Koufax Vs Johnson Compare And Contrast

Eric Wright
Miss Royse
English 4
8 April 2015
Tuesday Night Fight: Koufax vs. Johnson Two pitchers so great at what they do that tens of thousands would flock just to watch their artistic play. Although, Koufax was more of an art while Johnson’s was more of brutish force. They could never be compared on the field due to them playing 20 years apart. However, I will use statistics and sport analysts to show how Sandy really was the superior baseball pitcher. Johnson may have been compared to Sandy when he played well, but he never really matched Koufax’s play on the field. I will give three points of how and why Koufax is better than Johnson.
First of all is Sandy’s career awards. Koufax won 3 Cy young awards in his 11 year career (Sandy). He didn’t really dominate until his final 6 years (ESPN). The reason he is better than Randy is because he had to earn the awards in an era of baseball that compared both American league and National league teams to decide the winner whereas Randy only played against the pitchers in his League (Cy). Sandy also had to compete against twice as many pitchers than Johnson. Some pitchers that really challenged Koufax were also in the

Koufax was an incredibly fast throwing pitcher. Players in his time would comment on the velocity and unpredictability of his pitching. He was very fond of his curveball. It had a sharp turn with a speed of 83 mph and it would often make a batter swing to late (ESPN). Sandy was able to make a fast pitch but it was his delayed release and the balls movement that made him really good. Randy on the other hand was a brute force pitcher. He would send a fastball 105 mph down the center of the plate (Randy). It worked most of the time seeing as how he is one of the all-time strikeout leaders, but when it didn’t work it was costly. Johnson may have been a good strikeout pitcher, but he did not have the outstanding variety Koufax did to be able to cause groundouts or fly