Fifty Years of Dodger Tradition: From Clayton Kershaw to Sandy Koufax

It was fitting that the first glimpse of Clayton Kershaw most Dodgers fans saw was in the spring of 2008. It was one of only a couple games that Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully called from Vero Beach, FL in the Dodgers last season at Holman Stadium which Sandy Koufax called home for his 12 major seasons. In the top of the 4th inning with two outs, Kershaw, still ten days away from his 20th birthday, threw a curveball to Sean Casey so devastating that it buckled the knees of the veteran hitter and prompted Scully to exclaim "What a curveball! Holy mackerel! He just broke off public enemy number one." He had been blessed by Vin Scully whose smile could be heard through the microphone. Then it was the waiting game for fans. Along with the wait came the hyperbole and comparisons, or to be more accurate, the comparison.

I was not the first and certainly won't be the last to draw parallels between the careers of Dodgers current ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw and Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.

In fact, Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com wrote a piece detailing the first meeting between the two pitchers. The similarities are so numerous it's hard to know where to begin, but for the uninformed they are both left-handed starting pitchers with a similar build and great stuff who to this point spent their entire careers with the Dodgers.

Let's look at the numbers through the first 138 starts of their career, which for Koufax was until the end of the 1961 season and for Kershaw was his complete game shutout against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon.

Sandy Koufax:

• 947.1 Innings Pitched
• 54 Wins
• 53 Losses
• 37 Complete Games
• 7 Shutouts
• 3.94 ERA
• 1.37 WHIP
• 115 HR Allowed
• 501 BB
• 952 K
• 9.04 K/9
• 1.90 K/BB Ratio

Clayton Kershaw:

• 865.2 Innings Pitched
• 55 Wins
• 34 Losses
• 8 Complete Games
• 5 Shutouts
• 2.89 ERA
• 1.15 WHIP
• 57 HR Allowed
• 317 BB
• 888 K
• 9.23 K/9
• 2.80 K/BB Ratio

It wouldn't be an asinine statement to say that to this point in their careers, Kershaw has outperformed Koufax. Their ages were also very similar to this point with Koufax turning 26 after the 1961 season while Kershaw will turn 25 just before the start of the 2013 season.

However, the reason there is a plaque in Cooperstown, NY for Sanford "Sandy" Koufax is because of the subsequent five seasons and the 176 starts therein. Over that span, Koufax won the Major League Cy Young three times, won the Major League Triple Crown three times, threw 4 no-hitters including a perfect game and put up the following numbers: 111 wins to just 34 losses, 1377 innings pitched, 100 complete games including 33 shutouts, 1.96 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 316 BB, 1444 K (4.57 K/BB ratio).

In the World Series, Koufax sported a 0.95 ERA with a record of 4-3 including two wins in 1963 against the rival New York Yankees which resulted in a sweep. This was the second World Series title over the Bronx Bombers in eight meetings between the two teams. After game one of the 1963 World Series, the ever quotable Yogi Berra said of Koufax who went 25-5 in the regular season "I can see how he won twenty-five games. What I don't understand is how he lost five."

After I was halfway through writing this I found an article on Bleacher Report by Richard Leivenberg which is similar to what I was writing. It's definitely worth a read but I decided to go ahead with my own comparison piece since I was taking a more in-depth look at the numbers. However, his piece included a very interesting poll question which asked "Who would you rather have at this stage of their career, Kershaw or Koufax?". I'm not sure if the question implies the reader knowing that Koufax would go on to have a historic five year run and also have his career cut short by injury. Either way it's an interesting question and there is no wrong answer, which speaks volumes about what Kershaw has been able to do through this point in his career.

Obviously Kershaw won't be able to touch Koufax in the categories of complete games or shutouts and matching the ERA of 1.90 for five combined seasons in today's game seems unfathomable, but if he continues to improve upon the impressive foundation he has laid thus far, it wouldn't be far fetched to imagine that twenty years from now Clayton and Sandy could meet again- only this time in Upstate New York.