Darrell Russell: USC football Lawrence Jackson: USC football Andrei Kuzmenko: Los Angeles Kings Neil Hope: Los Angeles Rams
The most interesting story for No. 96: Darrell Russell,USC football defensive tackle (1994 to 1996) Southern California map pinpoints: Los Angeles
USC defensive lineman Darrell Russell poses for a portrait prior to the 1997 NFL Draft. (Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)
At 6-foot-5 and 313 pounds, Darrell Russell was a supreme, spectacular specimen.
A reporter visited the USC campus the fall of 1995 to properly size up the sophomore defensive tackle for a profile piece. Eventually, he and a USC official got out a tape measure.
Russell’s calves were measured at 32 inches. About the size of a normal man’s waist?
“I wear a 40 or 42 waist,” Russell explained when asked about how he finds a proper wardrobe, “but I can’t buy a pair of pants according to waist size –I can’t get them on over my thighs. Without baggy pants, I’d have to wear shorts all the time. … It’s a good thing for me the baggy-pants look is in, because without them I don’t know what I’d do.”
Don Drysdale, Los Angeles Dodgers Keith Erickson, UCLA basketball Rod Martin, Los Angeles Raiders
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 53:
Jim Youngblood, Los Angeles Rams Lynn Shackleford, UCLA basketball
The most interesting story for No. 53: Don Drysdale, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher (1958 to 1969), California Angels broadcaster (1973 to 1981), Los Angeles Rams broadcaster (1973 to 1976), Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster (1988 to 1993)
Southern California map pinpoints: Van Nuys, Bakersfield, Hollywood, Los Angeles (Coliseum, Dodger Stadium), Anaheim
To tell the truth, the dogma of Don Drysdale is always worth a deeper dive. Lots to discover with “Big D” that goes beyond his 6-foot-5 statue.
The San Fernando Valley-reared kid who spent all 14 years of his big-league career with the Dodgers organization made a move back to Los Angeles with the team when he left Brooklyn, and then gave them last six years of his life as a broadcaster.
Here’s how it happened … or did it?
From the 1960 issue of Sport magazine, the self-authored story: “You’ve Got to Be Mean to Pitch”
Truth that has been told: Don Drysdale led the league in putting the “mean” in a meaningful pitch.
Dare to discover: There has to be some SABR-cat researcher who could verify Drysdale threw more brushback/purpose pitches than anyone else in his era. Four times, as a residual effect, he led the majors in plunking batters — 154 HBP in all, more than 10 a season, all of it a National League record at the time of his retirement in 1969. Yet that just played into his personal conviction: You knock down one of my guys, I knock down two of yours. If one of ’em is hit in the process, well …
Research by Fangraphs on the essence of the “Two For One Special,” aka the “Drysdale Revenge Factor,”‘ shows that 18 times in his career, Drysdale hit two or more batters in a game. Where did that mindset come from? Likely his one-time veteran Brooklyn teammate Sal “The Barber” Maglie, teaching him big-league survival techniques. Properly stated, put the idea in a batter’s mind that while the pitcher can claim ownership to half of the 17-inch home plate, let them figure out which half you’re going to pick on a pitch-by-pitch case. Eventually, the ones holding the bat in this one-on-one conflict knew the drill, they got drilled.
“Batting against him is the same as making a date with the dentist,” Pittsburgh’s Dick Groat once said about Drysdale. San Francisco’s Orlando Cepeda also said: “The trick against Drysdale is to hit him before he hits you.”
In a 1979 interview with the New York Times’ Dave Anderson, Drysdale, who was 10 years into leaving the field, explained how delivering the inside pitch was a “lost art.”
Anderson wrote:
“I just feel,” he was saying now, his right forefinger swirling the ice in his Scotch, “that when you’re pitching, part of the plate has to be yours. … The pitcher has to find out if the hitter is timid. And if the hitter is timid, he has to remind the hitter he’s timid.”
How can you not love that imagery.
Yet, go back to a June 1960 Sport magazine story, Drysdale insisted he never deliberately threw at anyone. Maybe he had to state his case for the record.
“The mound is no place for charity, so I move the hitters back,” he said. “A lot of fellows squawk when I do this, but I’m going to keep right on doing it. It is strictly a matter of a pitcher’s right. My control is good enough (to hit a batter) with eight out of 10 pitches if I wanted. … But hitting him on purpose makes no sense. … All I want to do is get him out. (It) takes a professional’s attitude.”
A year later, Drysdale was handed a five-game suspension and fined $100 by National League president Warren Giles for hitting Cincinnati’s Frank Robinson on the right forearm.
Drysdale admitted in his 1990 autobiography “Once A Bum, Always A Dodger” that he had already been warned by umpire Dusty Boggess for pitching too tight to all the Reds hitters prior to his ejection.
So the next time the Dodgers were in Cincinnati, where Giles had his office, Drysdale said he stopped at a bank and got $100 worth of pennies, walked to Giles’ office, and placed the bag of coins on the desk of Giles’ secretary. He walked back to his hotel room, feeling proud of himself.
Giles’ office phoned him. Please come back, Giles said.
That conversation ended with Giles saying: “And by the way, I want you to take those pennies of yours and roll them back up for me.”
Drysdale spent the next few hours cursing and pitching pennies back into the casings.
In 2024, Joe Posnanski did a Substack post called “Revisiting Greatness,” as he decided he wanted to examine all 270 Baseball Hall of Fame plaques and rank them, in order, of those that were in the most need of rewriting. Of Drysdale’s plaque, Posnanski wrote: “Durability was a different thing when Drysdale was pitching. He was basically done at 31. But I suppose durability here refers to the way he gobbled innings; he did throw 300-plus innings four times. The plaque also mentions his six straight shutouts in 1968. I would have loved for the Hall to include his quote, “I hate all hitters,” but maybe that’s asking too much.”
Truth that’s been told: His 1984 Hall of Fame induction was based on him being not just a nine-time National League All Star, but also a perennial Cy Young Award candidate.
Dare to discover: Drysdale won the Cy Young Award just once, in 1962. This was the Dodgers’ first season at Dodger Stadium. He showed it to be a pitcher’s paradise as he posted an MLB-best 25 wins, 232 strike outs and 314 1/3 innings over 41 starts. He also had 19 complete games and a 2.83 ERA. It didn’t hurt that teammate Sandy Koufax was a modest 14-7 despite a league-best 2.54 ERA. That season, Drysdale had 14 of the 20 MLB Cy Young votes (a 70 percent share, with all four who garnished votes also from the National League). He was also fifth in the NL MVP voting.
Yet 1962 was the only season Drysdale received any Cy Young votes.
From its creation in 1956 and over the next 11 years, the Cy Young Award was given to the best pitcher in all of baseball. Koufax won it three times in that span. It was 20 voters with one vote, without the weighted first-, second- or third-place ballot that had been in place for each league’s MVP award. It changed in 1970, the year after Drysdale retired, and since 2010 the Cy Young ballot now has room for five players to be ranked.
Consider that 1968 season, where Drysdale started the July 9 MLB All Star game a month after he set the MLB record of consecutive scoreless innings of 58 2/3 innings by throwing six straight shutouts. That season, all 20 NL Cy Young votes unanimously went to Bob Gibson with his ridiculous 1.12 ERA and 13 shutouts, five more total than Drysdale. The Year of the Pitcher was not an easy one to claim Cy Young superiority. Even the AL winner, Denny McLain, won unanimously.
Drysdale had the congratulatory backing of Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy, who, after winning the California primary on June 4, ’68 made mention of Drysdale’s 5-0 win over Pittsburgh at Dodger Stadium that evening, which elevated his scoreless inning streak to 64 innings. It was Drysdale’s sixth complete-game shutout in a row. Kennedy’s victory speech was just a few miles away at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, moments before he would be assassinated. Drysdale was said to have cherished a cassette tape of Kennedy’s remarks that he kept with him.
In 1965, Drysdale went 23-12 with a 2.77 ERA, but Koufax was the unanimous 20-vote Cy Young winner (26-8, 2.04 ERA and an MLB record 382 strikeouts). The best Drysdale could do was muster a fifth-place finish in the NL MVP race, where Koufax was second to Willie Mays.
This reveals another quirk in how awards were tabulated: Turns out, Drysdale garnished more attention on the NL MVP ballots over his career than on Cy Young Award ballots.
