Dodgers need to honor Koufax with statue

Los Angeles' all-time greatest sports icon is also the most famous celebrity in Vero Beach, Fla.

Think about that for a moment.

Think about all the sports stars that have performed on the glittery Hollywood stage.

Think about Jerry West and Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant at the Forum. Think about Merlin Olsen and Deacon Jones and Rosey Grier at the Coliseum. And don't forget about Wayne Gretzky, who took his legend to Southern California and turned Tinsel Town into a hockey town.

None, though, was bigger in their day than Sandy Koufax was in his.

He was LA-LA Land's first sports superstar.

It's biggest. And it's best.

He was the Dodgers' marquee player -- baseball's best pitcher and, arguably, the game's most dominant player in the early-to-mid 1960s -- at a time when the Dodgers owned L.A.

Yet there is no statue of Koufax at Dodger Stadium.

There's a statue of Juan Marichal outside AT&T Park in San Francisco. There's a statue of Bob Gibson outside the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

But while his two fiercest rivals have been fittingly immortalized in bronze at the ballparks in their towns, Koufax's likeness is noticeably missing at the ballpark in which he pitched so brilliantly.

And that's wrong.

It's especially disgraceful for a celebrity town that can't celebrate its fame enough, too often paying homage to folks who don't deserve such recognition.

Did you know that more than half of the 30 major league ballparks have statues honoring great players of yesteryear? Among the players whose statues are displayed at ballparks are:

-- Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and Honus Wagner at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

-- Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, Minnie Minoso, Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk at U.S. Cellular Field on Chicago's South Side.

-- Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg, Willie Horton and Al Kaline at Detroit's Comerica Park.

Joining Marichal's likeness outside AT&T Park are statues of Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, while Gibson's bronze is accompanied at Busch by statues of several Cardinals greats, including Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Dizzy Dean, Lou Brock and Ozzie Smith.

You'll find statues of Joe Nuxhall, Ted Kluszewski and Frank Robinson at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati; Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia; and George Brett and Frank White at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

Ernie Banks' statue sits outside Chicago's Wrigley Field. Ted Williams' likeness at Boston's Fenway Park. And you'll find a wonderful bronze of Tony Gwynn at Petco Park in San Diego.

Hank Aaron has been so honored at two ballparks -- Turner Field in Atlanta and Miller Park in Milwaukee.

There's a statue of Babe Ruth, who grew up in Baltimore but never played for the Orioles, at Camden Yards.

At Dodger Stadium, however, there are no such tributes.

Not in bronze, anyway.

Not for Koufax.

Or anyone else.

But that soon could change.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a Southern California freelance writer named Hal Cole has been using his baseballsavvy.com Web site to push for a Koufax statue at Dodger Stadium.

In fact, Cole has launched an online petition -- "Statue For Sandy" -- which he plans to take to the Dodgers' ownership.

Already, he seems to have gotten the attention of the right people, although the newspaper reports that the Dodgers haven't committed to erecting any statues as part of their five-year, $500 million stadium expansion plan.

"(Statues) have been terrific sources of intergenerational conversation, no doubt about that," Dodgers marketing vice president Charles Steinberg, who previously worked in San Diego, Boston and Baltimore, told the Times. "When you go to Camden Yards, the statue of Babe Ruth promotes the retelling of the story of how he was from Baltimore and then you chronicle the rest of the story. That's a parent or a grandparent teaching their 8-year-old.

"It touches fans so deeply. It becomes a symbol of that era of a city's life. So it's not fleeting, it's not in and out, it's not five years, it's not even 10 years. It is a testament to how profound the impact [of a player] was not on wins, not on the teams. But on the culture of a city."

Certainly, Koufax has all the right credentials.

He's a Hall of Fame pitcher who won three Cy Young awards, was voted the National League's MVP in 1963 and threw four no-hitters, including a perfect game. He won the pitching Triple Crown in '63, '65 and '66, leading the league in wins, strikeouts and ERA. And from 1962-66, he was an amazing 111-34 with a 1.99 ERA.

Simply put: Koufax was the best.

And no one in L.A. -- no one who goes to Dodger Stadium -- should ever forget just how great he was.

A bronze, life-size statue, erected just outside the ballpark, would be a nice reminder.

Don't you think?

(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. Contact him at ray.mcnulty@scripps.com.)