Baseball: With Trauma, Stress & It

"I am resetting the club right now, with the idea that Sandy won't be with us." So spoke disconsolate Buzzie Bavasi, the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, after doctors last April diagnosed the pain and swelling in Sandy Koufax' pitching elbow as a "traumatic arthritic condition" that flares up "under repeated stress."

As things turned out, Sandy has been very much with them and the Dodgers have been with it—at week's end they were leading the National League. Koufax has not missed his turn in the pitching rotation all season. And never has he been more effective. He leads both leagues in strikeouts, is on his way toward setting his third consecutive league strikeout record, has won 17 games, including eleven straight (v. only three losses), by far the best record this season. It is so good, in fact, that he has a chance to become the first pitcher since Dizzy Dean to win 30 or more games in one season. Declares Sandy: "I never think in terms of numbers. I started the season wanting to win every game, and since I can't do that, I'm trying to come as close as I can."

But what about that trauma and stress? "He's still living with an arthritic elbow," warns Dr. Robert Kerlan, the Dodgers' physician, "but it has responded to medication." The main medicament has been cortisone. As part of his therapy, Koufax regularly packs his elbow in ice for one hour following every game, throws only lightly on his days off, and refrains from tossing sidearm pitches, which put extra strain on the elbow.

It may not be the medication or the ice, but something has certainly improved Sandy's hitting. Until this season, he was known by teammates as "the rally stopper" because he was so hopeless at the plate. His lifetime average was a minuscule .083. This season his average has risen to an almost respectable .236, and his batting has either driven in or set up the winning runs in two of the last three games he pitched. More pitchers should have arthritis like that.