Don Drysdale pitches against the Pirates in 1965 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Truth that’s been told: Don Drysdale was the most feared Dodgers’ hitter in the lineup during their 1965 World Series title run.
Dare to discover: Sure, on the days he also pitched. Do-it-yourself Drysdale was often the only Dodger in the starting nine that had a batting average of .300 or better during that 97-65 regular season. During a 2-1 loss to San Francisco, Drysdale’s batting average went as high as .356 on June 15 after he went 2-for-3. At times, Drysdale was placed as high as sixth in the Dodgers’ lineup based on the law of diminishing returns, with the probability he’d likely be there the entire nine innings — or more.
Drysdale hit seven homers in the 1958 season, the Dodgers’ first one in Los Angeles. One of them was a two-homer game on an August Saturday afternoon against visiting Milwaukee during a 10-1 complete-game win.
In ’65, Drysdale matched that career-best seven homer mark, starting with a two-run shot on Opening Day at Shea Stadium during his 6-1 complete-game win over the Mets. That was the second time Drysdale homered on Opening Day — in 1959 he homered at Wrigley Field, providing all the Dodgers’ offense in a 6-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs. In ’65, Drysdale hit an even-.300 (39 for 130). His seventh and last homer of the season came off Houston’s Robin Roberts, a two-run shot in the third that gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead en route to a 5-2 win. That helped Drysdale post his 19th win.
On that Dodgers’ 1965 team, Rookie-of-the-Year winner Jim Lefebvre and outfielder Lou Johnson led everyone with a mere 12 homers each. Drysdale’s seven accrued in fewer than half as many plate appearances gave him a better HR-per-AB mark. Of course, manager Walter Alston could use Drysdale as a pinch hitter on the three games between his starts — he even 3-for-12 in that role with a couple of RBIs.
Drysdale should have won a Silver Slugger Award, but that wasn’t a thing then. He had a.508 slugging percentage and .839 OPS, far greater than the Dodgers’ offensive team averages of .245/.335/.657. His 2.2 offensive WAR was better than all but four of the Dodger’s day-to-day hitters.
Drysdale posted a 5.8 career WAR as a hitter — 29 homers, 113 RBIs, and .186 average in more than 1,300 plate appearances. Those 29 homers as a pitcher stood as a Dodgers’ franchise-best and were No. 6 all-time in MLB history until Shohei Ohtani rewrote the definition of what a home-run hitting pitcher looked like.
Truth that’s been told: Don Drysdale was the reason why a Volkswagen Beetle nicknamed “Herbie” in the 1968 Disney film “The Love Bug” sported a No. 53 sticker on the hood, the doors and on the engine hatch in the back.
Dare to discover: Bill Walsh, a longtime Disney employee who produced the “Love Bug,” was also a Dodgers’ fan. It was said Walsh made that creative decision for the film, made during the time Drysdale set his MLB consecutive scoreless innings run.
As a side note: In 1986, pitcher Greg Matthews came up with the St. Louis Cardinals, and wanted to wear No. 53. Was it to honor Drysdale? Nope. The left-hander out of Savanna High in Anaheim, who had just pitched for Cal State Fullerton in the 1984 College World Series, admitted he was simply a fan of Herbie. “We’re both used to getting out of a lot of tough jams,” Matthews is quoted in the 2006 book, “Best By Numbers: Who Wore What … with Distinction” by The Sporting News.
Truth that’s been told: Don Drysdale and Robert Redford were Van Nuys High baseball teammates in the 1950s.
Dare to discover: Well, not really. But Drysdale loved the idea of it. Even if Drysdale was far more “The Natural” in baseball lore than Redford would become dressed up as Roy Hobbs.
“We were in the same grade, though I can’t lie to you and say that he and I were bosom buddies,” Drysdale said of Redford in his 1990 autobiography. “I don’t remember him ever expressing an interesting in being a movie star any more than I was focused on being a baseball player.”
When Drysdale’s died in 1993, the Los Angeles Times’ Steve Henson’s tribute recalled how friends remember Drysdale going along with the story and saying: “Oh, you mean Bobby; he was a pretty good first basemen.”
Jim Heffer, a classmate of Drysdale and Redford, said: “As far as I know, Redford never picked up a glove. I think Don covered for him, which showed the kind of gentleman he was.”
Redford was born in Santa Monica and actually played tennis at Van Nuys High. He walked on the University of Colorado baseball team based on him passing a tryout and a promise of getting a part-scholarship if he made the team. But Redford soon dropped out of school and went into acting. Which, all in all, seemed to pay off and give him enough experience to pull off a Hobbsian portrayal.
Truth that’s been told: Branch Rickey signed Drysdale to his first Dodgers’ contract.
Dare to discover: No. But Rickey did try to pirate him.
The cigar-comping GM, most famous for signing Jackie Robinson to his historic 1947 contract with Brooklyn’s Dodgers, was by that point banished to Pittsburgh as the team’s GM when he personally scouted Drysdale at Van Nuys High. Rickey’s type-written report on Drysdale included a suggestion of a $6,000 signing deal. At this point, everyone else, including the Dodgers, were only willing to give up $2,000 for Drysdale in the open bidding process.
Rickey’s plan for Drysdale was to start him right away at with Pittsburgh’s Triple-A Pacific Coast League affiliate, the Hollywood Stars. The money offered Drysdale would put him in the “bonus baby” framework, and require the team to promote him faster. Rickey’s thought would be to have Drysdale drop down to a lower minor-league team to develop before coming back up to the majors.
“If you’re not going to get a lot of money — and $2,000 isn’t a lot of money — then why not go where you have the best chance to learn?” Drysdale remembers his dad telling him. That meant not only going to Brooklyn, but it was beneficially that the Dodgers could have him start at their Class-C Bakersfield team not all that far from Drysdale’s home.
By 1956, Drysdale was in the big leagues pitching in a World Series after having just turned 19.
March 28, 1966: On the set of the Paramount crime-thriller movie “Warning Shot” are the holdout pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, flanked by David Janssen. Koufax and Drysdale never made it into the film as they ended their holdout. (Photo by Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times)
Truth that’s been told: Don Drysdale is in the Labor Movement Hall of Fame.
Dare to discover: There is no such a thing. But if there was, this essay by Pete Dreier in The Nation could convince anyone there should be, with Drysdale’s inclusion.
In order to form a more perfect MLB labor union, Drysdale and Koufax staged a high-profile 32-day contract holdout prior to the start of the 1966 season. Don’s wife, Ginger, was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and suggested they join forces to get more attention. She proposed: “If (Dodgers GM) Buzzie (Bavasi) is going to compare the two of you (with his contract offers), why don’t you just walk in there together?”
At one point, Drysdale made $32,000 in 1961, which made him the game’s best-paid pitcher at age 24. To Koufax, who didn’t really command much contract value on the mound until after the 1961 season when he made his first All Star team at age 25, that meant Drysdale must be a better poker player at the negotiation table. Koufax allowed Drysdale to talk for both of them.
Each wanted a three-year deal, and it would cost the Dodgers more than $1 million for the two, equally divided. The Dodgers first offered to pay $125,000 for Koufax and $110,000 for Drysdale. Koufax objected. “I thought we’re supposed to get the same thing,” he said.
Drysdale, with a wife and daughter to support, wasn’t sure he could hold out indefinitely. He was willing to take less.. So while the “Great Holdout of 1966” didn’t net what they had sought, it still meant they were the first to get a six-figure deal. It showed other players that the owners weren’t invincible in the face of collective action. Even more interesting, neither Koufax nor Drysdale would be around much longer in their careers — that was Koufax’s final season because of elbow issues, and Drysdale’s shoulder gave out four seasons later.
To help make their case, Drysdale and Koufax seemed to enjoy more time honing their entertainment skills in Hollywood. They provided some comic TV material for Milton Berle and Perry Como where the put on a tux and sang at The Hollywood Palace on Saturday night, April 9, 1966, three days before the season opener (a game where Claude Osteen would pitch a complete-game win, Koufax would start Game 2, Don Sutton was in Game 3 and Drysdale came in for Game 4):
Truth that’s been told: Don Drysdale could carry a tune so well, he could have made it a professional recording artist.
Dare to discover: You be the judge.
Truth that’s been told: When Don Drysdale married Ann Meyers on the first day of November in 1986, they became the first couple who were members of their respective sports’ Hall of Fame.
