Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy
by Jane Leavy
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jane LeavyEdition: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2003-09-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 336
Book Reviews of Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy
Book Review: Read The Gruver Book Instead
Summary: 2 Stars
I had read the Gruver biography a few years ago and after the good things I heard about this book, I was really looking forward to it.
Wrong!!!
At first, it was the shallow, dime-store sociology that bothered me. But more than anything, it is this obsession with Koufax's religion that ticks me off. Gruver and/or her editors have a timer that goes off every few pages. When the timer goes off, it is time to talk about "Sandy Koufax The Jew". It was boring for a while, then it became downright offensive.
Granted, Leavy had a tough task, writing about someone who deliberately shuns publicity and spotlight. I sense she got very bored with not having ready access to Koufax. So I suspect she felt compelled to fill in the holes with sociology and religion. Nor does it appear that she knows very much about baseball. After all, he is a great baseball pitcher, why should the writer be concerned with baseball.
Nor is her metaphor of weaving the biography between the play-by-play of a memorable game anything new. Gruver does it much better using the 7th game of the 1965 World Series.
There is a good section early where she quotes Koufax talking of the mechanics of pitching. She also quotes Koufax's resentment that Walter Alston did not use him in the late 50s where even a raw Koufax was better than the pitchers they Dodgers had.
But bottom line, if you want to know more about Koufax, read the Gruver book.
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