Kenechi Udeze, USC football Paul Bergmann, UCLA football Mateen Bhaghani, UCLA football
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 94:
Terry Crews, Los Angeles Rams
The most interesting story for No. 94: Don Yi, Korean language interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park (1994) Southern California map pinpoints: Lakewood, Glendale, Los Angeles (Dodger Stadium)
The 1994 Major League Baseball season started with Don Yi wearing the No. 94 jersey for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It wasn’t necessarily the Year of Yi in Dodgertown that particular season, but numerically, it made sense.
While Yi was neither bat boy, ball dude nor clubhouse attendant, the 31-year-old UCLA graduate and computer programmer spoke South Korean. The Dodgers in general, and Chan Ho Park, more specifically, could use Yi’s skill set.
As an important part of a contract stipulation when the Dodgers signed a $1.2 million landmark deal with the 20-year-old pitcher, announced at a press conference at a hotel in Koreatown, the team would provide an interpreter.
Where Yi came into the picture, it’s somewhat a mystery.
Park, as the first MLB player brought in from South Korean player, needed to acclimate and assimilate. Yi was there to accomodate. This new-fangled job would evolve, or go sideways, on a daily basis.
It started with this: What is Park’s name?
The first time Yi was in full uniform as the team arrived its Vero Beach, Fla., training camp in March of ’94, reporters and teammates wanted to know what to call him.
Dodgers broadcaster Ross Porter called him “Park Chan-ho,” as per Korean custom to use the family’s given surname first. Park asked if Yi could help him get the media covering him to “Americanize” his name.
Once that box was checked, what else might get found in translation?
Donnie Moore: California Angels Lester Hayes: Los Angeles Raiders Ron Artest/Metta World Peace: Los Angeles Lakers
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 37:
Kermit Johnson, UCLA football Bobby Castillo: Los Angeles Dodgers Ron Washington: Los Angeles Angels manager Tom Seaver: USC baseball
The most interesting story for No. 37: Tom Seaver: USC baseball pitcher (1965) Southern California map pinpoints: Los Angeles (USC), Manhattan Beach, Twentynine Palms
Tom Seaver was a stellar bridge player. And bridge can be a tricky game.
Tom Seaver, pitching at USC in 1965.
The trick is to gather the least the number of tricks bid by the partnership at the four-person table. The rules seem simple, but mastering the strategy and complexity of it all takes time and practice. Intelligence and patience are rewarded.
During his brief time as a USC student — a pre-denistry major, because he sensed he might need a fallback career — Seaver sometimes could be found with friends hanging out at the 901 Club on Jefferson Blvd., famous for its hamburgers and beer.
And bridge building, when he was there.
In the abridged version of how Seaver went from college baseball to a pro career, there should have been a simple bridge there for him to cross from USC to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ stellar starting rotation of the 1960s.
Instead, there was a toll to pay, and the Dodgers balked.
That’s where Seaver’s poker face came into play. A fantastic 2020 book by acclaimed author and former minor leaguer Pat Jordan revealed how deep a Seaver was. But when it came to his MLB future, Seaver wasn’t bluffing on contract demands. Eventually, both the Dodges and USC lost out.
Tom Seaver, pitching at USC, 1965.
As the Vietnam War started in 1962, Seaver wasn’t keen on being drafted out of Fresno High, where he just finished his senior baseball season with a 6-5 record but made the Fresno Bee All-City team. Still, he had no pro offers, nor any college interest.
So Seaver enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves in 1962 and ’63, with bootcamp at Twentynine Palms. He realized eventually the extra weight and strength he gained in that training allowed him to eventually throw a more effective fastball and slider.
Rod Dedeaux.
His roadmap to the bigs started with one season at Fresno City College as a freshman, then earning a scholarship to play at USC, the perennial NCAA title team under coach Rod Dedeaux (see SoCal Sports History 101 bio for No. 1).
After Seaver posted an 11-2 mark at Fresno City, the Dodgers were interested. But not more than $2,000 interested. Maybe it was $3,000. That was their reportedly their offer in 1964, the last time MLB teams would have the freedom to sign whomever they wanted before the draft kicked in.
Seaver declined the Dodgers’ gesture and went panning for gold elsewhere.