Dare to discover: It’s true, but Meyers got their first. After 10 years of falling short of the 75 percent of writers’ votes needed, Drysdale finally got enough support to be voted into Cooperstown.
She met Drysdale in December of 1979 as she appeared as a competitor and he was a broadcaster on ABC’s “The Superstars” made-for-TV competition, taking place in the Bahamas.
She admitted that she thought he was Don Meredith, the former NFL quarterback part of ABC’s “Monday Night Football” team. Her Midwestern mother was at the show’s taping and was more enamored with meeting Bob Uecker, another part of the ABC telecast, since she was familiar with him as the Milwaukee Brewers’ broadcaster.
“The one thing I always remember when I first met Don is that he was such a gentleman,” Meyers said. “And the one thing that I always loved, because I was from a big family, was just how these other guys responded to Donnie. You can go down the list with Duke Snider and Sandy Koufax and Bob Uecker and Pee Wee Reese and Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle — they were his brothers. But there was something that set Donnie apart. He was like this beacon. They were just all attracted to him. And believe me, all of those men were great in their own right. But there was something special about Donnie.”
Don Drysdale had just turned 50 and Annie was 31 when they married. Don had divorced Ginger two months after his 1969 retirement.
Don and Annie had three children — Don Jr., born on his father’s birthday in 1987 as Don was broadcasting for the Chicago White Sox. Son Darren came two years later after Don joined the Dodgers’ broadcast team. Daughter Drew arrived in March of 1993.
Don Drysdale died four months later, while on a road trip with the Dodgers in Montreal. He was 56.
A mural at Dodger Stadium down the first base line for an exclusive section of field-level seats.
In Mark Whicker’s 2025 book, “Up And In: The Life of a Dodgers Legend,” time and time again Drysdale was referred to by family and friends as “a man’s man.” During an appearance on Larry Mantle’s “Air Talk” on LAist/KPCC 89.3 FM, Whicker surmised that Drysdale was drawn to people like him who didn’t take themselves seriously, but were very serious about particular things that they saw not up to standards.
“I think he was a unique personality and all those who were with him saw him as a great leader,” said Whicker. “They may have respected and appreciated Koufax, but Don was more connected to how the team functioned, grabbing a six-pack, sitting on the team bus and telling stories. Very opinionated on and off the air. A strong ethic about how the game was played.”
During an appearance on the TV show “To The Tell The Truth” in November of 1959 — a month after after he had pitched for the Dodgers in the World Series — Drysdale’s “affidavit” as the camera spanned the three men went this way:
“I, Don Drysdale, am a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. This past season in which the Dodgers won both the National League pennant and the World Series, I led both leagues in strike outs and was voted the Most Valuable Player in the first All Star game. Last month, I started my career as a cowboy actor when I played a top feature role in the Western series, ‘Lawman.’ Signed, Don Drysdale.”
The panel easily picked him out of a lineup. He was there next to an encyclopedia salesman and in-coming U.S. service man who decided to wear a cowboy hat. The two imposters were just men the show’s producers rounded up mostly because they were also tall.
The fact Drysdale himself wore a Dodgers’ uniform and cap also seemed to make it easier to make a visual ID.
Just months before that ’59 season, Drysdale appeared with his new wife of 2 ½ months, Ginger, on Groucho Marx’s “You Bet Your Life” show taped in Hollywood. Ginger Dubberly, 19, of Pasadena, had been a 1958 Tournament of Roses princess.
“You’re a local boy, aren’t cha, Don?” Groucho asked.
“That’s right, Groucho, was born and raised in Van Nuys,” he replied.
“Where’s that?” Groucho followed up.
“That’s across the hills,” Drysdale responded, tilting his head back to the left, “over there in the San Fernando Valley.”
Asked if Drysdale if had any plans after his playing days were over, he seemed to have already figured it out: “Well, Groucho, I’d like to get into some sort of phase of radio or television work having to do with sports. I like talking … a sports program or something like that.”
“Tell me about Ginger, is she a good cook?” asked Groucho.
Long pause.
“No,” says Drysdale, pursing his lips and shaking his head with a smile.
Ginger almost snaps.
“Well, that’s Drysdale for you — another wild pitch,” says Groucho as the audience laughed.
The fact that Drysdale didn’t take himself too seriously and made him relatable could be found in all sorts of TV appearances.
Like the commercial for Vitalis hair tonic, playing off the suspicions that he loaded baseballs with greasy fingers.
Season Two of “The Brady Bunch,” in September of 1970: Don Drysdale comes to the Brady home to set Greg (Barry Williams, left) straight on the life of a ballplayer in an episode called “The Dropout.” With dad Mike (Robert Reed, second from right) and sons Peter (Christopher Knight) and Bobby (Mike Lookinland). (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Kids in the ’60s held out a chance they might actually see Drysdale at their friends’ house. He appeared as himself on “Leave It To Beaver” — the Beaver just called him up in the Dodgers’ clubhouse. He was on “The Donna Reed Show” (her son had him as a coach) and, after his pitching days were over, he came on “The Brady Bunch” (just showing up at the house with lessons to pass on).
His acting chops were put to a test in TV roles he also had on “The Rifleman,” “The Millionaire,” “The Flying Nun,” and “Then Came Bronson.”
Drysdale’s popularity spread with the creation of his own “Dugout” restaurant in Van Nuys on Oxnard Street, near his childhood home, with another one in Anaheim. There was also his place in Hawaii called “Club 53,” on the Big Island of Kona, and “The Whalers Pub” in Lahaina in Maui.
Don Drysdale’s Dugout is about to go up. (Vanguard Photography / Valley Times Collection / Los Angeles Public Library.
He owned race horses, and Willie Shoemaker won aboard one of his thoroughbreds.
All in all, Drysdale never thought of himself as much of a baseball player, let alone a pitcher, growing up. Between his junior and senior years of high school, Drysdale was more about playing second base, first base and emergency catcher on the Van Nuys Post 193 American Legion team.
That squad was coached by his dad, Scotty — who had a brief career as a pitcher in the Pacific Coast League’s Los Angeles Angels’ system in the 1930s. He was now a repair supervisor for Pacific Telephone.
Roger Grabenstein, president of the Valley Ephebians high school honor society, is joined by classmates in a door-to-door campaign for passage of a school bond proposal on April 4, 1955. (Valley Times photo collection of the Los Angeles Public Libary archives)
One day, the team’s best pitcher, Roger Grabenstein, didn’t show up to a game.
“I never gave pitching a thought,” Drysdale wrote in his autobiography. “My dad must have seen something in me. I remember him telling me that I wasn’t fast enough to play any position in the field other than catcher, and I don’t think he was too excited about me playing there. Dad had seen me throw casually during batting practice or playing catch, so he gave me the ball. All he told me was, ‘Don’t get cute and throw strikes.’”
Drysdale threw a complete game against the North Hollywood team and won.
It happened that Scott Drysdale saw Goldie Holt, a Dodgers scout sitting in the stands, and introduced them.
Holt asked if he could see Don pitch for him a couple days later.
Valley Times Collection/ Los Angeles Public Library
“If I threw 100 pitches, there must have been 85 strikes,” Drysdale recalled. “Everything clicked. I had no idea what was going on.”
That led him to joining what was called a Brooklyn Dodgers Junior team, which at that time included future Dodgers pitcher Larry Sherry and his brother Norm, a catcher. There was also a scrapping infielder named George Anderson, better known as Sparky. Those three came from Fairfax High in L.A. and would make it to the Dodgers’ Class-C team in Santa Barbara as teenagers.
Drysdale, who also played football but sat out his senior season because a growth spurt affected his progress, emerged as an All-L.A. City pitcher as a senior with a 10-1 record, throwing a no-hitter against North Hollywood with 12 strikeouts in a 7-0 win — one walk away from a perfect game.
As the season ended and his high school graduation neared, Drysdale met with Babe Herman, the former Dodgers star representing the New York Yankees. Scouts for the Milwaukee Braves and Chicago White Sox also came for a visit. Before the smoke cleared, Rickey chomped on his unlit cigar, trying to get Pittsburgh in the conversation.
Don Drysdale, with Dodgers scout Fresco Thompson, and his parents, Verna and Scott Drysdale, stand behind. (Valley Times Collection / Los Angeles Public Library).
