Consider this: Koufax gave up just six earned runs in seven World Series starts while the Anaheim Angels and San Francisco Giants combined for 76 in this year's seven-game Fall Classic.

What would 66-year-old Koufax, a former Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodger, say about this measure of his hardball prowess?

"I don't know. He doesn't like to talk about himself ... but would probably just say it is a different era," said Jane Leavy, who recently wrote a biography with limited cooperation from Koufax, who became an icon of baseball, American Judaism and a more innocent time in professional sports.

Koufax made it clear, she said, that he did not want her to do the book, "Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy," now on the New York Times bestseller list. But he said if she was going to proceed, he wanted it done right.

So, Koufax politely agreed to verify biographical data. More importantly, he told friends they could talk to her, provided it was clear the book is "'based on what others said, not on what I'm saying,"' she said.

At his request, she did not interview his closest relatives. And she chose not to call two ex-wives and former girlfriends.

But she did see him at public events, like at a ceremony honoring baseball's Team of the Century when he noted wryly that the placard in front of him misspelled his name.