Dedeaux, who called Seaver the “phee-nom from San Joaquin,” agreed to give him one of his five USC baseball full scholarships — if Seaver first played in Alaska summer ball in ’64. Dedeaux worked out a deal for Seaver to pitch for the Alaska Goldpanners of the Alaska Baseball League, which showcased college talent. The 19-year-old experienced his first Midnight Sun Game in Anchorage — the 10:30 p.m. start on June 21 for the summer solstice that has become part of baseball lore.
In 19 games, starting five, Seaver was 6-2 with a save and 4.70 ERA to go with 70 strike outs in 58 2/3 innings. Later that summer, playing in an National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas, Seaver, now with the Wichita Glassmen, hit a grand slam in a game where he had been called in as a relief pitcher. Seaver would say that was one of his career highlights.
At USC, Dedeaux slotted Seaver as the Trojans’ No. 3 starter – also on the staff was junior Bob Selleck, the 6-foot-6 older brother of eventual USC basketball, baseball and volleyball player and actor Tom Selleck.
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, it’s always worthy of a deeper dive when discovering more about the dogma of Don Drysdale. With “Big D,” it’s easy to be dazzled by the mere presence of the 6-foot-5 right-handed sidewinder. A San Fernando Valley-reared kid who spent all 14 years of his big-league career with the Dodgers organization, he 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.
In between, he stood tall on many fronts. See how this develops:
From the 1960 issue of Sport magazine, the self-authored story: “You’ve Got to Be Mean to Pitch”
Truth that’s 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.
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, and later having another one in Anaheim. There was also a place in Hawaii called “Club 53,” on the Big Island of Kona, and “The Whalers Pub” in Lahaina in Maui.
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.
“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.
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.
Don Drysdale tries out of the first seats installed at Dodger Stadium on Nov. 22, 1961. (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 tales:
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.
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 53t in the franchise’s history.
Don Drysdale pitches against the Pirates in 1965 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
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)
Back by somewhat unpopular demand — maybe query a few authors whose books in the recent past I might have ended up splaying with an intent to de-boned, all in the name of honest criticism — the 2025 version of the newest spring/summer baseball book reviews returns for another attempt at education and entertainment.
It coincides with the start of the Dodgers-Cubs series leading off the ’25 MLB season in Japan. The clocks are being adjusted as we try to spin forward.
Here, as we have done since 2011*, reviews are more an exercise in empathy for those who open their veins to write these things in the first place, along with our attempt at explaining how the subject matter connects in our universe. Then, there’s an efficiency trying to cover more than a couple dozen new titles that have come into the marketplace since the end of the ’24 season.
This whole thing, initially focused on the insane premise of posting 30 reviews once day over the 30 days in a row in April, challenges us to stay current while also adding some context.
*Our memory is fading and we weren’t actually sure, but that’s the best guess, since we’ve got The Wayback Machine to find things we’ve posted going to the InsideSoCal.com platform that started in 2006.
This ’25 baseball book review project again deviates a bit from its original calisthenics stress test. We can’t do 30 in a row, but the target remains at least 30 reviews. All done by summer.
There’s also a new stipulation: No more links to purchasing books on the website named after a river in South America and empties into the Atlantic. Reviews are no longer posted on the social media site once known as Twitter.
Resistance isn’t futile. It’s long overdue.
Consider this: A book called “How To Resist Amazon And Why: Updated and Expanded — The Fight For Local Economies, Data Privacy, Fair Labor, Independent Bookstores and a People-Powered Future” by Danny Caine, owner of the Lawrence, Kansas-based Raven Book Store, sells for a reasonable $14.95 on the Microcosm Publishers’ website. As well as on Caine’s store site, a zine version for $3.
The website in question, meanwhile, not only offers this book that meticulously besmirches its existence, but has it at 40 percent off for those looking to prove everything the book points out.
From our storage unit, here’s what we plan to cover in ’25:
= “I Felt the Cheers: The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride,” by the former Angels outfielder who also played for Montreal, Detroit, Atlanta, Boston and the Yankees, and was a coach at Gallaudet, the world’s leading university for deaf and hard of hearing students and was also named Major League Baseball’s Ambassador for Inclusion.
The point it to let readers know these works exist, should you be tempted to pick them up for purchase without knowing their caveats. It’s also a way to uncover projects that otherwise might be off the radar. No fees attached. Enjoy.
Before the first reviews, a short Q&A:
Seinäjoki Library in Seinäjoki, Finland.
Q: What happens to all the baseball books collected during the course of the year to review?