Drysdale’s loyalty to the Holt and the Dodgers led him to signing with Brooklyn. Having him start at their Class-C Bakersfield was part of the deal, made the week before his high school graduation at Otto’s Pink Pig on Van Nuys Blvd., in Sherman Oaks.
After spending a year at Triple-A Montreal, Drysdale made it to the big leagues as a 19-year-old in April of 1956. In his first start, he pitched a complete-game 6-1 win in Philadelphia, with Roy Campanella as his catcher, and he got his first big-league hit.
The next year, he had a 17-win season during the Dodgers’ final year in Brooklyn.
On April 15, 1958, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ first game went to Drysdale — but it was an 8-0 loss in San Francisco where he gave up six runs in 3 2/3 innings at Seals Stadium.
Four years trying to figure out the confines of the L.A. Coliseum produced mixed results for Drysdale — he played in three All-Star Games, had 13 shutouts and 57 wins against 50 losses and would average more than 40 starts in the 154-game seasons.
Nov. 22, 1961: Don Drysdale tries out of the first seats installed at Dodger Stadium months before the 1962 debut. (United Press International/Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images)
The Dodgers’ move to the new Dodger Stadium was a much better fit for Drysdale. An August 1962 cover story on him in Sports Illustrated with the headline: “Pitcher On the Spot” revealed more about his career at that point in time. The story titled “Ex-Bad Boy’s Big Year” noted:
“Last week Drysdale’s throwing arm was as sound as his $35,000 paycheck (the most ever paid a Dodger pitcher). … Maturity and a fine opportunity to be the man of the hour have apparently hit Drysdale together. …
“Females make appreciative noises when observing his creamy good looks and his hair-tonic hairdo, and he is a made-in-Hollywood version of the boy next door. When not pitching, he is polite, relaxed and easygoing to a fare-thee-well, nurses no grudges and finds questions about his fabled temper tiresome in the extreme.
“ ‘I wish,’ he has said, ‘I could be like a milkman and be myself once in a while.’
“As himself, Drysdale is free of extravagant ideas and habits, and his tastes (Mexican food and western music) and pleasures (swimming and the sports page) are run of the mine. His only true interest, it appears, is playing baseball or capitalizing upon his fame in that game by endorsing male toilet articles and accepting bit parts in TV oaters. Well-fixed, you may believe, he lives in a $50,000 house and pool in Van Nuys with his wife and 3-year-old daughter, and his off-season work as a public relations man for an ice cream plant is well suited to him, since he tends to talk in slogans.
” ‘I give 100% when I pitch, and that’s all I can give,’ he may say, or ‘Baseball has been good to me,’ or, of course, ‘I couldn’t win without the other eight guys behind me.’
“The overall impression is that Drysdale is just barely three-dimensional, but as any Dodger will tell you, ‘He’s the nicest boy on the club’.”
Don Drysdale comes off the Dodger Stadium mound with teammates Junior Gilliam and John Roseboro after winning 1-0 against the Yankees in the 1963 World Series, where the Dodgers swept, four games to none.(Neil Leifer, Sports Illustrated)
In three of the next four seasons, the Dodgers would be in the World Series. Drysdale, who pitched the last two innings of a Game 4 loss in the 1956 World Series at Yankee Stadium, won Game 3 of the ’63 Series against New York (a 1-0 complete game victory) at Dodger Stadium. He also had a Game 4 win against Minnesota in the ’65 Series. He lost a 1-0 game to Baltimore in Game 4 of the ’66 Series.
After Koufax’s departure, the Dodgers dropped off significantly in 1967 to a 73-89 finish, eighth in the National League.
Drysdale was the 30-year-old veteran with 27-year-old Claude Osteen at the top of the rotation. Filling it out was 22-year-old Don Sutton, 23-year-old Bill Singer and 20-year-old Alan Foster. Drysdale and Osteen were the only two Dodgers in the ’67 All Star Game.
From the March 20, 1966 edition of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner: “The tensions and worries of winning a tight game are forgotten as these two baseball pitching stars of the Los Angeles Dodgers concentrate on keeping the motors of a U.S. Army truck in good working condition for an inspection. Wearing Army fatigues, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax team up to change parts of a 2 1/2-ton truck at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Van Nuys, California, during their two weeks of active duty for training. (Digital Collection of Los Angeles Public Library)
Then came ’68. The Dodgers’ seventh-place standing in the National League at 76-86 was reflected in the fact that Drysdale would only post just a 14-12 mark despite a 2.15 ERA and his consecutive-scoreless inning streak.
It was on May 31 in the ninth inning of a game at Dodger Stadium against the rival San Francisco Giants, Drysdale was nursing a 3–0 lead when the Giants loaded the bases with no outs. On a 2-2 count to Dick Dietz, catcher Jeff Torborg called for a slider. Drysdale’s pitch sailed inside and grazed Dietz’s elbow.
As Dietz started to make his way to first, Wendlestedt called him back. He said Dietz hadn’t tried to get out of the way of the pitch. The game was delayed some 25 minutes. Giants manager Herman Franks and third base coach Peanuts Lowery argued. Dietz, returning to the plate now with a 3-2 count, filed out to left in the next pitch — not deep enough for a sacrifice fly. Drysdale got the next two hitters, including a play at the plate to cut down a scoring attempt.
On July 28,1969, just one season after that streak, Drysdale recorded hiss final career victory. It was a complete-game, 19-0 shutout over the expansion Padres in San Diego. It was also his 49th career shutout. Drysdale would drive in the final run of that game with a seventh-inning double. He also had an RBI single in the fifth inning.
Four starts later, Drysdale gave up eight hits in the first six innings against Pittsburgh and came out for a pinch hitter when the Dodgers trailing, 3-0, on Aug. 5.
(Footnote: Alan Foster came in to relieve Drysdale in the seventh inning. He would give up an historic homer to the Pirates’ Willie Stargell — it cleared the roof in right field, more than 500 feet away, and was the first ball ever hit out of Dodger Stadium).
“If you had told me in 1968, while I was throwing all those shutout innings, that I’d have been forced to retire a year later, I would have lost my house and my lot and everything else I owned on that bet,” Drysdale wrote in his autobiography.
“I was only thirty-three, and I surely thought I’d be able to pitch for a couple more years. But there’s an old saying about pitchers having so many pitches in their arm and when you use that up, it’s over. I sort of believed that. There’s no way to trace the wheres and whens of an injury like mine.
“Was it the wear-and-tear of the scoreless streak? Nah, no way. I was young enough to keep going, but age means nothing if you can’t get it done, and the hitters were the first to let me know. They always are.”
Prior to the Dodgers’ Sept. 27, 1969 game at Dodger Stadium, Don Drysdale addresses the crowd at “Don Drysdale Day” as a 40-minute retirement ceremony, with the audio picked up at the start of the Dodgers’ radio broadcast.
A torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder left Drysdale as the Dodgers’ franchise leader in innings, shutouts and strikeouts. He posted one shutout for every four wins. On the current all-time Dodgers’ franchise record ledger, Drysdale remains second in innings pitched (3,432), games started (465) and shutouts (49); third in WAR for pitchers (61.4), wins (209), games pitched (518) and strike outs (2,486); and sixth in complete games (167).
California Governor and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan addresses the Dodger Stadium crowd for Don Drysdale Day, September 27, 1969. Drysdale had retired in August. (Note: Reagan’s name on the Dodger message board was inadvertently misspelled “Regan”) (WalterOMalley.com)
Drysdale’s departure also meant he was the last link to the Brooklyn Dodger players.
The Martinez (Calif.) News Gazette, Aug. 12, 1969.
Dodgers owner and president Walter O’Malley said: “It is a bit of a nostalgic wrench to finally see the last of the old Brooklyn Dodgers retire. Don is one of the all-time greats. We wish him all future success. Now we will just have to go on and do it the hard way.”
Alston, who managed Drysdale in his entire career, said at Drysdale’s retirement press conference with tears in his eyes: “If the Dodgers have been successful during the years I managed, then Don Drysdale is one of the reasons, one of the big reasons. I’d like to say thank you to Don Drysdale and I will always be in his corner.”
A career in broadcasting that Drysdale alluded to with Grouch Marx was finally going to take its course.
He spent three seasons with Montreal and Texas before a spot opened with the California Angels in 1973, pairing him up with Dick Enberg. The relationship was so smooth, Drysdale moved over and did Los Angeles Rams’ radio games for three seasons. He also worked for ABC while with the Angels.
