Baseball people rarely miss the chance to thank Koufax for his impact on their lives. Ed Farmer, the Chicago White Sox’s play-by-play radio broadcaster, got curveball tips from Koufax in the late 1960s and used them throughout a 13-year major league career.
After the two spoke this week, Farmer said Koufax “made me a lot of money.”
“You’ve got to have clay to mold,” Koufax replied. “Then some guys are granite, and you have to chip at it.”
Koufax spent the 1970s as a minor league instructor for the Dodgers, and he has visited camp with former manager Joe Torre in recent years, although he never stayed more than a few days or did much teaching. He also worked with a few Mets pitchers in recent years at the behest of owner Fred Wilpon, his high-school buddy.
But Koufax last wore a uniform as a minor league pitching instructor in 1989, and he publicly split with the Dodgers during Fox’s ownership tenure reportedly in a rift over a story published about him by another arm of the media conglomerate.
Los Angeles fans never forgot him _ in fact, they swarmed his car in Glendale as he left after his first day this week.
Koufax doesn’t enjoy the rapturous attention, but he still loves baseball.
“It’s fun,” Koufax said, eyes sparkling beneath his gray Dodgers cap. “I’m having a good time. If I wasn’t having a good time, I wouldn’t be doing it.”
By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
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