December 7th, 2020 at 8:00 am 
by Jayann Kellogg The year was 1939; the month was December; the date was the 7th, exactly 81 years ago today.
It was the day that New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in only its third year of existence.
During a winter meeting of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), it was decided that they would waive the mandatory five-year waiting period to be elected into the Hall of Fame due to Gehrig’s diagnosis of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which later came to be known as ‘Lou Gehrig’s disease.’ He was only 36 years of age when he was elected into the sacred halls of Cooperstown – the youngest player ever to be enshrined.
Sadly, Gehrig was unable to attend his Hall of Fame induction ceremony due to his rapidly declining health. He died on June 2, 1941, 17 days before his 38th birthday.
Flash forward to June 24th, 1955. The Brooklyn Dodgers have a new left-handed pitcher on their team, and he’s ready to show them what he’s capable of at the tender age of 19. If you guessed Sandy Koufax, then you guessed right. His nickname isn’t “The left-arm of God” for nothing. He had pure filth when he pitched. Koufax stayed on the Brooklyn Dodgers roster during their move to the West Coast as the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958.
Koufax pitched for twelve years. His last game was on October 2, 1966, against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Dodgers won the game 6-3. Following the game, the Brooklyn native announced that he was retiring from the game due to chronic arthritis in his pitching arm. Medical experts warned him that if he continued to pitch, he could lose the use of his left hand for the rest of his life – a risk he was simply unwilling to take.
At 30 years old, Sanford Koufax, the man with “The left-arm of God,” officially retired from the game.
Not many pitchers can say that they left the major leagues as a seven-time All-Star, a three-time Cy Young Award recipient, a three-time triple crown recipient, a three-time World Series champion, and a two-time World Series MVP. Soon-to-be (on December 30) 85-year-old Sandy Koufax can.
Koufax was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972, thirty-three years after Gehrig, to become – and remains – the youngest player voted into the Hall of Fame player at age 36.
What are the odds of a New York Yankee passing on such an honor to a Dodger?
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A very nice article,Jayann, on two of the greatest players ever to grace the playing field.
Drysdale and Koufax. Koufax and Drysdale. That was the thought that enveloped my brain when I was a kid. The duo contract holdout. The no hitters. The Series against the Yankees. The game where Bob Hendley pitched a 1 hitter. And lost to Sandy’s Perfecto. Drysdale had to be absent from the team during one of the no hitters. When told about it,he asked “Did we win?”. Sandy truly blessed Dodger fans. Thanks for the memories, Sandy!!