During a salary dispute with the Angels, he left in 1980, working exclusively for ABC. He returned to the Angels in 1981.
In the span of 20-plus years as a broadcaster, Drysdale spent nine with the Angels as Enberg’s partner and his last seven with the Dodgers on TV radio with Vin Scully and Ross Porter.
Enberg, who died in 2017, once told me: “Every day was a good day when you were with Don Drysdale,” and then threw in some classic off-color stories that wouldn’t be fit to print, comments Drysdale could make to him after he muted his mic and cause him to have uncontrollable laughter.
After five seasons broadcasting with the Chicago White Sox, Drysdale was convinced to join the Dodgers’ broadcasting crew by owner Peter O’Malley in 1988. As fate would have it, Drysdale was pulled into Orel Hershiser’s orbit as Dodger No. 53 gave way to Dodger No. 55 with a new record of 59 consecutive scoreless innings.
Drysdale was in the Dodgers’ visiting dugout in San Diego when Hershiser came off the field following 10 scoreless innings to break the mark. They shared a hug and did an interview live for radio and TV as the game continued.
“I really didn’t want to break it,” Hershiser said. “I wanted to stop at 58. I wanted me and Don to be together at the top. But the higher sources (manager Tommy Lasorda and pitching coach Ron Perranoski) told me they weren’t taking me out of the game, so I figured, what the heck, I might as well get the guy out.”
Drysdale laughed when told of Hershiser’s statement.
“I’d have kicked him right in the rear if I’d have known that,” Drysdale said. “I’d have told him to get his buns out there and get them.”
Later that month, Drysdale made the call on the Dodgers’ radio coveragel of Kirk Gibson’s 1988 World Series Game 1 walk-off homer. It is remembered by some as classic as Vin Scully’s description for NBC TV and Jack Buck’s call on CBS Radio, both to national audiences.
“Well, the crowd is on its feet and if there was ever a preface to ‘Casey at the Bat’ it would have to be the ninth inning. Two outs. The tying run aboard, the winning run at the plate, and Kirk Gibson, standing at the plate. Eckersley working out of the stretch, here’s the three-two pitch … and a drive hit to right field … way back! This ball is gone!”
After nearly two minutes of pure crowd noise, Drysdale resumes:
“This crowd will not stop. They can’t believe the ending! And this time, the Mighty Casey did not strike out! … The Dodges waiting for Gibson to limp around the bases were very careful as if they were touching a Rembrandt at home plate.”
The last call for Drysdale came on a 1993 road trip to Montreal, the city where he played Triple A for the Dodgers, and the place where his heart gave out on him. Los Angeles’ heart was broken as well.
More Drysdale truths:
When Drysdale retired after the 1969 season, his No. 53 was given to young outfielder Tom Paciorek to wear for eight games in September of 1970.
The next year, Paciorek was re-issued No. 17. And No. 53 was never seen again. It was finally and officially retired in 1984 when Drysdale went into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
They are the only two to have ever worn 53 in the franchise’s history.
Growing up in Bakersfield in the ’50s and ’60s, George Culver wanted to be like Don Drysdale. He wrote in his autobiography, “The Earl of Oildale,” Culver explains how as a Little Leaguer, he first saw Drysdale play in his hometown for the Class-C Bakersfield Indians.
Drysdale managed an 8-5 mark and 3.45 ERA in 14 starts there, including 11 complete games. Culver, a star athlete at North High in Bakersfield and then at Bakersfield College, could not only see him there, but also drive down to watch Drysdale in person at the L.A. Coliseum and then at Dodger Stadium.
By 1966, Culver reached the big leagues himself as a 22-year-old with Cleveland. In 1968, Culver was in the Cincinnati Reds’ rotation, en route to a career-high 226 innings in 35 starts.
Just a month after Drysdale set his MLB record streak with six straight shutouts, the Dodgers and Reds faced off on a Friday night in early July at Dodger Stadium.
It was Drysdale vs. Culver.
“I was about to get a chance to not only pitch against him, but hit against him and that nasty side-arm deliver,” Culver wrote. “What a thrill (why me?)”
The game was scoreless through 10 innings. Drysdale and Culver were still pitching.
The Dodgers caved first. Ken Boyer pinch hit for Drysdale in the bottom of the 10th and ended it by striking out. It was the last batter Culver faced. Her came out for a pinch hitter in the top of the 11th-inning. Sutton came on in relief of Drysdale. The Reds won, 2-0, on Lee May’s run-run double in the 12th inning. Neither Culver nor Drysdale got a decision.
“This was, without a doubt, the best game I ever pitched in the major leagues,” wrote Culver. Consider that four starts later, he tossed a no-hitter against the Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium.
In 1998, a CBS “60 Minutes” crew was about to do a profile on Ila Borders, the Whittier native who became the first female to start a game as a pitcher in a men’s professional baseball league. Cameras tried to follow her every move as she was preparing for her start with the Duluth-Super Dukes of the Northern League.
In the prologue of her 2017 book, “Making My Pitch: A Woman’s Baseball Odyssey,” Borders wrote about the indignity of having to retreat to the women’s restroom at the ballpark and put her feet up so no one could detect she was in the stall.
She wasn’t all about just smiling and being cute for the cameras.
“I’m an athlete here to win,” she wrote. “Now get the hell out of my face. Would you tell a guy to smile? Growing up I heard about Don Drysdale … I was crazy about Drysdale, who everyone said was the nicest guy around — except for the days he pitched. Then no one went near him. … I’ve been fighting for this since I was ten years old.”
By the time Mike Wallace had the chance to sit down with her, Borders couldn’t really fight her way out of the whole thing. She told Wallace: “I’ve always had this fierce spirit to do what I want to do.”
Borders was born six years after Drysdale retired.
The last words
Via DJ Drysdale’s LinkedIn posts:
== At the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame Ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y.:
== From another post on LinkedIn:
Who else wore No. 53 in SoCal sports history? Make a case for:
Rod Martin, Los Angeles Raiders linebacker (1982 to 1988):
Best known: Out of L.A.’s Hamilton High and two years of playing at L.A. City College, Martin wore No. 52 for two years USC. Oakland, because of USC coach John Robinson’s suggestion to Raiders coach John Madden, made him a 12th-round pick, No. 317 overall, in the 1977 draft since most considered him, at 6-foot-2 and 218 pounds, too small for a linebacker and too slow for a safety. Did they know he’d make two Pro Bowls and be a key on two Super Bowl teams? He set a record with three interceptions in Super Bowl XV and made the cover of Sports Illustrated. He broke up a key third-down pass on the Raiders 7 yard line in the second quarter in Super Bowl XVIII, sacked Joe Theismann once, and tackled John Riggins for no gain on a fourth-and-one conversion on the last play of the third quarter, and then recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter. Not well remembered: After his retirement in 1988, Martin returned to his alma mater and took a job as a programmer in USC’s Information Sciences Institute.
Best known: Out of Burroughs High in Burbank, where the 1965 CIF Southern Section Player of the Year averaged 25.6 points a game and also earned varsity letters in baseball and golf, the 6-foot-5 Shackelford started on three of coach John Wooden’s NCAA title teams that went 88-2 during his three varsity seasons in Westwood on a roster with Lew Alcindor and Lucius Allen. After a year in the ABA, he got into broadcasting and became Chick Hearn’s analyst for seven seasons on Los Angeles Lakers’ radio and TV. He was also the sports anchor on KHJ-TV Channel 9 in L.A. for five years. UCLA inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2023.
Jim Youngblood, Los Angeles Rams linebacker (1973 to 1984): His only Pro Bowl year was during the Rams’ 1979 season and their run to Super Bowl XIV, when Youngblood had a career-best five interceptions, returning two for touchdowns. He had 14 picks (four returned for TDs) in his 12 seasons with the Rams, who took him in the second round of the 1973 NFL draft out of Tennessee Tech. He started 98 of his 152 games with the Rams.
Nate Landman, Los Angeles Rams linebacker (2025): The mike linebacker and on-field signal-caller set a franchise record with 17 total tackles in the Rams’ 17-3 win at Baltimore in Week 6 of the 2025 season. Born in Zimbabwea where his father played rugby, the All-Pac-12 Conference linebacker from Colorado signed a one-year, $1.1 million deal with the Rams before the 2025 season after three years in Atlanta. He was named a team captain and was the NFC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 10 with a 10-tackle game in a win over Houston. The Rams gave him a three-year, $22.5 million contract extension in the middle of the ’25 season.
