The unanimous choice

The incomparable Sandy Koufax – less than a month removed from pitching in the last game of his Hall of Fame career – wins his second straight Cy Young Award 57 years ago today.

Koufax — seen here in a Neil Leifer photo — not only wins the award for a then-record third time, he utterly dominates the voting by being unanimously selected for the second straight season.

The 1966 season also marks the last time Major League Baseball issues just a single Cy Young Award for both leagues – not that anyone from either league could have matched Koufax’s final two seasons as Los Angeles Dodgers’ left-hander goes 26-8 with two saves and a 2.04 earned-run average in 1965 and then 27-9 with a 1.73 ERA in 1966.

Alas, Koufax is done in not by the hitters, but by an arthritic left elbow that forces his retirement at the age of 30.