Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 21, 2003
Angry Geezers Day:

Sandy Koufax has ended his relationship with the Dodgers because a Murdoch newpaper questioned his sexual orientation:


Hall-of-Famer Sandy Koufax, perhaps the greatest living pitcher and a symbol of personal dignity, has ended his longtime relationship with the Los Angeles Dodgers because of a story in the New York Post, which, like the ballclub, is part of Rupert Murdoch's vast business empire, the Daily News learned Thursday.

Koufax has told club officials he would not appear at spring training, work with pitchers or the coaching staff, and did not want his likeness on any Dodgers products.

His anger was communicated to the team's management after an article in the New York Post that ran Dec. 19.

The Post, like the Dodgers, is owned by Murdoch's News Corp., which also owns the Fox Television Network, Twentieth Century-Fox studio, and a vast global entertainment, media and communications empire.


I get the feeling the author, Brian Dohn, is close to Koufax, or at least doesn't want to antagonzie him, because he buries the reason for Koufax being upset way down in the article:

A private man who rarely talked to the media and shied away from any publicity, Koufax agreed to give access to a writer for a book titled "Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy." Although Koufax's name was not mentioned, the Post reported that a Dodgers Hall of Fame left-handed pitcher who was recently the subject of a book had given access to the author with a promise that the book would not question the pitcher's sexuality.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But the evidence seems to put Sandy in the heterosexual camp, which doesn't help because that camp needs a shortstop, real bad.

Leah Garchik of the San Francisco Chronicle called The Word last week to further scuttle the recent whispers elsewhere that Dodger great Sandy Koufax, is a closeted homosexual. More proof that he is neither: Garchik reminds us that in 1969, Koufax married Anne Widmark, daughter of actor Richard Widmark. After their divorce in the 1980s, Koufax married and divorced again before hooking up with his latest flame. Last week, they were together in Tortola.

Levity aside, I think Koufax is punishing the wrong people. My experience with the Murdoch empire, of which I was briefly an employee, was that they let their pieces pretty much manage themselves, which is the way it should be. Sandy should ask for an apology, but I don't think he should punish the Dodgers. Besides, who really cares?


Posted by David Pinto at 02:02 PM | Baseball