Have you heard this story:
UCLA’s Keith Erickson goes up for a shot against Duke during the NCAA Final Four in Kansas City in March, 1964. (Rich Clarkson/Sports Illustrated)
Keith Erickson: UCLA basketball forward (1962-63 to 1964-65):
The player who Bruins basketball coach John Wooden would call the finest athlete he ever coach emerged from El Segundo High and El Camino Junior College without a primary sport to attract any sort of recruitment. During his one year at ECC (1961-62), it helped that his coach was George Stanich, Wooden’s first All-American recruit who was also a multi-sport athlete. It also helped that the ECC team faced the UCLA freshman squad as part of its schedule.
Stanich and UCLA basketball assistant/chief recruiter Jerry Norman created a plan for Erickson in Westwood: Wooden would provide a half scholarship for him to be on the basketball team as a shooting forward and Art Reichle could have another half-scholarship for him to play baseball as a shortstop or center fielder. If Erickson didn’t make it in either sport, neither coach wouldn’t have spent a full scholarship spot on the proposition. But there was also a third choice: Volleyball. UCLA coach Al Scates wanted to at least see what the 6-foot-5 hitter could do, so he snuck Erickson onto his team for a tournament that took place during basketball season — despite a warning from Wooden that it would compromise Erickson’s status. While Erickson helped Wooden win his first two NCAA titles at UCLA in ’64 and ’65, most importantly as a defensive specialist in the full-court zone press and as a senior captain who made the All-Pac-12 team, he also helped Scates win his first title, the ’65 U.S. Volleyball Association championship. Turns out, Erickson played one season of baseball and made basketball his priority (with a fulltime scholarship), and volleyball second — which included his time on the U.S. Olympic volleyball team that in 1964 competed in Rome and then on the beach playing in pro tournaments.
Although he was drafted by the NBA’s San Francisco Warriors at age 21 in 1965, Erickson got to come back to Los Angeles and play for the Lakers from 1968-69 to 1972-73, including on their ’72 title team, wearing No. 24. His top game as a Lakers: 30 points, five rebounds and six assists in a win at Atlanta in January of 1969.
Wade Meckler, Los Angeles Angels outfielder (2026):
There was nothing really trivial with the fact that Meckler homered in his first MLB at-bat — a three run shot in the bottom of the first off former Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom to spark the Angels’ 9-6 win over Texas at Angel Stadium on May 22, 2026. The TV crew figured out a way to give it some context the next day the next day when he came up to hit. Still, putting him in the company with Vollmer, Pellagrini, Ciristian and Saccomanno was supposed to make Meckler’s feat feel more historic? It was far more unlikely that Mecker was even in a major-league uniform at this point, at age 26. Mecker, born in Anaheim and growing up in Yorba Linda, attended Esparanza High in Anaheim and checked in at 4-foot-10 and 75 pounds when he was on the freshman baseball team. By the time he was a senior, he shot up to 5-foot-8 and 145 pounds. After hitting .375 as an infielder, he walked on at at Oregon State but didn’t get to play until he was a junior. He hit .303 in 2021 and .347 as a senior in 2022 to made All-Pac-12 first team. After playing briefly in San Francisco for 20 games in 2023, Meckler was claimed off waivers by the Angels in early 2026.
We also have:
Bobby Abreu, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2009 to 2012) Brendan Donnelly, Anaheim Angels/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2002 to 2006) James Edwards, Los Angeles Clippers center (1991-92); Los Angeles Lakers center (1992-93 to 1993-94). Also wore No. 42 for Lakers in 1977-78. Carlos Estevez, Los Angeles Angels pitcher (2023 to 2024)
Ndamukong Suh, Los Angeles Rams Greg Townsend, Los Angeles Raiders
The most interesting story for No. 93:
Ndamukong Suh, Los Angeles Rams nose tackle (2018) Southern California map pinpoints: Inglewood (SoFi Stadium)
For all the unnecessary roughness during a 13-year NFL career — the down-low, scandalized way he treated opposing players — Ndamukong Suh never got sued.
Maybe the league’s witness protection program wasn’t all that great. Or, maybe because, deep down, he was really a super nice guy whose actions off the field spoke louder than his red-flag existence on the gridiron of employment?
In nearly 200 regular season games, including three Super Bowls, another handful of playoff appearances, five times added to a Pro Bowl squad, and a handful of exhibition games where rules still applied, the 6-foot-4, 313-pound Suh leveraged his abilities to earn about $163 million in salary. That included $14 million that the Los Angeles Rams gave him to join their organization in 2018, a strategic move to free up the often double-teamed All Pro defensive end Aaron Donald.
Now subtract more than $400,000 for all the fines and lost pay checks Suh incurred.
“Some may say (his penalty payments were) a bargain to pay in light of what he had earned — all the intimidation that came from his reputation,” USA Today columnist Mike Freeman wrote when Suh, in a rather poignant social media post, announced in July of 2025 he was officially retired from the NFL at age 38.
Much of the explanation of force-feeding yourself to avoid starvation or anything worse is how to be more grateful and graceful when trying to sooth the soul as it encounters bouts of depression, some of it brought up just be being alive these days battling spiritual warfare from within.
One of the author’s quick-fix meals is something she said her and her husband call “The Super Bowl.” It means giving yourself the OK to just tear into a bowl of dip for dinner. And count it as a meal. Because it does.
Put together a plate of whatever you have in your fridge, like carrot sticks, pita chips, lettuce cups or tater tots, and serve with any dip: baba ganoush, chicken salad, hummus or sour cream and onion dip. Like you’d have on a Sunday in February when there’s nothing else that gives you much comfort and you’re at a friends’ house trying to stay social while an over-hyped NFL contest on the TV is far from fulfilling the psyche.
The book is something I should have applied to the last few months to pull together the latest edition of my annual series.
It’s one I could have easily labeled: “You Gotta Digest Another Baseball Book: Real-Life Strategies for Reading When Turning Another Page Feels Impossible.”
Because, in the process of feeding my brain with baseball prose, I corrupt my palate with too many odds and ends — canned bean salad mixed/shoveled with Doritos, for one — which never amount to anything healthy and only exacerbate likely own angst. There is feeding some depression, much of which is brought upon by the United States we currently live in, and the baseball books only brought a modicum of escapism.
It is with some regret that, maybe a bit too early — but better than too late — we’ve decided it’s best to cut off the book reviews after these now-established 22 posts, which cover almost three dozen titles, and focus on what we could get in between March and May of 2025. I can’t deal with any more. Besides, I got a really nice samples of some great writing so far and I’m very fulfilled at this point.
More interesting titles are expected later this summer and fall, but the point here is: What was new when the baseball season starts? What can we recommend for a day at the ballpark, beach or backyard BBQ? Or while waiting in line for the Union Station bus to take you past the parking lots to the Dodger Stadium drop off spot?
At some point, you can’t wait for more.
Thus, we have collected these posts amidst a ton of crumbs left in the La-Z-Boy recliner:
What did we learn: Forbes is the most valued, top-notch writer on the game today.This only confirms it. Find this and all else he has done prior for further proof. We saved the best for the last in this series.
= Day 21:“The House Divided: The Story of the First Congressional Baseball Game” by J.B. Manheim.
What did we learn:In the process of researching his sixth book of “The Deadball Files” fiction series, Manheim steamrolls into more interesting history he couldn’t help but better document as a non-fiction work for our enjoyment. It’s its own 1909 crime thriller.
= Day 20:“Baseball Like It Oughta Be: How a Shoe Salesman’s Madison MallardsAnd His Renegade Staff Ignited aSummer Collegiate Baseball Revolution”,” by Tom Alesia.
What did we learn: Comparing the Savannah Bananas to the Madison Mallards is like apples to oranges. You can enjoy them independently or in one big fruit salad. But for our appreciation of local history, bank on the Mallards for long-term success.
= Day 19:“Big Loosh: The Unruly Life of Umpire Ron Luciano” by Jim Leeke.
What did we learn:Unlucky Luciano just wanted to make everyone around him happy, when he was completely miserable. It caught up with him.We wish he could have got the role of Coach on “Cheers” now that we knew how much it might have meant to him.
