Sandy Koufax , born Sanford Braun on December 30, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, is a former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966.
Koufax is best known for his string of six amazing seasons from 1961 to 1966 before arthritis ended his career at age 30. A notoriously difficult pitcher to hit against, he was the first major leaguer to pitch more than three no-hitters, the first to average fewer than seven hits allowed per nine innings pitched over his career, and the first to strike out more than nine batters per nine innings pitched in his career. Among National League pitchers with at least 2,000 innings pitched who have debuted since 1913, he has both the highest career winning percentage (.655) and the lowest career earned run average (2.76); his 2396 career strikeouts ranked 7th in major league history upon his retirement, and trailed only Warren Spahn's total of 2583 among left-handers. Retiring virtually at the peak of his career, he became, at age 36 and 20 days, the youngest player ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
