Sanford Koufax (87) nicknamed "the Left Arm of God"
and "Dandy Sandy."

On November 18, 1966, Sandy Koufax, the ace pitcher for the
Los Angeles Dodgers, retired from baseball. He was just 30
years old, and he was retiring after a great season–he’d led
the Dodgers to a National League pennant and won his third
Cy Young award. But he had chronic arthritis in his pitching
arm, and he was afraid that if he kept playing baseball,
eventually he wouldn’t be able to use his left hand at all.
“In those days there was no surgery,” he said much later.
“The wisdom was if you went in there, it would only make
things worse and your career would be over, anyway. Now
you go in, fix it, and you’re OK for next spring.”

Ed Flanagan, a former Detroit Lions offensive lineman and four-
time Pro Bowl selection has died.  

  
Joseph Anthony Pepitone
(October 9, 1940 – March 13, 2023)

Pepitone was a professional baseball first baseman and
outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB)
for the New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Chicago
Cubs, and Atlanta Braves from 1962 to 1973 and for the
Yakult Atoms of Nippon Professional Baseball in 1973.

Pepitone was a three-time MLB All-Star and won three
Gold Glove Awards.

   
    
           
    
    
   

Henry Louis Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021)

On February 5, 1934, Henry Louis Aaron Jr., the baseball slugger
who broke Babe Ruth’s legendary record of 714 homers, was
born in Mobile, Alabama.

Aaron began his professional baseball career in 1952 in the Negro League and joined the Milwaukee Braves of the major league in
1954, eight years after Jackie Robinson had integrated baseball.

Aaron was the last Negro League player to compete in the majors
and established himself as an important player for the Braves
winning the National League batting title in 1956. The following
season, he took home the league’s MVP award and helped the
Braves beat Mickey Mantle and the heavily favored New York
Yankees in the World Series.

In 1959, Aaron won his second league batting title.  Season after
season, he turned in strong batting performances.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson
(January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972)

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson, who integrated Major
League Baseball in 1947, was born to a sharecropping
family in Cairo, Georgia, on this day in history, Jan. 31,
1919.

His fight for racial equality and his exploits on the field
of play made him the first athlete in North American
sports to have his jersey number (42) retired by every
team in his game. (FOXNEWS)