=Day 18: “Dangerous Danny Gardella: Baseball’s Neglected Trailblazer for Today’s Millionaire Athletes” by Robert Elias.
What did we learn:Curt Flood took the baton from Danny Gardella, who had more nicknames than anyone deserved for having played in just two seasons with the New York Giants (and one token at bat with St. Louis when it was too late).
= Day 17: “Mets Stories I Only Tell My Friends” by Art Shamsky and Matthew Silverman; “Get Your Tokens Ready:The Late 1990s Road to the Subway Series” by Chris Donnelly; “Out of the Mouth of Babe:Babe Ruth on Life: Pitching, Hitting,Striking Out, and Coming Back Swinging” by Kelly Bennett; “Yankees, Typewriters, Scandalsand Cooperstown: A Baseball Memoir” by Bill Madden.
What did we learn: If it’s 256 pages and can sell for $30, it’ll get done if it involves pinstripes or anything amazin’.
=Day 16:“A Time for Reflection:The Parallel Legacies of Baseball IconsWillie McCovey and Billy Williams” by Jason Cannon; “A Giant Among Giants:The Baseball Life of Willie McCovey” by Chris Haft.
What did we learn:It’s hardly a stretch to size up Willie and Billy, two Alabama gentlemen born weeks apart, Hall of Famers in so many ways.
= Day 15:“3,000: Baseballs Elite Clubsfor Hits and Strikeouts” by Douglas J. Jordan.
What did we learn:Clayton Kershaw is far more comparable to Pedro Martinez than Carsten Charles (C.C.) Sabathia according to the data. And, on our pallet, far more Bob Ross than Stan Ross if he wants the title of “Mr. 3,000.”
= Day 14:“Selling Baseball: How SuperstarsGeorge Wright and Albert SpaldingImpacted Sports in America” by Jeffrey Orens; “Baseball’s First Superstar:The Lost Life Story of Christy Mathewson” by Alan D. Gaff.
What did we learn: A “superstar” can fit a definition, but … can he really?
= Day 13:“Baseball before We Knew It:A Search for the Roots of the Game” by David Block.
What did we learn:Twenty years after it first came out, there’s more to know that we didn’t know we knew. Comeback Book of the Year.
= Day 12:“Skipper: Why Baseball ManagersMatter and Always Will” by Scott Miller; “The Last Manager:How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented& Reinvented Baseball” by John W. Miller.
What did we learn:We never will complain about a manager’s decision again. Because, honestly, we don’t know who made the decision. Times have changed. Also included on this post: “Hurdle-isms: Wit and Wisdom from a Lifetime in Baseball,” by Clint Hurdle; “The Dad Coach: How to Lead Kids to Succeed On and Off the Baseball Field,” by Mike Matheny with Jerry Jenkins; “The Lineup Card: An Illustrated History of the Baseball Collectible,” by Tom O’Reilly.
=Day 11:“The Baseball Stadium Guide” by Ian McArthur; “The Modern Baseball:History of MLB Through theArt of the Logoball” by Tyler Burton; “Movies With Balls:The Greatest Sports Filmsof All Time, Analyzed and Illustrated” by Rick Bryson and Kyle Bandujo; “Movies and the Churchof Baseball: Religion in theCinema of the National Pastime” by Jonathan Plummer.
What did we learn: Art may be in the eye of the beholder, but we really thought it was interesting when we pulled up our GPS app and found something even more arty. Also included on this post: “The Art of Baseball: The Watercolors of James Fiorentino” by James Fiorentino with John Molari; “Black Baseball’s Heyday: Capturing an Era in Art and Words,” by Anthony High and Denny Dressman.
= Day 10:“Homestand: Small Town Baseballand the Fight for the Soul of America” by Will Bardenwerper.
What did we learn:We miss the Lancaster JetHawks more than we realize. And thanks, Will, for alluding to the 100th anniversary of “The Great Gatsby.” Also included in this post: “When Minor League Baseball Almost Went Bust: 1946-1963,” edited by George Pawlush; “Extra Innings: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons, Fandom and Fate,” by Jeff Benjamin.
= Day 9:“Here Comes The Pizzer:The Found Poetry of Baseball Announcers” by Eric Poulin; “The Ancient Wisdom of Baseball: Lessons for Life fromHomer’s Odyssey to the World Series” by Christian Sheppard.
What did we learn: Allow yourself the grace to take in these two books when your brain is still and the spirit isn’t agitated. Goes well with Richard Rohr’s new book, “Falling Upward: The Spirituality For the Two Halves of Life,” and you may understand this better. Or just listen to Vin Scully call a game on a YouTube.com. You’ll find poetry in motion.
= Day 8:“Jim Gilliam: The Forgotten Dodger” by Steve Dittmore; “They Changed the Game: 50 Storiesand Illustrations Celebrating Creativity in Sports” by Matthew and Ariana Broerman; “Dream Merchant of the Perfect Game:The Life and Legacy of Frank ‘Doc’ Sykes” by Bernard McKenna; “Play Harder: The Triumph ofBlack Baseball in America” by Gerald Early.
What did we learn: DEI in this ERA may bring us a new WAR. Is this what Jack Robinson fought for? On the 2025 Jack Robinson Day, we have to wonder just what the hell is going on.We have the longest pre-amble before the reviews come of these four books because it’s necessary to properly clear our throats and our minds about what’s happening— and also didn’t happen with the Dodgers decided to visit the White House.
Also included on this post: “Opening the Door for Jackie: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Integration,” by Keith Evan Crook; “Brooklyn Dodgers Transactions, 1890–1957 — A History and Analysis,” by Lyle Spatz; “A Baseball Book of Days: Thirty-One Moments that Transformed the Game,” by Phil Coffin; “Race and Resistence in Boston: A Contested Sports History,” edited by Robert Cvornyek and Douglas Stark; Justice Batted Last: Ernie Banks, Minnie Miñoso, and the Unheralded Players Who Integrated Chicago’s Major League Teams,” by Don Zminda.
= Day 7: “All The Way: The Life ofBaseball Trailblazer Maybelle Blair” by Kat D. Williams.
What did we learn:Maybelle Blair didn’t quite make our final ballot for the Baseball Reliquary’s Shrine of the Eternals. There will certainly be more opportunities for her to claim fame elsewhere.
= Day 6:“My Baseball Story:The Game’s Influence on America” by Nick Del Calzo.
What did we learn:Americans love to explain how they fell in love with baseball. Add photos if necessary.
Also included on this post: “Hey Mom, Wanna Have a Catch?: A Collection of Baseball Stories … Honoring Moms and Dads who Taught us to Love America’s National Pastime,” by Rob Sheinkopf; “9 Innings To Living Your Best Life: Achieve Success When You S.M.I.L.E.” by Jay Jackson.
= Day 5:“I Felt the Cheers:The Remarkable Silent Life ofCurtis Pride” by Curtis Pride and Doug Ward.
What did we learn:The idea, as well as the fact, that Curtis Pride is still proudly identified these days as an MLB Ambassador for Inclusion since 2015 is worth mentioning right out of the batters’ box. “I am a man of faith, and Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, but I never really cared for that definition. I prefer Webster’s: ‘The quality or state of being proud.’ That was me. I was nothing if not proud—proud of my name, my family, and the circumstances I had to overcome.”
= Day 4: “L.A. Story: Shohei Ohtani, The Los Angeles Dodgers, And A Season for the Ages“ by Bill Plunkett.
What did we learn: If Ohtani never pitches again, the Dodgers will be fine with it. If he does, Dodger Stadium will surpass Tokyo Disneyland more than it already has become.
= Day 3:“Don Drysdale: Up and InThe Life of a Dodgers Legend” by Mark Whicker.
What did we learn: A bit of randomness as nearly 40 voices suddenly became part of the chorus that, in this manuscript, form less of a linear biographical recount but more of a round-table appreciation/tribute/eulogy.Big D’s legend could still use a full research project.
= Day 2: “Baseball’s Best (and Worst) Teams:The Top (and Bottom) Clubs Since 1903” by G. Scott Thomas.
What did we learn:If you though the ’27 Yankees were the greatest team in MLB history, the data doesn’t prove it. Look at it this way: The San Diego Padres’ only two trips to the World Series came in 1984 and 1996. They lost to the No. 1 and No. 2 greatest teams ever assembled as far as Thomas’ research shows.
