15. Sandy Koufax-LHP
Like Bob Gibson in the realm of pitching, and Mickey Mantle/Willie Mays in the offensive discussion, Koufax has a legendary mystique to him. "Koufax" -- it's like an institution. Many have said he's the best pitcher in the history of the game, but the career numbers aren't quite there. Like Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, Sandy's career was shortened in some manner.
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Like Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds, or Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, or Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, two of the best hitters of all time played at the same time in the early days of baseball. By 1919, when Babe Ruth decided to rest his pitching arm (his career pitching record was 80-41 to that point) and take up hitting full time, Ty Cobb was already at the top of the sport. His 10 batting titles between 1907 and 1918 were unmatched by anyone in history, he had already hit better than .400 in a season twice, he routinely led the league in on-base percentage, slugging percentage and hits, and he had led the majors in stolen bases six times. The Georgia Peach was, simply put, the best player of his time.
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The thirties, on the other hand, were the heyday for triple-threat batters, with four TC winners as well as the only year (1933) in which there were Triple Crown winners in both leagues (Jimmie "Double X" Foxx and Chuck "The Rifleman" Klein). No other decade has had more than two. Frank Robinson's .316 is the lowest average that won it, while winner Paul Hines' measly 4 HR, 50 RBI totals in 1878 speaks volumes about how much the game has changed.
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Someday we will certainly look back on the last few years as some of the best years in baseball, as far as watching some significant milestones being broken. In between Bonds' maligned chase of Aaron and Randy's recent conquering of Clemens' K record, we've seen Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, and ARod all reach the 500-HR plateau, and Sosa reach 600, with Griffey knocking on the same door. Maddux recently won his 350th game, and Glavine won his 300th, and Smoltz recorded his 3000th strikeout just before he went down to a season- (and possibly career-) ending injury, and not long after Pedro reached that same level.
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Sorry for the Blog Pause--went out of town to the wedding of a friend of mine, but now I'm back and back strong, to conclude my review of the unsung heroes of the 1961 Yankees infield. We're finishing with that all-important position of shortstop, Tony Kubek, who was an anchor for that 1961 team, both in the field and at the plate. He's also one of the great woulda-coulda-shoulda players, someone that many argue would have been one of the greatest Yankee shortstops ever, had his career not been cut short by injury.
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When a guy gets named "Moose," you generally figure it's because he's a knucklehead or looks like he should be one. Bill Skowron had the lumpy face of a prizefighter, but he was generally known as a gentle giant with a smooth, opposite-field stroke. His nickname came from his Polish grandfather, who thought his haircut at one point reminded him of dictator Benito Mussolini. But Skowron wasn't any sort of dictator, just a good guy who could drive ball into the gaps.
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The Yankees have had many World Series champs, and many more All-Star players and all-time lineups. The 1927 Yankees pretty much set the bar for everyone else to follow, but there were some other memorable ones, too. The '36 Yanks, the first year of Joltin' Joe, and the last great one from Lou Gehrig, along with typically solid contributions by Bill Dickey, Tony Lazzeri and the usual cast of star Yankees.
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