A biog­ra­phy suit­able for chap­ter book read­ers, this look at the famous base­ball pitcher’s life focus­es almost entire­ly on his pro­fes­sion­al base­ball career from the late ​‘50s to the mid-60s. Koufax came to sports from a Brook­lyn Jew­ish home. His grand­fa­ther Max influ­enced his upbring­ing and instilled Jew­ish val­ues and reli­gion. Koufax came to the major leagues from suc­cess in sev­er­al sports. His col­lege career high­light­ed the blaz­ing speed of his pitch­es, but shaky con­trol. Once signed to the major leagues, the rules at the time forced the Brook­lyn Dodgers, to keep him on the major league ros­ter before he was ready for it. The result was sev­er­al frus­trat­ing, incon­sis­tent, and far from suc­cess­ful years in Brook­lyn. After Koufax estab­lished his con­trol, he became per­haps the pre­miere pitch­er of his time. He main­tained that sta­tus for a rel­a­tive­ly few years before injuries forced his pre­ma­ture retire­ment after his team moved to Los Ange­les. At the begin­ning of one of his team’s World Series appear­ances, Koufax’ refusal to pitch on Yom Kip­pur brought his com­mit­ment to his faith into the pub­lic eye. The facts are pre­sent­ed clear­ly, accu­rate­ly, and chrono­log­i­cal­ly and with notes that help base­ball novices under­stand its ter­mi­nol­o­gy. The infor­ma­tion appears to be only pub­lic record and con­jec­ture about the feel­ings of this qui­et, non-pub­lic man’s life. Fre­quent boxed side­bars bring help­ful details and tid­bits to the sto­ry. For ages 8 – 12.