Posted By:
jay behrensNo one is arguing that at his peak, Koufax wasn't dominant. But in order to be a truly great player, you need to be great for the vast majority of career, not half of it.
Was he rushed to the majors? Most likely. Was he misused by Alston. Maybe. If he doesn't get rushed to the majors, he probably has a great 8 year career and not make the HOF. Not making the HOF pretty much puts an end to and discussion about greatness. We would just be wondering how great he could have been if he had stayed healthy. We still do that with him, but we will never know.
Part of greatness is longevity. That is why when you look at the short list of truly great players they all have pretty much one thing in common, a career that lasted 20 or more years in which they were great for the vast majority of the time.
Would we hold Cobb, Wagner, Johnson, et al in the same regard if their careers were only 12 years long instead of 20 plus?
The big thing is that Koufax has going for him is that people are still alive to remember him pitching. greatness tends to fade when there is no one around that actually remembers the person playing and all there is left is the record book. We have testimonials galore to the greatness of various 19c and Deadball players that are not in the HOF, yet they get no respect outside of SABR and die hard fans. We won't be alive to see if this will happen to Koufax.
Jay
My place is full of valuable, worthless junk.