Sports

Sandy Koufax Statue To Be sports

Unveiled At Dodger Stadium This Summer

By Jacob Gurvis

Sandy Koufax shown after striking out 14 batters in a game in 1955. (Bettmann/ Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Jewish baseball legend Sandy Koufax will be immortalized with a statue at Dodger Stadium this summer.

The Hall of Fame pitcher will join his trailblazing teammate Jackie Robinson, whose bronze statue was unveiled in the centerfield plaza in 2017. Artist Branly Cadet, who made the Robinson statue, also created Koufax’s sculpture.

The Los Angeles Dodgers had announced the Koufax statue in 2019, with its unveiling originally planned for the summer of 2020. The new ceremony will be held June 18 prior to a game against the Cleveland Guardians. The first 40,000 ticketed fans in attendance will receive a replica of Koufax’s statue.

Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten announced the new date this week. He said fans entering the centerfield gates would now be “greeted” by Robinson and Koufax.

“Not only are both of these Hall of Famers part of our rich Dodger history, they are also continuously inspiring sports fans everywhere,” Kasten said in his statement.

Koufax, now 86, became the youngest player to enter baseball’s Hall of Fame when he was inducted in 1972 at the age of 36. That same year, the Dodgers retired Koufax’s jersey number, 32, alongside Robinson’s iconic 42, which is retired across the sport.

One of the best pitchers in baseball history, Koufax was a member of four World Series championship teams, winning two World Series Most Valuable Player awards. Koufax also won a National League MVP and three Cy Young awards during his 12-year career with the Dodgers.

Koufax posted a career record of 165-87 with a 2.76 earned run average, 2,396 strikeouts, 137 complete games and 40 shutouts. He was the first pitcher to throw four no-hitters.

Among Jewish fans, Koufax is best known for a game he did not pitch. Game 1 of the 1965 World Series fell on Yom Kippur, and Koufax famously declined to play.

Passover Happy

GROWING UP

Continued from Page 5 for-Passover shops (or even kosher shops), every cake and cookie had to be made from scratch, a task that entailed the washing, drying and blending of all the needed nuts. The week before the holiday, the aroma of roasted nuts would fill the house, and the sweet smell of homemade cookies couldn’t summon the holiday fast enough. Given the lack of kosher products, we hardly consumed any dairy for the eight days, our diets consisting of eggs, meats and, according to Iranian Jewish custom, rice.

Our Muslim neighbors, too, were busy cleaning, readying themselves for the coming of spring. A Muslim family with whom we were particularly friendly would come over each Passover for a taste of matzah, saying how they looked forward to it all year. My father’s co-workers knew it was an auspicious time of NSU the year for him and wished him especially well as he took a holiday for the Seders. In the market and in the streets, though, we kept quiet about our Passover preparations. We did not discuss details with strangers and those with whom we did not feel a connection.

The Seder itself brought its own associations and customs. At the end of each ritual meal, as we bid farewell to yet another holiday and sang “Next Year in Jerusalem,” the words had a deep significance for us. Our Seder table became quieter with each passing year, with so many family and friends already gone to other promised lands. We each wondered out loud when our turn would come to leave a country NSU that treated us like second-class citizens, when we would find security and peace in other lands.

Over time, our entire extended family fled to Israel and the United States. My immediate family was the last of our clan to finally pick up and leave, in September 1990.

The story of Iran’s ancient Jewish community unfolds over more than 2,700 years, back to when the Jews were exiled from Jerusalem through to today, after most members of the community have relocated throughout the world. Today there are fewer than 10,000 Jews left in Iran, the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside of Israel.

My Passover experience here is vastly different than the one I grew up with. Every year as I put away

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one set of dishes and bring out my Passover ware, I feel a pang of guilt at how easy it is is to get ready for the holiday compared with what my mother and grandmother had to do in Iran. The shelves of the supermarkets here are filled with kosher-forPassover cookies, cakes, chocolates, sweets and dairy products. One could almost forget that we are experiencing a holiday that celebrates the Jews’ escape from slavery.

But I am forever grateful for the freedoms that I have been granted here, and to celebrate this most auspicious holiday alongside so many of our people.

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