Koufax Quotes & Sayings

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. — Sandy Koufax

It had been one of the biggest landgrabs in the city's history and Bosch knew the story well, having tried all his life to counter his love of baseball and the Dodgers with the ugly story buried beneath the diamond where, as a boy, he watched Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale pitch. It seemed to him that every gleaming success in the city had a dark seam to it somewhere, usually just out of view. — Michael Connelly

A guy that throws what he intends to throw, that's the definition of a good pitcher. — Sandy Koufax

He's the strangest hitter in baseball. Figure him out one way and he'll kill you another. — Sandy Koufax

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

Pitching is the art of instilling fear. — Sandy Koufax

I faced Gibson many times and faced Sandy Koufax three times. — Juan Marichal

Sandy Koufax went to the same school as me. I graduated two years ahead of Sandy. — Larry King

Trying to hit Sandy Koufax was like trying to drink coffee with a fork. — Willie Stargell

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

I think it's incredible because there were guys like Mays and Mantle and Henry Aaron who were great players for ten years ... I only had four or five good years. — Sandy Koufax

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. — Sandy Koufax

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

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. — Sandy Koufax

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. — Sandy Koufax

After I won 21 games, I said, "This isn't that hard actually. I can do this every year for maybe 10, 15 years." To tell you the truth I thought I was going to be in the Hall of Fame. I really thought that. You feel so strong, so powerful walking down the street. You know you can throw a ball harder than any man in the world, or certainly the top five. Sandy Koufax knocked all of us out of the box on that one, so we would think, "I'm the second or third hardest thrower in the game." — Jim Bouton

If there was any magic formula, it was getting to pitch every fourth day. — Sandy Koufax

Show me a guy who can't pitch inside and I'll show you a loser. — Sandy Koufax

It's better to throw a theoretically poorer pitch whole-heartedly, than to throw the so-called right pitch with feeling of doubt-doubt that's it's right, or doubt that you can make it behave well at that moment. You've got to feel sure you're doing the right thing-sure that you want to throw the pitch you're going to throw. — Sandy Koufax

He (Sandy Koufax) throws a 'radio ball,' a pitch you hear, but you don't see. — Gene Mauch

I don't know if cortisone is good for you or not. But to take a shot every other ball game is more than I wanted to do and to walk around with a constant upset stomach because of the pills and to be high half the time during a ball game because you're taking painkillers, I don't want to have to do that. — Sandy Koufax

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. — Sandy Koufax

I know Koufax' weakness. He can't hit. — Whitey Ford

I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it. — Sandy Koufax

When they operated, I told them to put in a Koufax fastball. They did-but it was Mrs. Koufax's. — Tommy John

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. — Sandy Koufax

I don't think I've ever seen anybody with quicker hands than Soriano. — Sandy Koufax

I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won twenty-five games. What I don't understand is how he lost five. — Yogi Berra

I can't picture people talking about me 50 years from now. — Sandy Koufax

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

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