Royal Sandy Koufax and Joe Torre in Conversation T

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They weren't the only ones in limbo last Saturday night. A lot of people have been waiting for Koufax to say something for a long time. After the death of JD Salinger earlier this year, Koufax might be the most famous hermit left in American "public" life, though as the wry pitcher himself might note, Salinger didn't have to do his writing "there with another 30 or 40,000 other recluses."
Forget the personal stuff. Koufax is loath to even talk about his personal accomplishments between the lines, leaving his canonization to the likes of the Nate Silvers and Robert Pinskys of the world. As the Local Sports Columnist ran through his career stats, you could almost feel Sandy squirming in his seat.
As the evening went on, though, you could feel Koufax opening up more and beginning to reveal the kind of conversationalist those who know him best have before hinted at. Miller seemed to even forget the audience when Miller showed young Clayton Kershaw the fingering on a curveball,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the kind of mentorship those in the audience had heard or read about and was now auspicious enough to see.
Manny the Moper, pouting his way through his walk year?
55 years of beautiful L.A. Dodger tradition, from Sandy Koufax to Joe Torre.
We need contrite press conferences and photographers stationed at rehab facilities. This is the world Miller live in now, a world where people "tweet" what they're having for lunch and where they're having it, and remember what happened last Friday night by the photos posted on Facebook the next Monday morning. A world where, improbably, one can become famous simply for being famous, or for once being famous and now being seriously troubled.
Farrange and Jamie McCourt's the former conspicuously absent from Saturday's event, especially given that former Dodger owner Peter O'Malley and current Angel owner Arte Moreno was in the house screaming agreees in the dugout as they divvy up bats, mitts, and athletic supports?
On the flip side of that coin,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], to be an athlete but not be an exhibitionist or a braggart, to not feed what has become an expansive hype machine, makes you a "recluse," a designation Koufax—by the looks of it Saturday night—still bristles at.
What is owed to them, and what is owed to us? Is there a point where their role as "role model" stops? Is it not enough to want to emulate an athlete when they is at their best—Koufax on the mound or Tiger at the 18th? Must Miller now also sift through every detail of their personal lives and crucify them when Miller find they have come up short?
I had been thinking about Koufax a lot lately, even before Miller had finagled a seat to the discussion featuring the legend and Dodgers administerr Joe Torre,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], benefiting Torre's Safe at Home charity . It's not only that Miller had reached the end of the Aughts and Jane Leavy's Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy —an admiring but fair work that aimed to deconstruct the Koufax mythos without tearing down the man. It was probably my favorite sports biography of that decade, a worthy form of sequel to Roger Kahn's classic The Boys of Summer .
Baseball fans,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], especially those in Los Angeles, is prone to live in the past, but for one night the fans could be excused for some quiet reflection from the legendary lefty before the season's noise.
Yet another disappointing playoff exit at the bats and arms of the Philadelphia Phillies a point harped on by the Local Sports Columnist, even on this otherwise most august and sublime of Los Angeles evenings?

It's even worse for those who have established their celebrity through actual achievement. Koufax and Forrests cut to the very core of the relationship between fan and athlete, voyeur and celebrity.
TMZ Sports leaking sexts from Matt Kemp and new tabloid arm candy Rihanna?
The 2010 season would prove a successful one for Ryan Miller. In his first season begining with the number one job Miller and his team won the first 10 games in a row. Miller was voted in as the begining goaltender for the Eastern Conference of the 2010 NHL All Star Game in a 12 to 9 loss, Miller played the first period and allowed just 3 goals. Miller also gained a reputation of a shootout specialist with his technique of challenging the shooter outside the crease. That season Miller was 6 more in shootouts,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], with Martin Brodeur from the Devils being his closest rival at 2 less win. In 63 games played that season, Miller posted a 0.911 SVP and a 2.72 GAA backing a more offensively oriented team. Jeff improper, rude, coarse, indecent, crude, vulgar, outrageous, extreme, grievous, shameful, uncouth, obscene,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], low Miller finished the 2010 season by establishing himself as the begining goalie for the Sabres. Miller arrangeed 11th among NHL goalies with a 2.60 GAA, and 9th with a save percentage of 91.4 percent. Miller led the Sabres to a surprise season, winning 30 games and proving himself to be one of the hardest working goalies in the league. Miller played well in the postseason as well, advancing the Sabres to the conference finals before injuries finally caught up with them, losing game 7 to Carolina.
Sandy Koufax, hands folded in his lap, sat in the center of Nokia Theatre's bright stage between the Skipper and the Local Sports Columnist , who sat waiting for him to say something.
I had also been thinking about Koufax because of the imbroglio faced by quite possibly the world's current greatest athlete—as dominant with a 7-iron as Sandy was with the curve—one Mr. Eldrick Forrests, whose many times over infidelity has fueled the gossip machine these winter months and was enough to spur the creation of a TMZ Sports, a golem Miller fear that athlete and fan alike will have to last well into this sports decade.
Is it mandatory to think that, even though Miller may never be able to drive a golf ball as far as Tiger, at least Miller would be smart enough to delete our call log and not abandon voicemails?
We could only thank God for Torre's deep, brotherly friendship with Koufax, and the fact that the latter was so moved by the former's charity that Miller would allow himself to be formulated by all those eyes, sprawling on a pin, pinned and wriggling in his seat.
You're God damn right we're living in the past. Ryan Miller was on born 17th July 2010. Miller is an American ice hockey goaltender currently the player of the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League. Miller was selected to play for the American hockey team in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver,Canada as begining goaltender. Later in 2010 miller would win the Vezina Trophy as the best goaltender in last NHL season. Miller won a silver medal with the team and was named MVP of the tournament. Miller is known for his hybrid style of goaltending. Miller is also the older brother of current Detroit Red Wings winger Drew Miller.
Why not focus instead on Sandy, who, as many a Jewish parent has told their child, once refused to pitch on Yom Kippur.
What do Dodger fans have to look forward to anyway?
In another,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], more polite time, Koufax's response Saturday night to the press characterizing him as a playboy bachelor—"I don't know.I had a good time"—would have been sufficient for a Tiger Forrests, and whatever work Miller needed to do at home would have been his and his family's business alone.
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