Also included on this post: “One More for the White Rat: The 1987 St. Louis Cardinals Chase the Pennant,” by Doug Feldmann; “1960: When the Pittsburgh Pirates Had Them All The Way,” by Wayne Stewart; “White Sox Redemption: The Road to World Series Victory in 2005,” by Dan Helpinstine; “The Whiz Kids: How the 1950 Phillies Took the Pennant, Lost the World Series and Changed Philadelphia Baseball Forever,” by Dennis Snelling; “The Boys of ’62: Inspiring Story of the San Pedro Little League Champs,” by Tim Urish.
= Day 1: “JapanBall: Travel Guide to Japanese Baseball” by Gabe Lerman; “A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing A Dream to Japan and Back” by Aaron Fischman; “Makeshift Fields: Chasing Baseball AcrossIreland, Scotland, England and Wales” by Dale Jacobs.
What did we learn: Where else can the Dodgers open a season to plant more seeds? Having already been to Australia, South Korea and Japan, it seems Great Britain should be next on the list. Or maybe Alaska.
Among the books we waited, and waited, and waited for, didn’t see coming out and decided to at least mention them for future pursuits:
== “Dodgers to Damascus: David Lesch’s Journey from Baseball to the Middle East,” by Catherine Nixon Cooke (Trinity University Press, $39.95, 284 pages, due in October). The Dodgers drafted Lesch, a 6-foot-3 right-handed pitcher from Central Arizona College in the first round of the January regular-phase. At age 20, he spent one season at the team’s Pioneer League affiliate in Alberta, Canada, posting a 1-0 record in five games and was done with a shoulder injury. Only four players, none really of note, made it to the MLB level. Lesch became a distinguished professor of Middle East studies and was soon tapped by the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, and policy centers and governments internationally.
== “Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It,” by Jane Leavy (Grand Central Publishing/Hatchette, 384 pages, $32.50, due in September). From the no-nonsense biographer of Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax and Babe Ruth, Leavy does her homework by probing such figures as Dave Roberts, Joe Torre, Jim Palmer and Dusty Baker.
This was to be a mashup post to celebrate baseball and music but we couldn’t fine tune it in time. La te da. Of the three, Krell’s book has been out awhile. It is the third installment of a rather one-note idea where he picks a year and attaches pop culture references to it on a monthly basis, already doing much with 1962 (published in 2021) and 1966 (out in 2023). His next one is on 1986. These have been called “workmanlike,” which is a nicer way of saying template-filling with little connecting of dots or providing some post-experience enlightenment. Krell describes his book in a March 3, 2025 post on UNP, so there you go. He’s found a way to keep on telling stories.
The $50 coffee-table sized extravaganza by Geddy Lee Weinrib, best known as Geddy Lee, Toronto-born lead vocalist, bassist and keyboards for Rush since he joined in 1968, will have its niche audience as he relieves this odd collection of baseballs he’s pulled together over the years. Listen, they still start each game singing the National Anthem. Why again? Maybe to some, singing “Tom Sawyer” makes more sense. We maybe got the gist of this when Lee creepily walked Dan Rather through the collection for an AXS TV interview show. The Harper Collins book is a scaled down version of the one sold earlier on the Rush website to hard-core collectors.
== “Bo Belinsky: The Rise, Fall and Rebound of a Playboy Pitcher,” by David Krell (McFarland Books, $29.95, perhaps coming out in the summer). This seems to be an extension of what Krell came upon on Belinsky in his books covering 1962 and ’66 and thought it was worth doing a deeper dive. In our ongoing series “SoCal Sports History 101,” we cover Belinsky for wearing No. 36 for the Angels from ’62 to ’64 before he was traded after slugging a local sportswriter. Belinsky did his own book, “Pitching and Wooing” in 1973 at the height of Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four.” Maybe too little and too late for Bo, who died in 2001 at age 64.
== “White Sox Redemption: The Road to World Series Victory in 2005,” by Dan Helpinstine (McFarland Books, $29.95, perhaps coming out in July). Already briefly mentioned in the Day 2 books focused on particular teams, we’re guessing that based on the recent news from Rome and Pope Leo XIV, this book should already have been pulled for a rewrite and had the word “redemption” changed to “miracle.”
== “Baseball in the Roaring Twenties: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and the Captivating 1926 Season” by Thomas Wolf (University of Nebraska Publishing, $36.95, 256 pages, due in September). Wolf wrote “The Called Shot: Babe Ruth, the Chicago Cubs, and the Unforgettable Major League Baseball Season of 1932” for UNP in 2020, and it was a finalist for the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research).
== “Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame,” edited by Louis H. Schiff and Robert M. Jarvis (McFarland Books, $45, due in July). Get to know three players (Hughie Jennings, Jim O’Rourke and Monte Ward), two managers (Miller Huggins and Tony La Russa), three executives (Larry MacPhail, Walter O’Malley and Branch Rickey) as told to by law professor and a retired Florida county court judge.
== “Stan Musial,” edited by Bill Nowlin and Glen Sparks with Len Levin and Carl Riechers (SABR, 160 pages, $34.95, released in June). Brooklyn Dodgers gave Musial his nickname – “The Man” – in 1946. Here, 34 SABR members contribute essays and research on his career.
== “The New Baseball Bible: Notes, Nuggets, Lists, and Legends from Our National Pastime — Third Edition,” by Dan Schlossberg (Sports Publishing/Skyhorse, 488 pages, $29.99, due out in June). First published as The Baseball Catalog in 1980, we reviewed the 2020 update (at 465 pages) that came out during the COVID shutdown in June of that year and found it a great way to pass the time. The update found a way to get Shohei Ohtani on the cover to show it is truly an update from previous editions. Schlossberg is the former Associated Press sports editor from New Jersey, a regular writer for Street & Smith’s Official Baseball Yearbook, Sports Collectors Digest, The Sporting News and official World Series programs. His resume includes more than three dozen books.
Post script: I’ve got a hunch that Doug Glanville, who in 2010 came out with “The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View,” will have to bind a collection the best-of essays he’s been posting on his Substack account, “Welcome to Glanville,” one of the most insightful things about the game and life that’s apt to be unlocked and fall into your in-box during the week. I’ve been a Glanville fan since we talked for a 2019 post about Jackie Robinson Day that led to an L.A. Times media column, and the experience he revealed about discrimination he had during a visit to LAX in 2015. Glanville once taught a class at his alma mater, Penn, called “Communications, Sports and Social Justice” that focused on how sports messages were crafted to effect change on society.
Workshop this idea in a press box near you: The job of anyone writing about the game of baseball today is to make sure the contest below remains imperfectly perfect.
Baseball’s imperfections are what makes it most relatable to its fan base. It’s all a work of failures and resolutions, a work in progress. Yet we seem to define progress oddly in a time of mandated pitch clocks, video reviews by detached persons in New York and the potential of robotic ball-strike calls from a digital platform, all of which looks like a video game, trying to size up an imprecise boundary idea of a strike zone because we aim to get things as right as possible.
Baseball doesn’t even get the definition right of a perfect game.
For years, it’s assumed a contest in which the pitcher (or in today’s game, a bullpen strung along like Christmas lights) gets 27 straight outs without allow a batter to reach base by any sort of feat or accident. I’ve told the story before about being at a game in the ballpark, and a young couple sitting behind me was reduced to boyfriend-splaining.
The guy pointed out to his gal pal that, at the moment, the pitcher had no-hitter going.
“Too bad it’s not a perfect game,” he added.
“What’s that?” she replied.
“A perfect game,” he started, hesitated, and continued, “is when the pitcher strikes everyone out on three pitches.”
I pondered turning around to perhaps tighten up that response, but I resisted because, upon further review in my frontal lobe, he was more right than wrong. Someone in a press box likely called the first one of these things “perfect” — a “perfecto” if they were of another language enabler — and it stuck.
Even then, if someone actually achieved a perfect game as this lad described it, someone would modify the feat and raise the bar to defining it as an Immaculate Game, and then we’d get all the religious zealots involved in hijacking their bibles.
Where does all this brain-wave baseball philosophy come from?
For me, it’s from reading another Andrew Forbes book. And not possible able to match his output but only try to keep pace.
Tom Hoffarth's The Drill: More Farther Off the Wall 