Hall of Famer Koufax Celebrates 90th Birthday

It has been nearly 60 years since Sandy Koufax last pitched in the big leagues, but in many ways the Jewish Hall of Famer, as he approaches his 90th birthday on Dec. 30, remains the face of a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise that’s undoubtedly the team of the 2020s.

On its own merits, the Cooperstown-worthy resume, which includes three NL Cy Young Awards, an NL MVP (extremely rare for a pitcher), and four no-hitters, one of which was a perfect game, makes Koufax a certified living legend. But Koufax, who endeared himself to Jewish baseball fans worldwide when he famously refused to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it coincided with Yom Kippur, also remains such a revered figure in the Dodgers organization — and truthfully, all of baseball — because of his decadeslong engagement in team and league affairs.

“The fact that he [Koufax] is turning 90 years old is kind of hard to fathom,” acknowledged Josh Rawitch, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, when speaking to the AJT last week. “We obviously enjoy every interaction that we have with him. It’s hard to get to 90 years old. He doesn’t look it; he doesn’t act it. I’m sure he probably doesn’t feel it, but every once in a while, he’ll comment on what it’s like to be that age and you recognize just what a treasure he is.”

As the Dodgers captured their second consecutive World Series title this past October, millions of baseball fans caught a fleeting glimpse of Koufax during Game 4 when he was spotted sitting one row behind Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Dodger Stadium. Unbeknownst to many, however, was that Koufax had not only stayed all 18 innings of the prior evening’s marathon Game 3, but also hung around after the nearly seven-hour affair to shake the hand of Dodgers winning pitcher Will Klein in the home clubhouse.

Koufax’s dedication to the game transcends Dodger Stadium appearances. Whereas many Hall of Famers of his generation aren’t inclined to attend the annual Hall of Fame Induction Weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y., Koufax makes it a point to try to show up every July, even if it means just coming for the ceremony itself. Though Cooperstown, the tiny hamlet in New York’s Mohawk Valley, is a scenic gem in the summertime, it is not easily accessible and gets quite congested during Induction Weekend, making visits there a challenging logistical situation for many.

“From every conversation I’ve ever had with him [Koufax], he always wants to pay respect to the people who are being inducted that year,” added Rawitch, who is the second consecutive president of the Hall of Fame to represent the Jewish community. “I think in a lot of ways, as somebody who’s been a Hall of Famer longer than any other person’s been a Hall of Famer, he knows how much it means to those that are standing at the podium to have all those legends sitting behind them.”

This past July, Koufax was indeed one of those legends sitting on stage as the 2025 class, which featured one-time Yankee great C.C. Sabathia, was honored. In the dinner reception that followed, Koufax spent time with his new Hall of Fame teammate Sabathia as well as Randy Johnson — three gentlemen considered to be among the greatest left-handed pitchers to ever take the mound.

“He’s one of the guys that all the other Hall of Famers look up to,” said Rawitch. “Even guys like Randy [Johnson] and C.C. [Sabathia] look at Sandy as a hero of theirs. It just tells you in a lot of ways how much he [Koufax] means to the greatest names in the sport, but also just how much he means to the sport in general.”

The past decade has been a sobering one for the Hall as quite a few members have passed away, some even tragically. That the Hall of Fame is now able to celebrate Koufax becoming only the third current member to reach his nineties — former shortstop Luis Aparicio and executive Bud Selig, who happens to be Jewish, are both 91 — is all the more remarkable given how active Koufax is in the game today.

“We don’t have a whole lot of Hall of Famers who are in their nineties,” acknowledged Rawitch. “It’s a wonderful thing to have not only someone like him reach that milestone but also do so in good health.”

The Hall of Fame honors great ballplayers, but not necessarily ones who could be considered great human beings. There are some who have run afoul of the law, faced allegations of cheating in various capacities, and even championed racial segregation in the sport’s earlier years. Koufax, however, has consistently maintained a reputation above reproach, serving as a model citizen of both the baseball and Jewish communities in his now 90 years on the planet.

“As someone who grew up both a Dodger fan and Jewish, there are very few people on the planet who command that much respect and who just really represent all that you would want the greatest people in the game to represent,” said Rawitch. “He’s an incredibly classy gentleman. He doesn’t think he’s anything special — that’s one of the things that I’ve always loved about him. While I think he recognizes what he did on the field, in his mind, he’s just a person like anybody else.”