December 31st, 2019 at 9:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka On Monday, social media lit up with birthday wishes for Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax – the man affectionately known as “The Left Arm of God” – as he celebrated his 84th birthday. But while these birthday wishes were and continue to be sincere and heartfelt, they also undoubtedly and rightfully brought to light just how great Koufax was during his brilliant 12-year MLB career and why he will forever be considered one of the greatest to ever play the game.
Among the most remarkable statistics of Sandy’s brilliant career and one that absolutely jumps out at you on his Baseball-Reference page is the one under the ‘CG’ (Complete Games) column.
Of his 397 major league appearances (314 starts), Koufax completed 137 of them. This figures out to be a remarkable 43.63 percent of them.
(AP photo)
By comparison, the guy who is most often compared to Koufax in style and tenacity – Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw – has appeared in 347 games (344 starts) and completed 25 of them. This figures out to be 7.26 percent of them.
The obvious argument for this enormous contrast is that “the game has changed,” and it most certainly has. The reason, of course, is that a pitcher’s health and longevity, especially with what they are being paid today, far outweighs ‘going nine.’ But this statistic in and of itself reaffirms just how great guys like Koufax, Don Drysdale, and, of course, Cy Young and Walter Johnson (and the many others with 100-plus complete games during their careers) really were. In fact, during the 2019 regular season, Chicago White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito and Cleveland Indians right-hander Shane Bieber led the MLB with their three complete games. Houston Astros right-hander Justin Verlander had two. Kershaw had none.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)
The entire staff at ThinkBlueLA.com wishes Sandy Koufax a very Happy Birthday and continued good health.
…and thank you, Sandy. Just thank you.
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Great post Ron. But kershaw should be 7% not .07 %. Still amazing stats
I know that I’m in the minority on this subject, but I think that the Kershaw bashing is going quite a bit too far… On all of these sites, the typical insult is insisting that Kershaw is “only a 3rd starter”… If Dave Roberts used him more effectively in Game 5, this discussion would not be taking place.
Fixed. Thanks.
Here’s wishing Koufax a wonderful and happy birthday.
I consider Koufax the greatest pitcher of my lifetime. He would pitch a complete game shutout. Maury Wills would single or walk and then steal second base. Tommy Davis would get a hit to score Wills. Dodgers would win 1-0.
Sorry to break up the group-think on these subjects… But, before we romanticize pitchers in Koufax’s time, we have to consider that pitchers regularly pitched to shortstops, 2nd basemen, catchers and center fielders that hit .220. OR if their batting avg. was possibly above .250, they hit 5 HRs for the entire year (no more than 10). I don’t have the hours and hours to do the definitive research on Baseball-Reference, but I would make a bet that a majority of SS,2B,C & CF of the 1960s fit into these parameters. In the 1960s/1970s, Brooks Robinson was a superstar/Hall of Famer with a .723 lifetime OPS…(not to mention Mark Belanger who started for 10 years next to Robinson at SS, on one of the best teams of that era with his .580 OPS) Hitters are much more accomplished today’s game. Kershaw (and especially Pedro Martinez…) deserve more respect. It would be interesting to see the pitch counts for the greatest pitchers of the 1960s – did batters know how to work a count like the batters today? With the exception of Reggie Jackson, I don’t remember that from my childhood in the 1970s. Of course, it goes without saying, that plays an enormous role in complete games.
Don’t forget the Jim Gilliam sacrifice, AKA the Dodger home run.
Remarkable. He was the best I’ve seen in watching games for past 66 years. I remember always feeling… https://t.co/UWVP18fj1x