Other Crap

The Top 10 Early Retirements of all time. They probably have Koufax too low. I think he is the only one on the list who retired when he was not only the best player in his sport, but probably the single most dominant athlete in the world. He retired after two seasons with 26 and 27 wins, with 27 complete games each year. In his last four years, his WORST era was 2.04, and he was 98-27 in that period. If you're too lazy to do the math, that means his AVERAGE season was 25-7. In comparison, Sandy's contemporary Bob Gibson was a great pitcher - not just a good one, but one of the best ever - and Gibson was 78-45 in those years. Gibson's BEST won-lost record in his entire career was 23-7. That's how good Koufax was - far, far better than one of the best pitchers who ever lived - and he retired after a 27 win season for a poor hitting team (eighth in runs scored in a ten team league)! Not surprisingly, the Dodgers fell from first place in Koufax's last year to eighth in the first year without him. Now that was a shocking retirement!