Sandy Koufax still has great stuff

It started with a verbal kick.

T.J. Simers asked Sandy Koufax where he’d been, said Koufax could have made millions off his name, hammered home the point.

“Where did you go for 45 years?” Simers asked Koufax.

“Went home,” Koufax said.

“This is going to be a short program,” Simers said.

It wasn’t.

Dodgers Manager Joe Torre and Koufax, the little-seen but much-remembered Dodgers’ Hall of Fame pitcher, shared a stage Saturday night at the Nokia Theatre LA Live. Los Angeles Times Page 2 columnist Simers hosted an evening of story-sharing that lasted 90 minutes and was done to benefit Torre’s Safe at Home charity dedicated helping abused children.

Mostly Koufax answered questions that were designed to nudge him into telling stories, but the 74-year-old didn’t need much prodding.

For example, during his rookie season in Brooklyn, Koufax said, he wasn’t popular in the clubhouse.

“I got a $14,000 bonus,” Koufax said. “I was 19 years old and got invited to every poker game. That was it. I was not really welcomed in the clubhouse at the start. I was a kid with no experience, I’d probably pitched five times in my life and I’m taking a roster spot for a team trying to make the playoffs.”

The coolest moment might have been when Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw held his hand palm-to-palm against Koufax’s hand and Kershaw’s hand disappeared, swallowed up by the massive Koufax paw.

Then Koufax gave Kershaw a tip about throwing a curveball. “Your thumb gets in the way,” Koufax said.

Torre had memorably been quoted during last season’s playoffs as saying Kershaw would be the next Koufax, a comparison that seemed sacrilegious.

Angels owner Arte Moreno was among the sellout crowd of 7,100. Dodgers owner Frank McCourt wasn’t.

Koufax more than once rebutted the notion he had, as Simers said, dropped out of sight after retiring from baseball at the age of 30 after the 1966 season.

“I go to the Final Four every year,” Koufax said. “I go to golf tournaments and walk around if a friend is playing in it, the Super Bowl occasionally. I go to Dodger Stadium.”

Simers also played a game of fact or fiction with Koufax and when Simers asked Koufax if he agreed that the word “gentle” was a proper characterization, Koufax said, “It sure as [heck] isn’t gentle, especially when I was playing the game.”

The crowd roared.

The evening finished with an ungentle standing ovation. Koufax bowed his head and walked offstage. Again.

diane.pucin@latimes.com