modest fifties who came to define and dominate baseball in the sixties. In
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, former award-winning Washington Post sportswriter Jane Leavy delivers an uncommon baseball book, vividly re-creating the Koufax era, when presidents were believed and pitchers aspired to go the distance.
He was only a teenager when Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley proclaimed him "the Great Jewish Hope" of the franchise. But it wasn't until long after the team had abandoned Brooklyn that the man became the myth. Old-fashioned in his willingness to play when he was injured and in his acute sense of responsibility to his team, Koutax answered to an authority higher than manager Walter Alston. When he refused to pitch the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, he inadvertently made himself a religious icon and an irrevocably public figure. A year later, he was gone -- done with baseball at age thirty. No other sports hero had retired so young, so well, or so completely.
Despite Sandy Koufax's best efforts to protect his privacy, his legend has grown larger ever since. Part biography, part cultural history, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy gets as close to that legend as he will allow. Through meticulous reporting and interviews with five hundred of his friends, teammates, and opponents, Leavy penetrates the mythology to discover a man more than worthy of myth.
Review
“A baseball classic; the first in-depth reporting on the life and career of the Dodger icon…a must read.” New York Daily News
Review
“An exhaustively researched study that paints an intriguing portrait of the famously reclusive Dodger pitcher.” Sports Illustrated
Synopsis
"The incomparable and mysterious Sandy Koufax is revealed.... This is an absorbing book, beautifully written." --Wall Street Journal
"Leavy has hit it out of the park...A lot more than a biography. It's a consideration of how we create our heroes, and how this hero's self perception distinguishes him from nearly every other great athlete in living memory... a remarkably rich portrait." -- Time
The instant New York Times bestseller about the baseball legend and famously reclusive Dodgers' pitcher Sandy Koufax, from award-winning former Washington Post sportswriter Jane Leavy. Sandy Koufax reveals, for the first time, what drove the three-time Cy Young award winner to the pinnacle of baseball and then--just as quickly--into self-imposed exile.
Synopsis
In an era when toppling heroes off of pedestals has almost become a sport in itself, baseball legend Sandy Koufax stands apart. Just as quickly as he shot to fame in the sixties, Koufax disappeared from the world of sports, a retiree and near-recluse at the age of thirty. But Koufax has left a legacy that will not soon be forgotten.
From 1962 to 1966, Koufax led the National League in ERA, won three Cy Young Awards, and pitched four no-hitters, including a perfect game. But he may be best remembered as the man who placed faith over fame, refusing to play in the first game of the 1965 World Series, which fell on Yom Kippur.
Award-winning former Washington Post sportswriter Jane Leavy spent years interviewing Koufax's friends and colleagues, finally winning the trust of the great man himself. The result is the most detailed and insightful biography of this very private person that has been written.
Jane Leavy is an award-winning former sportswriter and feature writer for the Washington Post and author of the critically acclaimed comic novel Squeeze Play (Doubleday, 1990), which Entertainment Weekly called "The best novel ever written about baseball."
"A baseball classic; the first in-depth reporting on the life and career of the Dodger icon ... a must read."
- New York Daily News
Synopsis
“The incomparable and mysterious Sandy Koufax is revealed…. This is an absorbing book, beautifully written.” —
Wall Street Journal “Leavy has hit it out of the park…A lot more than a biography. Its a consideration of how we create our heroes, and how this heros self perception distinguishes him from nearly every other great athlete in living memory… a remarkably rich portrait.” — Time
The instant New York Times bestseller about the baseball legend and famously reclusive Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, from award-winning former Washington Post sportswriter Jane Leavy. Sandy Koufax reveals, for the first time, what drove the three-time Cy Young award winner to the pinnacle of baseball and then—just as quickly—into self-imposed exile.
About the Author
Jane Leavy is an award-winning former sportswriter and feature writer for the Washington Post. She is the author of Sandy Koufax and the comic novel Squeeze Play, called “the best novel ever written about baseball” by Entertainment Weekly. She lives in Washington, D.C.