The Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday announced that they will unveil the long-anticipated Sandy Koufax statue in the Centerfield Plaza prior to the Dodgers’ June 18 home game vs. the Cleveland Guardians. The Koufax monument will be the second statue installed by the club, as it follows the Jackie Robinson statue that was put in place in April 2017. The piece will be sculpted by Branly Cadet, who also created the Robinson statue. 

The first 40,000 ticketed fans in attendance at the June 18 contest will receive a replica miniature version of the new statue.

“I am very proud to announce that the unveiling of the Sandy Koufax statue at Dodger Stadium will finally take place on Sunday, June 18,” said Dodger President and CEO, Stan Kasten. “The statue will be located at our main entrance in the Centerfield Plaza, right next to Jackie Robinson’s statue, and fans entering those gates will be ‘greeted’ by Jackie and Sandy. Not only are both of these Hall of Famers part of our rich Dodger history, they are also continuously inspiring sports fans everywhere.”  

The team announced in 2019 that the next legendary name in the Dodgers’ “statue series” was to be Koufax, and that unveiling was intended to be in the summer of 2020. However, the pandemic altered those plans. The former teammates were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 (Robinson) and 1972 (Koufax), respectively, and both had their numbers retired by the Dodgers in June 1972.

At 36, Koufax was the youngest player ever inducted into the Hall of Fame. Throughout his illustrious 12 seasons, he had a career record of 165-87, a 2.76 ERA, 2,396 strikeouts, 137 complete games and 40 shutouts. He was also the first major leaguer to pitch four no-hitters, including a perfect game.

From 1962-66, Koufax led the National League in ERA and shutouts. He was the first pitcher to average fewer than seven hits allowed per nine innings in his career (6.79) and strike out more than nine batters (9.28) per nine innings. In his last 10 seasons, batters hit .203 against him with a .271 on-base percentage and a .315 slugging average.

Koufax was the MVP and Cy Young Award winner in 1963 and also won Cy Young awards in 1965 and 1966. He was a member of Dodgers’ world championship teams in 1955, 1959, 1963 and 1965, earning MVP honors in 1963 and 1965. His postseason record was 4-3 with a 0.95 ERA.

Koufax was selected to seven consecutive All-Star games from 1961-66.

(Content for this post was furnished by the Los Angeles Dodgers media department)