A: Pay it forward, if that’s still a phrase. As in, donate them to the local library.
The 144-page book by Howard Liss released by Random House aimed at school kids interested in sports-related bios was first published in 1971.
Chuck Hildebrandt, a 63-year-old retired digital marketing exec living in Chicago, explained to the Detroit Free Press that he purposefully visited the public library in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Mich., while in town visiting family for Thanksgiving. The reason was to bring back a copy of “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars,” which he recalls borrowing from the city’s Walt Whitman Branch on Dec. 4, 1974, when he was a 13-year-old.
He had forgotten to return it. Fifty years later, he sought some closure.
Hildebrant said he came across it on his bookshelf about five years ago, noticed the Dewey decimal library sticker on the spine, and figured out what happened.
In December of 2024, he tried to give it back. The library declined.
“Some people never come back to face the music,” said library director Oksana Urban. “But there was really no music to face, because he and the book were erased from our system.”
Still, what would the fine have been for a return this late? More than $4,500 according to Hildebrant’s math. To be precise, it was $4,563.75 to be precise, if he had been charged the normal fees.
“I am still somewhat embarrassed so I want to make good on it in some way,” Hildebrant wrote on a social media post.
Hildebrant decided to start a GoFundMe.com fundraiser to see if he could match that $4,564 projected fine, and then donate it to Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s leading children’s literacy non-profit since the 1960s that so many of us Boomer-types remember from our childhood as well.
To date, the effort raised more than $5,300 with more than 100 donations.
Maybe we can keep contributing. Or …
This book looked familiar, and my recollection must have been finding it at my own library when I was in middle school. The cover illustration of Casey Stengel taking off his cap and having a sparrow he kept hidden in his suddenly fly out was something I wouldn’t have forgotten.
In the book, it explains how Stengel, just traded from Wilbert Robinson’s Brooklyn Robins (pre-Dodgers) to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1918, was back for the first time at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, playing right field. He noticed in the Brooklyn bullpen that former teammate Leon Cadore was able to scoop up a sparrow that landed. On his way to the dugout at the end of the inning, Stengel asked Cadore to give him the sparrow. When Stengel went to bat that inning, the fans gave him a rousing ovation. He stepped into the batter’s box, dropped his bat, bowed low and raised his cap — and the sparrow fluttered a moment and flew off.
“I always knew that Stengel had birds in his top story,” Robinson was reported to have said.
After reading the story about Hildebrandt — and realizing we are about the same age — I tracked down a New Jersey used book store called Between the Covers listed on AbeBooks.com (the one-stop used book store repository) and picked up a nice copy of “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars.”
It went for $20 (plus $5 shipping). I really did enjoy re-reading it from cover to cover this past winter. Simultaneously, I had been reading Andrew Forbes’ latest piece of fiction, “McCurdle’s Arm,” a 108-page novella released in August of ’24 by Invisible Publishing, and the two seemed joined at the spine.
Forbes’ ultra-creative use of 1890s quirky baseball prose told the story of Robert James McCurdle, who could have been a character in “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars,” along with Stengel, Bobo Newsom, Dizzy Dean, Babe Herman and Rabbit Maranville.
Re-reading that review recently was again somewhat as therapeutic as it was writing it four years ago. The cover illustrations were spectacular as well.
Armed with “McCurdle’s Arm” and star struck again by “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars,” I felt as if I was thrust back in time. No hurry for anyone to come to my emotional rescue.
So, with the start of this ’25 review, “McCurdle’s Arm” goes back on my shelf for safe keeping, and “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars” will go next to it, or I’ll deliver it to my local library with all the other books set to be donated this time around.
The hope is that everything will be fine, and there are no fines attached to anyone’s future enjoyment. And a RIF donation is forthcoming.
Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings Gary Beban, UCLA football Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers Frank Gifford, USC football Hideo Nomo, Los Angeles Dodgers Rodney Peete, USC football Rick Monday, Los Angeles Dodgers Jim Plunkett, Los Angeles Raiders
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 16:
Brice Taylor, USC football Willie Wood, USC football Jarred Goff, Los Angeles Rams Garrett Anderson, California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Lisa Fernandez, UCLA softball Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
The most interesting story for No. 16: Rick Monday, Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder (1978 to 1984), Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster (1985 to 1988, 1993 to present) Southern California map pinpoints: Santa Monica, Dodger Stadium
On the 60th anniversary of Dodger Stadium in 2022, the Dodgers’ Top 60 countdown of the greatest moments in the ballpark’s history focused on event that played out on a Sunday afternoon, April 25, 1976. It planted its flag in the No. 5 spot.
