Sandy Koufax vs. Clayton Kershaw: Why the Original Dodger Legend Still Reigns Supreme

Baseball connects us to our past in ways few other sports can. Today, I'm taking you back to the streets of Brooklyn in 1955, where a little girl fell in love with the Dodgers while her family was divided in their baseball loyalties. My father cheered for Willie Mays and the Giants, my brother worshipped Mickey Mantle and the Yankees, but my heart belonged to Brooklyn's Boys of Summer.

The crown jewel of my baseball memories remains Sandy Koufax, the Left Arm of God himself. Born in December 1935, Koufax transformed baseball during his 12 seasons with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. His achievements remain staggering - three unanimous Cy Young Awards, an MVP season in 1963, and a Hall of Fame induction at just 36 years old. What's most remarkable is how Koufax dominated the sport despite retiring at 30 due to chronic elbow pain, long before modern sports medicine might have extended his career.

My passionate defense of Koufax comes in response to a Los Angeles Times article suggesting Clayton Kershaw has surpassed him as the greatest Dodgers pitcher ever. While Kershaw deserves celebration for reaching 3,000 strikeouts, comparing modern players to legends from different eras often fails to account for crucial context. Today's pitchers benefit from advanced training, carefully managed workloads, and medical treatments that simply didn't exist during Koufax's time. Some baseball legacies should stand untouched, honored for not just what was accomplished but how those feats were achieved. For this Brooklyn girl, Sandy Koufax remains baseball's ultimate pitching icon, regardless of what modern sportswriters might claim.

Chapters

• 0:00 Personal Health Update

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Morning bitches and dolls. If no one told you they love you today, then I love you because you're you. Well, at least I could still sing back from my trip to the ER yesterday to get a breathing treatment because for the first time since I have asthma in my 40s so I've had it for 30 years I was wheezing and it's all the stress that I'm going through, that we have to move. Okay, but we're not going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about one of my favorite subjects in the world baseball. Yes, your TikTok Bubby is a baseball fan since she was a little girl in Brooklyn in 1955, at Evans Field. Now, in my family, father, mother, brother and me, or me and brother. Dad was a Giants fan. He was the say hey kid, willie Mazie loved him. Brother was a Yankees fan, mickey Mantle was his favorite player and me I was a Dodger fan way back right from the beginning and my favorite player of the two players. Actually, pee Wee Reese and Duke Snyder were my favorite players. But then what happened? The incredible, amazing Sandy Koufax came in.

Speaker 1: 1:32

Let me talk about Sandy Koufax right now. Okay, he was born December 30th 1935. Nicknamed the Left Arm of God, an American former baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Los Angeles Dodgers, from 55, and that's when he came into 66. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, koufax was the first three-time winner of the Cy Young Award, each time winning unanimously, and the only pitcher to do so when a single award was given for both the leagues. He was also named the National League's most valuable player in 1963, retiring at age 30 due to chronic pain in his pitching elbow. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, in 1972, at age 36, the youngest player ever elected.

Speaker 1: 2:41

Okay. So today, as my husband's reading the Times, there's an article by this guy, voices. Okay, kofax still legendary, but Kershaw is the greatest. By columnist Bill Platschke. Okay, the slider was sizzling.

Speaker 1: 3:00

The hithaw is the greatest player in baseball history. He's the greatest player in baseball history. He's the greatest player in baseball history. He's the greatest player in baseball history. He's the greatest player in baseball history. He's the greatest player in baseball history. He's the greatest player in baseball history. He's the greatest player in baseball history. He's the greatest player in baseball history. He's the greatest player in baseball history to record 3,000 strikeouts. Okay, now he says Clayton Kershaw is the greatest pitcher in Georgia history, even greater than Sandy Koufax. I'm sorry, sandy Koufax would have still been the greatest pitcher if during his lifetime they would have had a lot of the advantages that they have now giving people breaks off of pitching so that they can resurrect themselves with bad elbows and all sorts of stuff that's done for these people.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Now, come on, let's be real here. Gasp scream, please. Yeah, all right, lodge of empathetic and most emotional arguments for Koufax. Well, I'm telling you, how dare you dis our Sandy? And, by the way, tiktok Bummy's first name is Sandra, but it's Sandy, ok, koufax won more championships. Koufax never choked in the postseason. Koufax was more dominant, all true, being a tremendous human being. I'm going to finish reading this thing Worthy of every syllable of praise, but, as Wednesday so clearly proved in front of a history thirsty crowd at Chavez Ravine, kershaw has done something that any defense of, of course it cannot equal. Please give me a break, alright, whatever. So you know, I've never been a Kershaw fan. I don't know why I never was. I guess you know the certain pitches that really reached out to me Fernando Fernando Valenzuela, one of my favorite pitches of all time, but Sandy Koufax stands above all the rest.