Batter getting ready for pitch while other players are waiting their turn to bat. (Photo by Allan Grant//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images). The location of this image is Los Angeles, CA United States. Copyright: Time & Life Pictures

Sanford "Sandy" Koufax ( / ˈ k oʊ f æ k s / ; born Sanford Braun , December 30, 1935) is a former left-handed baseball pitcher who played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (1955–66). Retiring 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 in 1972.
Koufax's career peaked with a run of six outstanding seasons from 1961 to 1966, before arthritis in his left elbow ended his career prematurely at age 30. He was named the National League 's Most Valuable Player in 1963 . He also won the 1963, 1965 , and 1966 Cy Young Awards by unanimous votes, making him the first 3-time Cy Young winner in baseball history and the only one to win 3 times when the award was for all of baseball, not just one league. In each of his Cy Young seasons, Koufax won the pitcher's triple crown by leading the NL in wins , strikeouts , and earned run average . Koufax's totals would also have led the American League in those seasons.
Koufax was the first major leaguer to pitch four no-hitters (including the eighth perfect game in baseball history). Despite his comparatively short career, Koufax's 2,396 career strikeouts ranked 7th in history as of his retirement, trailing only Warren Spahn (2,583) among left-handers.
Koufax is also remembered as one of the outstanding Jewish athletes in American sports. His decision to not pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur garnered national attention as an example of conflict between social pressures and personal beliefs.

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