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The 20 greatest Dodgers of all time, No. 1: Sandy Koufax

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We recently asked you to list your choices for the 10 greatest Dodgers of all time, and vote you did, as we received an amazing 14,383 ballots. So many people voted that we decided to expand the list from the top 10 to the top 20.

Remember, any Dodger — Brooklyn or Los Angeles — was eligible, including managers, owners, announcers, etc. Points were assigned based on where you listed the person on your ballot. Your first choice received 12 points, second choice nine, third place eight, all the way down to one point for 10th place.

Full List: See the top 20 greatest Dodgers of all time

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So without further ado, here is No. 1:

No. 1: Sandy Koufax (6,381 first-place votes, 135,389 points)

When you talk about the greatest left-handed pitchers of all time, you start with Koufax, add in Warren Spahn, Lefty Grove, Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton and figure it out from there.

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Koufax was the first pitcher to win multiple Cy Young Awards (1963, ’65 and ‘66), as well as the first pitcher to win a Cy Young Award by a unanimous vote (1963, when he went 25-5 with a 1.88 ERA). Many people will tell you that the greatest pitcher in baseball history was Sandy Koufax on four days’ rest. Second greatest? Sandy Koufax on three days’ rest.

Koufax pitched four no-hitters, one of those a perfect game, and led the Dodgers to two World Series titles.

In 1999, Sporting News came out with a list of baseball’s 100 greatest players. Koufax was No. 26. He was also one of the 30 players named to the Major League Baseball All-Century team.

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On the Dodgers’ all-time list, Koufax is fifth in wins (165), first in hits per nine innings (6.79), third in strikeouts (2,396), 11th in complete games (137), third in shutouts (40) and 10th in ERA (2.76).

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