Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Sandy Koufax" in English language version.
Sandy Koufax was born as Sanford Braun on December 30, 1935. His parents were Evelyn (née Lichtenstein) and Jack Braun, Sephardic Jews of Hungarian descent.
At the urging of friends, Koufax did go out for baseball in his senior year at Lafayette. He played first base. The team captain was Fred Wilpon, a lefty with a "crackling" curveball, who decades later became the owner of the New York Mets.
During his first two years as a Dodger, Koufax gained little experience – just 28 appearances (15 starts) and barely 100 innings pitched. He was frustrated and quick to blame his wildness and unsteadiness on the lack of regular work. It was a vicious cycle. He couldn't pitch until his control improved – but the less he pitched, the worse his control became.
During the 1956-57 offseason, Koufax got a chance to practice what he was taught in winter ball. The Dodgers arranged for him to pitch in Puerto Rico with the Caguas Criollos... Although Koufax posted a won-lost record of just 3-6, he showed more glimpses of brilliance – a one-hit shutout on Halloween night and a two-hit shutout on December 16. The great Roberto Clemente got the only hits off Koufax in the latter game, Sandy's last in Puerto Rico. Caguas had to release him because a league ruling precluded teams from having more than three imported players with big-league experience.
The combination of resentment by veteran players, lack of minor league training, irregularity of work, and pressure he felt from the antisemitic faction contributed to discouragement felt by the young pitcher, and for a time he considered giving it all up.
After the move to Los Angeles, Roth started to attend spring training in Vero Beach, something he hadn't done early in the Brooklyn years. Now he met with each player, along with one of the coaches, and went over their performance the previous year, emphasizing positives as well as negatives and suggesting changes that could improve the player's statistics. Sandy Koufax would credit such sessions in the early 1960s with helping him learn to emphasize first-pitch strikes and taking something off the ball.
Going into the 1963 season, there were some lingering doubts about Koufax's condition. He missed three starts in late April and early May with a sore shoulder. His first game back was a victory over the Cardinals.
Koufax's contract with NBC was terminated by mutual consent before the start of the 1973 season. From Koufax's side, the decision to leave the broadcast booth stemmed in part from difficulty in talking baseball to people who had not played the game professionally. Other challenges for him were describing pitchers whose repertoires differed from his, and being honest and critical of the men he played with and against. As a result, he was uncomfortable on the air.
For many years, well into the 21st century, he would also visit the Mets in spring training to catch up with old friend Fred Wilpon and offer sage advice to young pitchers.
His first wife was Anne Widmark, daughter of actor Richard Widmark. Their wedding was on New Year's Day, 1969 ... Anne Widmark and Koufax divorced in 1982. In 1985 Koufax married his second wife, Kimberly Francis ... Their marriage ended in the winter of 1998–1999.
... even though Fred Wilpon got Sandy to become one of the investors in Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme, Koufax publicly supported Wilpon. He would have testified on behalf of the Mets' ownership, had a settlement not averted a civil trial.
