Sandy Koufax
For a few years in the early 1960's, Sandy Koufax was the most dominant pitcher in baseball, but was forced to retire at age 30 due to a life-threatening arm injury.
Koufax was signed by his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers when he was 19 years old, and was not allowed to pitch in the minors because of the size of his signing bonus. Over his first 6 seasons, he struggled with control, and was often kept on the bench for weeks at a time, and he didn't even appear in the Dodgers' World Series victory in 1955.
The Dodgers reached the World Series again in 1959, soon after their move to Los Angeles, and this time Koufax was given a couple of appearances, pitching 2 perfect innings in relief in game 1, then started game 5, giving up only 1 run over 7 innings, but that run lost them the game 1-0. They ended up winning the series after the next game, so his small mistake did not cost the team too much.
After struggling through the 1960 season, Koufax was ready to quit baseball, but the team convinced him to come back for one more season, and it was a good thing he did. That season he led the league in strikeouts for the first time, then in ERA the following year, and that was just the beginning.
In 1963, he won his first Triple Crown, leading the league with 25 wins, 306 strikeouts, and a 1.88 ERA, and it resulted in him winning the Cy Young unanimously, becoming the first ever to earn every vote. In that season's World Series, he pitched 2 complete games, outpitching Whitey Ford in both of his games, and gave up only 3 runs while striking out 23, which earned him the World Series MVP.
Early in the 1964 season, he felt something pop in his elbow, and after using pain injections to pitch through the pain, they shut him down, but he still led the league in ERA for the third season in a row. In 1965, he was told not to throw at all between starts to avoid losing his arm, but he still had his best season, winning another Triple Crown and unanimous Cy Young and setting a new record with 382 strikeouts in the season (since broken by Nolan Ryan).
He threw a perfect game in 1965, which was his 4th career no-hitter, which was also a record until broken by Nolan Ryan. The Dodgers returned to the World Series that year, and Koufax sat out Game 1 due to Yom Kippur, instead starting Game 2. He was pulled after 6 innings, and the Dodgers lost that game to Minnesota, but he came back with complete game shutouts in Games 5 and 7, finishing with 29 strikeouts and another World Series MVP.
Before the 1966 season, he was told by the team doctor that his arm would not last another season, but he decided to go for one more year. He won the Triple Crown for the third time in 4 seasons, and a third unanimous Cy Young, and also got the Dodgers back to the World Series. He pitched well in Game 1, allowing only 1 run in 6 innings, but was pulled in hopes of having him pitch in Game 5, which never happened due to Baltimore's sweep.
Koufax announced his retirement a few weeks later, and due to his early retirement, he was eligible for the Hall of Fame sooner, and became the youngest player ever elected in his first season on the ballot. He is one of only 4 Hall of Fame pitchers to have more strikeouts than innings pitched in his career, along with Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, and Nolan Ryan, and though his career was short, and his dominant seasons even shorter, he was so great at his best that he has to be included among the greatest players of all time.
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