SANDY KOUFAX QUOTES

Quotes About Sandy Koufax & Quotes By Sandy Koufax | Baseball Almanac

Baseball Almanac is pleased to present an unprecedented collection of baseball related quotations spoken by Sandy Koufax and about Sandy Koufax.

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"To win. Nothing else matters, and nothing else will do." - Koufax, Sandy. Koufax. Koufax, Sandy. Author. Viking Publishing. 30 August 1966. Page 7.

Sandy Koufax Quotes

Quotes From & About Sandy Koufax | Baseball Quotes | Sandy Koufax

"A guy that throws what he intends to throw, that's the definition of a good pitcher." Source: Los Angeles Times (March 31, 1971)

"I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it." Source: A Thinking Man's Guide to Basbeall (Leonard Koppett)

"I can't believe that Babe Ruth was a better player than Willie Mays. (Babe) Ruth is to baseball what Arnold Palmer is to golf. He got the game moving. But I can't believe he could run as well as (Willie) Mays, and I can't believe he was any better an outfielder."

"I don't regret for one minute the twelve years I've spent in baseball, but I could regret one season too many. I've got a lot of years to live after baseball and I would like to live them with the complete use of my body. I tried to do a consistently good job - that was my goal. I loved played. I loved the game. And, I'll miss it. My only regret is leaving baseball. I still don't know how much I am going to miss it, but I know I am going to miss a lot of things." Source: Sandy Koufax (Koufax Retirement Press Conference, 11/19/1966)

"In the end it all comes down to talent. You can talk all you want about intangibles, I just don't know what that means. Talent makes winners, not intangibles. Can nice guys win? Sure, nice guys can win - if they're nice guys with a lot of talent. Nice guys with a little talent finish fourth and nice guys with no talent finish last."

"I think it's incredible because there were guys like (Willie) Mays and (Mickey) Mantle and Henry Aaron who were great players for ten years... I only had four or five good years." Source: Hammerin' Hank (Dan Schlossberg)

"If I could straighten it out (his golf swing), I'd be pitching at Dodger Stadium tonight."

"If there was any magic formula, it was getting to pitch every fourth day."

"I've got a lot of years to live after baseball and I would like to live them with the complete use of my body." Source: Retirement Speech (Widely Syndicated)

"People who write about spring training not being necessary have never tried to throw a baseball."

"Pitching is the art of instilling fear." Source: The Gashouse Gang (Robert E. Hood, 1976)

"Show me a guy who can't pitch inside and I'll show you a loser." Source: Late Innings (Roger Angell)

"The game has a cleanness. If you do a good job, the numbers say so. You don't have to ask anyone or play politics. You don't have to wait for the reviews."

"The only time I really try for a strikeout is when I'm in a jam. If the bases are loaded with none out, for example, then I'll go for a strikeout. But most of the time I try to throw to spots. I try to get them to pop up or ground out. On a strikeout I might have to throw five or six pitches, sometimes more if there are foul-offs. That tires me. So I just try to get outs. That's what counts - outs. You win with outs, not strikeouts." Source: My Greatest Day in Baseball (John P. Carmichael)

"There is among us a far closer relationship than the purely social one of a fraternal organization because we are bound together not only by a single interest but by a common goal. To win. Nothing else matters, and nothing else will do." Source: What Baseball Means to Me (Sandy Koufax)

"A foul ball was a moral victory." - Don Sutton

"Career highlights? I had two. I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets." - Bob Uecker

"Either he throws the fastest ball I've ever seen, or I'm going blind." - Richie Ashburn

"He throws a 'radio ball,' a pitch you hear, but you don't see." - Gene Mauch

"I can see how he won twenty-five games. What I don't understand is how he lost five." - Yogi Berra

"I have something in common with Sandy. He can't pitch on Yom Kippur. I can't pitch." - President Barack Obama (Welcoming Remarks, "Jewish American Heritage Month", May 27, 2010)

"The day I got a hit off (Sandy) Koufax was when he knew it was all over." - Sparky Anderson

"The greatest living Dodger (Sandy Koufax) sets spring training camp abuzz as he returns to work." - Sportswriter Bill Plaschke in The Los Angeles Times (02/18/2013, 'Sandy Koufax revels in his roots as he comes to help Dodgers bloom', Source)

"There are two times in my life the hair on my arms has stood up: The first time I saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the first time I saw Sandy Koufax throw a fastball" - Al Campanis in Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy (Jane Leavey, 04/2003, Harper Perennial Publishers, Page 55)

"Trying to hit him was like trying to drink coffee with a fork." - Willie Stargell

"We need just two players to be a contender. Just Babe Ruth and Sandy Koufax." - Whitey Herzog

Quotes From & About Sandy Koufax | Research by Baseball Almanac
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baseball almanac fast facts

Sandy Koufax, over the course of just five seasons, had five earned run average titles, three Cy Young Awards, and a Most Valuable Player Award.

Did you know that Sandy Koufax threw a perfect game, plus three no-hitters, over the course of a four consecutive year period (1962-1965)?

Sandy Koufax struck out eighteen players twice during his career, once during the 1959 season and once during the 1962 season.