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August 20, 2009
It seems all sports fans hear these days are stories about steroids or other scandals. Parents have to explain to their young kids why their heroes have been arrested, banned for dozens of games, or criticized in the press when it comes time for Hall of Fame voting.
Such events made children’s author Jonah Winter long for a more innocent time. That’s the impetus behind his latest book, You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!
“Part of what makes Sandy Koufax an interesting topic for a children’s book — or for any book — is not just his baseball statistics, but who he was as a person” Winter said in a telephone interview.
The title might sound like an old Jewish man marveling over the ignorance of modern fans, but that was not Winters’ intention. The inspiration for his narrative style came via Ring Lardner, the legendary sportswriter and author of Alibi Ike and other works of baseball fiction in the early 20th-century. Winter also cited Jane Leavy’s Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, which he adjudged “the only really good biography on him.”
He was intrigued by “the challenge of writing about someone who’s such a mysterious figure…. The first half of his career was utterly unremarkable; the second half, brilliant. It just really caught my imagination, trying to write a story about someone who is such a mystery.”
Winter collaborated with an unlikely partner for You Never Heard: artist Andre Carrilho, a native of Lisbon. “He turned out to be perfect as the beautiful, stylized approach he used really fit the subject matter,” Winter said. “I don’t think he had ever been to a baseball game before he illustrated this book.”
Winter could have served as his own illustrator but both he and the publisher (Schwartz & Wade) thought it better to look elsewhere. “My style is photo-realism,” he said, “It’s quite time consuming.”
Although Winter is not Jewish, he understood the need to highlight Koufax’s religion, including his decision not to play in the opener of the 1965 World Series.
“It’s a huge part of the story,” Winter said. “You talk to practically anyone — Jewish or non-Jewish — about Sandy Koufax and if they know anything about baseball history they’ll say ‘Oh, yeah. That’s the pitcher that didn’t pitch on Yom Kippur.’ Even if they don’t know anything about the holiday, they know the religious implications. I just didn’t see how that could have been left out.”
Winter had written two other baseball books for kids: Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Beisbol!: Latino Baseball Pioneers and Legends. Both, he said, reflect his desire to pay tribute to old legends by bringing them to a new audience. “Most children knew little about them,” he said. “I think they need to learn about the struggle some of these players have had, whether it’s the Negro Leaguers or some of the early Latinos.”
And now, Koufax.
“I think the decision he made not to pitch,…that drew a lot of attention to him and it also showed the world what mattered to him in addition to striking people out.”
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