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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/38086/full/38086/i-hate-the-dodgers-but-not-koufax/ <br /><br /> <b>I hate the Dodgers, but not Koufax</b> <br /> Thursday, May 14, 2009 | by andy altman-ohr <br /><br /><p><img alt="koufax_book_400_01" height="262" src="/images/uploads/koufax_book_400_01.jpg" style="float: right;" title="koufax_book_400_01" width="262" />We get about a jillion books sent to us here in the office, and whenever one has a sports topic, it gets tossed my way.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s how I got to take a look at a new offering called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/You-Never-Heard-Sandy-Koufax/dp/0375837388" target="_blank">“You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!”</a></p> <p> </p> <p>It’s a 40-page biographical book for kids (ages 5 to 12, I’d say) and has very little Jewish content — aside from the line “Back when Koufax was a kid, growin’ up Jewish in Brooklyn, no one woulda guessed what he was about to become” and a few paragraphs about how the Dodgers’ star lefty refused to pitch in the 1965 World Series game that fell on Yom Kippur. Thankfully, Larry King is not mentioned anywhere.</p> <p>The best part of the book: André Carrilho’s artwork is mesmerizing ... "texturally complex, digitally manipulated pencil drawings [with] harsh shadows, distorted perspectives and angular faces [that] speak of a hardboiled reality,” according to Publisher’s Weekly.</p> <p><br />And here’s the main reason I’m writing about this book right here: Some people in the Bay Area might actually know of the author, Jonah Winter, who used to live in San Francisco in the 1990s and was in a folk band called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed's_Redeeming_Qualities" target="_blank">“Ed's Redeeming Qualities.”</a>  One of his bandmates (and his best friend, he says) was Dan Leone, the somewhat well-known  “Cheap Eats” columnist for the Bay Guardian, so no doubt Jonah was mentioned in a few of Leone’s wacky tales of culinary escapades. Winter now lives in Pittsburgh.</p> <p><br />As long as we’re talking Koufax, here is my list of Top 5 left-handed pitchers of all time:</p> <p>1, Sandy Koufax (a shorter career than most, but perhaps the greatest pitcher ever);</p> <p>2, Steve Carlton (once the all-time strikeout king, no no-hitters but six one-hitters);</p> <p>3, Randy Johnson (No. 2 all-time in strikeouts behind only right-hander Nolan Ryan; currently with the Giants);</p> <p>4, Lefty Grove (pitched in ‘20s and ‘30s; led league in ERA nine times);</p> <p>5, Warren Spahn (363 wins most all-time for lefties).</p>

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