The Sandy and Joe Show

The 2010 baseball season started for me in earnest on Saturday, February 26 at the Nokia Theater in the pretty nifty LA Live complex downtown. A truly special evening with two baseball legends. And me. In the loge section just like I was back in Dodger Stadium. Or even Shea.

Sandy Koufax was back.

This extraordinary event was a benefit for Joe Torre's Safe at Home Foundation, which has been devoted to helping kids who live in homes where domestic violence and abuse is present. Up to this point, Torre's pet project was New York-centric, but they recently opened up a branch here in Los Angeles. And what's a good way to get a bundle of money donated by a lot of Dodger fans? Let them have their first audience in 45 years with perhaps the greatest pitcher of all time. And he did his superlative work on a mound just five miles to the north of the Nokia.

Yep, Sandy Koufax was back.

Prior to the show, I noted an interesting phenomenon as I enjoyed my pre-event meal at Wolfgang Schmuck's Grill just adjacent to the theater. All around the restaurant and the adjoining plaza, the attendees all looked the same. Usually dressed in some apparel of Dodger blue, the audience composition was pretty consistent. A middle-aged guy accompanied by a much older man, sometimes using a walker or a cane. This was one more rite of passage playing out before me. Dad might have taken his son to see Sandy pitch in the Chavez Ravine sun. Now, the son was taking Dad to see Sandy perhaps one last time in the LA Live moonlight. Indeed, Koufax' public appearances are almost as rare as Haley's Comet. One after another, I saw a son returning a favor to his father. I thought of my own dad and the baseball players he might have wanted to see one more time.

Inside the classy Nokia Theater, pre-show festivities set the stage. Clips from each year of Koufax's magical career were projected on a big screen and narrated by Dodger announcer Charlie Steiner. Since this is LA Dodger baseball, celebrities routinely milled around. The inventor of Yankee Baseball fandom and Joe Torre's personal baggage handler Billy Crystal. Old Dodgers like Tommy Davis and Lou Johnson. Dodger fans like Ron Howard and Jon Lovitz. One row over were siblings Penny and Garry Marshall. For once, I didn't run into Garry in the bathroom. Meanwhile, vendors walked around selling hot dogs and beer as if it was the Left Field Pavillion on a warm July afternoon. Scorecards were not needed. There were only two players to concern ourselves with on this night.

Yep, Sandy Koufax was back. And Joe Torre had delivered him to our doorstep.

The standing ovations that greeted these two was sustained and filled with warmth. The ninety minute talk was moderated by LA Times sports columnist, TJ Simers, the writer you love to hate. TJ is smarmy, impolite, and the equivalent of a New York cab driver with a microphone. He referred to his guests only by their last name.

"So, Koufax, nobody's seen you for 45 years. When you left the game, where did you go?"

Sandy was in the first moments of his evening's warm-ups. His response was short and sweet.

"I went home."

Sandy, admittedly a quiet and reserved guy, needed to be drawn out early on. He seemed a little uncomfortable at first, especially with the jabbing queries from Simers. Here is where Joe Torre stepped in to do what he does best. Calming the waters. Joe started to interject some questions himself to Sandy, often tapping his arm or putting his hand on the lefty's shoulder. It was almost as if Torre was trying to help a rookie reliever through an eighth inning jam. The Dodger manager was nothing short of masterful as if he brought Sandy out of his shell. Once that happened, the stories flowed like fine wine. Or maybe Ballantine or Rheingold Beer. Before I knew it, the audience and I were enraptured by their tales. And I learned some remarkable things that I never knew before.

---For instance, Koufax is barely a recluse. He ticked off all the places he can found on a regular basis. Most golf tournaments. The Final Four. Most Super Bowls. Met training camp. Dodger training camp. Dinner. The movies. Sandy was pretty straight forward. "I leave the house."

---Koufax readily admitted to throwing at Lou Brock after the Cardinal bunted a ball past him and seemed to be laughing at the pitcher while he was standing on first base.

---Sandy's arm problems started not from throwing but as a result of a 1964 baserunning slide when he landed on his elbow.

---I did not realize that the same batter made the last out in two of Koufax' no-hitters. Harvey Kuenn.

---Vin Scully pre-taped a recollection of Sandy's perfect game vs. the Cubs in September, 1965. It was the only time that the announcer thought the pitcher could throw a no-hitter just by watching him pitch in the first inning. Indeed, as the game wound into the eighth and ninth inning, Scully started to obsess over how he could make his broadcast perfect for Sandy if Koufax was to listen to a tape thirty years later. So, for the last out, Vin punctuated the moment by adding the time. "It's 9:46 in the City of Angels..." And hedged in time for the ages.

---Introduced in seats side-by-side were the two players that participated in the lone run scored in that perfect game. Dodger Lou Johnson who scored it and Cub catcher Chris Krug whose error allowed Johnson to cross the plate.

---Later on, Scully was prompted for a Torre memory, which he started to describe from a Milwaukee Braves games. Then, Vin stopped himself, "No, wait, that wasn't Joe. That was his brother Frank." Of course, he then winked at the camera.

---When asked about the famous Juan Marichal-John Roseboro bat wielding incident, Koufax pleaded the fifth. Only Juan and John know what happened that day.

---Regarding the dual salary holdout by Koufax and Drysdale prior to the 1966 season, Sandy admitted that the main reason he did it was because he knew that he only had one year of his career left. He wanted to lend support to Drysdale because Don certainly had a lot more years ahead of him to make some serious dough.

---During the last two seasons of his baseball life, Koufax woke every morning with no feeling in his left arm. It was as if his arm was not attached to his body.

---Sandy was asked about his "friendship" with Larry King. You may know that Larry portrays them as the best of buds from their high school days in Brooklyn. King goes as far as describes a time where he and Sandy enjoyed ice cream at a New Haven Carvel stand. But, Koufax set the record straight. "I've never been in New Haven." Sandy mentioned that he even called Larry to tell him he should stop telling all these stories. That didn't work. "You see what good that did."

---Even Torre go into the act with the fun. When asked for a Yogi Berra story, Joe related the tale when Berra was going to shoot that commercial for Aflac. Except, the night before, Yogi told Joe he was going to film an ad for Amtrak.

---Dodger manager-in-waiting Don Mattingly was in the front row and it was joked that he follows Torre around all the time in the event that Joe would slip and fall.

At one point, TJ Simers wanted to invite a kid up to the stage to get some pitching tips from the master. Simers pointed to some tall skinny guy in the front row. Of course, this was all staged and it turned out to be Koufax heir-apparent and current Dodger lefty phenom Clayton Kershaw. When they held up their left hands side-by-side, Sandy's fingers stretched out a full inch longer than Clayton's. Supposedly, the two of them flew back to Arizona together after the show. Hopefully, Kershaw and Koufax submitted to a brain transplant during the flight.

If not for Kershaw's curfew, the evening probably could have lasted several more hours. As Koufax and Torre exited, there was an even longer standing ovation. Sandy exited stage right. And who knows when we will see him again?

Nevertheless, as fathers and sons exited the Nokia, they beamed with the thought that they had watched Koufax together one last time. For each of them. And maybe even for Sandy.

It wasn't a complete game shutout, but the memory would be just as sweet.

Dinner last night: Spaghetti and meatballs.