Sandy Koufax turns 80. Happy birthday.

Sandy Koufax turns 80. Happy birthday.

He's the youngest man ever inducted into the Hall of Fame. If you rooted against him, you probably remember him as unbeatable. The record says he lost some games, but it just didn't seem like it.

In his last five years in the majors he was 111-34 and won the ERA crown every single time, with an ERA+ of 167. And he won those 111 games (22 per year) despite missing about 26 starts with injuries. In the three years he was healthy, he was 78-22. That's 26 wins per year, if you're scoring at home. He won three Cy Youngs, an MVP, and two World Series MVPs. His World Series ERA was 0.94 in that period.

That may be the best 5-year streak any lefty ever assembled in the history of baseball.

Or it could be second:

Lefty Grove had a similar 5-year run from 1928-32 when he was 128-33 with an ERA+ of 171. He had four ERA crowns, four World Series wins, an MVP, three times leading the league in wins and four times in strikeouts. There was no AL Cy Young Award then, but if there had been he would probably have won it all five times.

Randy Johnson approached that level in 1998-2002, winning four consecutive Cy Youngs, three ERA crowns, three games in a single World Series, and a World Series MVP, but I'd have to place that third on the list. Flip a coin for first on Grove and Koufax. My heart goes with Koufax, but Grove's numbers appear a smidge better.