Take the Grunt Out

Sandy Koufax is arguably the greatest left-handed pitcher in baseball history. But his career didn’t start out that way. After his first six years in the major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Koufax had a rather unimpressive career record of 36 wins and 40 losses. Not exactly Hall of Fame numbers. While he could throw a blazing fastball, he couldn’t control it.

Koufax shared with Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated the lesson that saved his career and transformed him into a Hall of Famer. In 1961, Koufax was scheduled to pitch the first five innings in a Dodgers “B team” spring training game. The other pitcher who was scheduled to pitch the remainder of the game missed the flight. Koufax volunteered to pitch more innings.

Koufax’s catcher and roommate on the road, Norm Sherry, urged him to ease up slightly on his fastball. Sherry thought this would improve Koufax’s control and protect his arm from a potential early-season injury. Koufax took Sherry’s advice and threw a no-hitter.

During this game, Koufax learned a fastball will behave better, with just as much life and better control, if you throttle back a little. As Koufax wrote in his autobiography, “I came home a different pitcher from the one who had left.”

That’s quite the understatement from the always humble Koufax. From 1961 through his last season in 1966, Koufax amassed 129 wins against just 47 losses, winning a dominant 73 percent of his games. During these six years, he was named to the All-Star team six times and won the Cy Young Award as the league’s best pitcher three times. He also won the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award once and finished second in the MVP voting twice. This is unheard of for a pitcher. To this day, Koufax’s run of six years is considered to be one of the most dominant stretches for a pitcher in baseball history.

As a favor to Mets’ owner Fred Wilpon, his former high school teammate, Koufax shared his wisdom with Rick and the Mets’ pitchers during the 2004 spring training. Rick spoke with Koufax for over an hour, soaking in the teaching like a sponge. Among the lessons Koufax shared that Rick will never forget is this:

Take the grunt out. See how easy you can throw hard.