Editing Sandy Koufax (section)

==In media culture==
===Television appearances===
During his playing career, Koufax made a number of appearances in television programs. In 1959, he appeared as a character named Ben Cassidy in the television series ''[[Shotgun Slade]]''. The following year, he made three television cameos: in ''[[77 Sunset Strip]]'' as a policeman, in ''[[Bourbon Street Beat]]'' as a doorman, and in ''[[Colt .45 (TV series)|Colt .45]]'' as a character called Johnny.<ref name="cut4">{{cite web |last1=Cosman |first1=Ben |title=On Sandy Koufax's birthday, let's look back at his illustrious television career |url=https://www.mlb.com/cut4/on-sandy-koufaxs-79th-birthday-lets-look-back-at-his-illustrious-television-career/c-105188760 |website=[[MLB.com]] |date=December 30, 2014}}</ref>

Twice, Koufax made appearances as himself on television series. In 1962, he appeared on ''[[Dennis the Menace (1959 TV series)|Dennis the Menace]]'' in the episode "[[Dennis and the Dodger]]" in which he coached a little league team. In 1963, he had a non-speaking role on ''[[Mister Ed]]'' in the episode "Leo Durocher Meets Mister Ed" in which he gave up an [[inside-the-park home run]] to the title character, a talking horse.<ref name="cut4"/>

After the [[1963 World Series]], Koufax, along with teammates [[Don Drysdale]] and [[Tommy Davis (outfielder)|Tommy Davis]], appeared in a sketch on ''[[Bob Hope television specials|The Bob Hope Show]]'' with comedian [[Bob Hope]] before performing a dance routine.<ref>{{cite episode |title=Bob Hope Comedy Special |url=https://archive.org/details/the-bob-hope-show-koufax-davis-drysdale-1963_202311 |series=The Bob Hope Show |network=[[NBC]] |date=October 25, 1963 |access-date=September 9, 2024 |language=English}}</ref><ref>[[#Leahy|Leahy]], p. 91.</ref> After their joint holdout in 1966, Koufax and Drysdale appeared on ''[[The Hollywood Palace]]'', with host [[Gene Barry]] and comedian [[Milton Berle]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cole |first1=Howard |title=Koufax on Mister Ed, Big D with Greg Brady, and Hollywood's love affair with the Dodgers |url=https://www.laweekly.com/koufax-on-mister-ed-big-d-with-greg-brady-and-hollywoods-love-affair-with-the-dodgers/ |work=[[LA Weekly]] |date=September 4, 2013}}</ref>

===Cultural references===
In 1965, as part of ''[[The Sound of the Dodgers]]'', an album with songs dedicated to the team, comedian and singer [[Jimmy Durante]] recorded a song about Koufax called "Dandy Sandy".<ref>{{cite AV media |people=Durante, Jimmy |title=Dandy Sandy |type=[[Vinyl record]] |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN00Yp20HnA |publisher=Jaybar Records |date=1965}}</ref>

Koufax, along with [[Whitey Ford]], is one of the central figures in [[Robert Pinsky]]'s poem "[[The Night Game (poem)|The Night Game]]".<ref>{{cite news |title=Poetry: World Series |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/poetry-world-series |work=[[PBS News Hour]] |date=October 22, 2002}}</ref> Though not named explicitly named, Pinsky alluded to Koufax in the final stanza as a "solution" to Ford whom he refers to in the poem as being "aristocratic" and "gentile":

{{poem quote
|text=
Another time,
I devised a left-hander
Even more gifted
Than Whitey Ford: A Dodger.
People were amazed by him.
Once, when he was young,
He refused to pitch on Yom Kippur.
}}

In the 1975 film, [[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)|''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]], after not being allowed to watch it on television, [[Jack Nicholson]]'s character [[Randle McMurphy]] narrates an imaginary account of the [[1963 World Series]] in which Koufax gets knocked out of the game after surrendering a double and two home runs to three consecutive Yankees.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Caple |first1=Jim |title=The World Series finds its way into the culture far beyond baseball |work=[[ESPN]] |date=October 22, 2012 |url=https://www.espn.in/mlb/playoffs/2012/story/_/id/8534260/the-world-series-finds-way-culture-far-baseball}}</ref>

In the 1998 film, ''[[The Big Lebowski]]'', [[John Goodman]]'s character Walter Sobchak mentions Koufax in his response to being told he was "living in the fucking past": "Three thousand years of beautiful tradition from Moses to Sandy Koufax...You're goddamn right I'm living in the fucking past!"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Siegel |first1=Alan |title=God vs. the World Series: Sandy Koufax's Yom Kippur Sacrifice |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/09/god-vs-the-world-series-sandy-koufaxs-yom-kippur-sacrifice/63094/ |work=[[The Atlantic]] |date=September 17, 2010}}</ref>

Koufax is referenced in the television show ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]''{{'}}s episode "Palestinian Chicken" (S8 E3) when [[Larry David]]'s character incredulously asks Marty Funkhouser, played by [[Bob Einstein]], "You're Koufaxing us?" after Marty decides against participating in a golf tournament due to it coinciding with the [[Shabbat]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Davidson |first1=Steven |title=Why 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Is The Seminal Jewish Comedy |url=https://forward.com/schmooze/383886/curb-your-enthusiasm-epitome-of-jewish-humor/ |work=[[The Forward]] |date=September 29, 2017}}</ref>