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Wednesdays with Brownie: MLB big enough for both Kershaw, Koufax

The old timers could tell you better about what made Sandy Koufax Sandy Koufax, how he carried himself and killed the time between starts and reared up bigger and stronger when the ninth innings drew nearer. They could tell you what he sounded like after starts, the way he talked his craft, what was important to him before his elbow expired.

Clayton Kershaw is giving Sandy Koufax a run for his money. (Getty Images)
Clayton Kershaw is giving Sandy Koufax a run for his money. (Getty Images)

What we’re left with is reclusive Sandy Koufax, which of course is his prerogative and better than none at all, and the legend of a pitcher – of a man – whose six peak seasons speak for him.

Here, in Los Angeles, he’s lent his name to countless replica jerseys still sprinkled across the Dodger Stadium bleachers, a name that sounds best when purred by Vin Scully, and a memory that says there was Koufax and then there was the rest.

The line that ends every barroom debate from Brooklyn to Echo Park: “Yeah, well, he’s no Koufax.”

And it’s always true, too. Just like there will not be another Willie Mays. There’ll be no more Hank Aarons, and there won’t be another Pedro Martinez or Babe Ruth or Stan Musial. They were who they were in part because of when they were, and with whom they were, and all they could do was be great when it was their time.

That’s the nature of sports, which try too hard otherwise.

Now, about Clayton Kershaw.

He wears the uniform, he throws with the left arm, he counts among his mentors the great Koufax, and not so long ago Scully himself was describing a curveball Kershaw spun for strike three and referred to the pitcher who threw it as “Sandy Koufax.” It just came out, presumably, and it was in the wind before he could take it back, except no one minded, because he would not be the first or last to utter what everyone couldn’t help but to think. As usual, he said what we all wished we would have said.

Kershaw hates this kind of talk, out of respect for the game, for the era, and for Koufax. This kind of talk won’t help him get through the Atlanta Braves on Friday night. It won’t help him lug this mediocre team into October, and it won’t get him back into October any quicker.

Sandy Koufax's best six seasons were his last six in baseball. (AP Photo)
Sandy Koufax's best six seasons were his last six in baseball. (AP Photo)

And yet one seeks the perspective of Kershaw for two months in 2016, 11 starts of a 1.56 ERA and 21-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and three shutouts, as though the past half-decade was him just getting loose.

So, just for fun, and in spite of ourselves, and half-a-century later, here are Koufax’s best six regular seasons, which happened to be his last six seasons:

Starts: 211

Record: 129-47

Innings: 1,632.2

ERA: 2.19

Complete games: 115

Shutouts: 35

FIP: 2.16

Hits per 9: 6.5

WHIP: .970

Home runs per 9: 0.6

Walks per 9: 2.3

Strikeouts per 9: 9.4

Strikeouts per walk: 4.16

WAR: 46.6

Decorations: 3 Cy Young Awards, 1 MVP, 4 strikeout titles, 5 ERA titles

And Kershaw’s since 2010, or six seasons plus two months:

Starts: 202

Record: 108-44

Innings: 1,419

ERA: 2.19

Complete games: 24

Shutouts: 15

FIP: 2.39

Hits per 9: 6.5

WHIP: .951

Home runs per 9: 0.5

Walks per 9: 2.1

Strikeouts per 9: 9.9

Strikeouts per walk: 4.77

WAR: 44.5

Decorations: 3 Cy Young Awards, 1 MVP, 3 strikeout titles, 4 ERA titles

Different eras, different worlds, to be sure. In about the same amount of time, Koufax pitched the equivalent of – by today’s standards – one additional season. He finished more than half his starts. He was better, actually better, in the postseason.

And yet, here we are.

There is only one Sandy Koufax. The point here is, there’ll only be one Clayton Kershaw too. The world is big enough for both.

A WEEK BEHIND:

Matt Harvey is not that fragile. A little fragile, maybe. But the temptation to bury him and his career and his character after a few ragged starts says again it’s near impossible anymore for a man to seek greatness and be less than great at the same time.

Matt Harvey had his best start of the season on Sunday for the Mets. AP Photo)
Matt Harvey had his best start of the season on Sunday for the Mets. AP Photo)

Know what Harvey’s biggest problem is? You know, outside the 5.37 ERA?

He hasn’t yet lived up to what we thought he’d be. He’s not Seaver. He’s not Clemens. Not yet. He’s a guy everyone figured would be Seaver and/or Clemens, only with a scar on his right elbow and a superhero fetish and a side gig freelancing for Derek Jeter. He can be sour and condescending or altogether mute, granted, and not a single one of those characteristics has anything to do with carrying his stuff into the middle innings.

He is, therefore, a bad guy, according to the sniper judgments. And maybe he is, except no one knows him well enough to know for sure, and maybe he’s not. And it doesn’t matter.

What is known is Matt Harvey piled 216 innings into his first season back from elbow reconstruction surgery and seven months later he has a little trouble the second time through a lineup. For the moment, he’s not Syndergaard or Matz or deGrom or even Colon, and now all those breathless “Harvey Day” celebrations feel a bit premature, and the emotion comes not so much from his pitching poorly as from his pitching poorer than all the fawning promised.

He was less than average for a while, then he was atrocious, and then on Monday he shut out the Chicago White Sox for seven innings. Ultimately, the Mets might have to shut him down for a brief period, or send him to the minor leagues to get healthy and happy for a brief period, or keep pitching him and see how it plays.

Meantime, we’ll all know soon enough just how fragile this all is.

A WEEK AHEAD:

The Seattle Mariners are in San Diego and Texas this week, which probably is good, because they’ve shown themselves to be a reasonably capable team that gets pretty weird at home.

The Mariners can't win at Safeco Field for some reason. (AP Photo)
The Mariners can't win at Safeco Field for some reason. (AP Photo)

They are 18-7 on the road, where in eight series they’ve won seven and tied one. It helped to have the Bronx, Anaheim, Oakland, Houston and Cincinnati as destinations. But, a team can only win the games that are put in front of it, and the Mariners have the lowest road ERA and have scored the most road runs in the American League. That’s a mature squad, it would seem.

So what’s with the 12-14 record at home? More, what’s with getting swept in home series by the A’s, the Angels and, c’mon, the Twins? Their ERA is more than a run higher at pitcher-friendly Safeco Field. Not surprisingly, their team OPS is nearly 70 points lower at home.

Whatever the reason, the Twins, whose offense ranks last in the AL, scored 16 runs in 14 1/3 innings on Felix Hernandez, Wade Miley and Taijuan Walker over three days, which shouldn’t happen in a Renton Hill studio apartment, let alone Safeco.

SAW IT COMING:

Two months prior to the trading deadline, the hottest names out there:

James Shields

Jay Bruce

Jonathan Lucroy

Rich Hill

Ryan Braun

Any Brave

Hector Santiago

Any Padre

DIDN'T SEE IT COMING:

Memorial Day complete games were pitched by Jeff Locke, Collin McHugh, Jhoulys Chacin and Steven Wright.

Prior to Memorial Day:

Locke: 100 starts, zero complete games.

McHugh: 76 starts, zero complete games.

Chacin: 121 starts, two complete games.

Wright: 20 starts, two complete games.

So, probably should have seen Wright coming.