Rick Monday, patrolling center field for the visiting Chicago Cubs and wearing No. 7 (a tribute to his baseball idol, Mickey Mantle) had three hits and an RBI in a contest the Dodgers won, 5-4, in 10 innings.
It was his defense that mattered. A play-by-play account of the game’s bottom of the fourth inning offered by Retrosheet.org might not do it justice, but there it is for the record:
By more than one patriotic group of onlookers, it still is referred to as baseball’s “greatest play.”
Monday ran in, took his glove off his right hand, and swooped in to snatch an American flag away from a man and his son as they knelt in the outfield grass. They already doused the cloth with lighter fluid and were unsuccessful in lighting a match their first try. A glimpse of it captured by Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographer Jim Roark was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Monday continues to accept lifetime achievement recognition for it, decades later.
A colorized version of the Jim Roark/Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photo.
The late Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray referred to it as “the most famous picture of its kind since the flag-raising at Iwo Jima.” It was “Francis Scott Key, Betsy Ross, Verdun and Iwo Jima—all wrapped up on one fleeting instant of patriotism,” added The Sporting News. It called Monday’s run a resemblance of “Paul Revere at full gallop.”
Vin Scully sized up the moment for the Dodgers’ radio audience as Ted Sizemore was at bat with a 1-0 count:
“Outside, ball one … and wait a minute … We’re not sure what he’s doing out there … It looks like he’s going to burn a flag … and Rick Monday runs and takes it away from him! (Crowd cheers) … I think the guy was going to set fire to the American flag! Can you imagine that? … Monday, when he realized what he was going to do, raced over and took the flag away from him.”
That’s where Scully took our breath away.
Dodgers publicity director Fred Claire’s quick thinking led to him having scoreboard operator Jeff Fellingzer type in a message with the lighted block letters.
As Monday continued his run, slowing down after it appeared he was clear of the situation, he headed toward the Dodgers’ dugout and handed the flag to Dodgers pitcher Doug Rau, who had come out on the field. Monday then said he recalled seeing Dodgers third base coach Tommy Lasorda run past him the other way toward the perpetrators and “called these guys every name in the longshoreman’s encyclopedia.”
When reporters met with him after the game, Monday was still agitated: “If he’s going to burn a flag, he better do it in front of somebody who doesn’t appreciate it. I’ve visited enough veterans hospitals and seen enough guys with their legs blown off defending the flag.”
Monday had served in the Marine Corps reserves for the first six years of his MLB career. He said he had lost friends in Vietnam, a war that had just ended in 1976, the country’s bicentennial year.
This was a confluence of emotions, as the country’s convoluted ideas of patriotism, politics, and protests had spilled onto a baseball field.
“Now we’ve got three great patriots — George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Rick Monday,” said Cubs teammate Jose Cardinal as mentioned in the game’s SABR recap.
President Gerald R. Ford called Monday after the game and issued a Presidential Commendation for “Service To Others.” Two weeks later, when the Dodgers went to Chicago’s Wrigley Field for a series, Dodgers general manager Al Campanis presented Monday with the actual flag.
The Dodgers gave fans posters of the Roark photo a year later, on its anniversary in 1977, which was helpful as the Dodgers made a trade with the Cubs to get Monday on their roster.
Although few followed up to investigate whatever purpose there was for these two to come onto the field, the stories get kind of foggy. An Associated Press story reported shortly thereafter that the 37-year-old father served three days in jail in lieu of a $50 fine, pleading guilty to trespassing. The 11-year-old son was not arrested.
“The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment entwined four unlikely and disparate individuals: a Major League Baseball outfielder who instantaneously became a national hero; a photojournalist whose career was made, seemingly for life, with a single shot; and a father-son duo who faced so much mockery and castigation that they have chosen to remain anonymous.”
The story is revisited even more every April 25, and Monday never tires of discussing it.
“It’s freedom of speech, but the flag itself, I look at it from a positive standpoint,” Monday said in 2016. “I heard today from one of the moms who lost their son. It’s like Barbaralee (Monday’s wife) says, ‘We drape the caskets of our fallen warriors with the flag, and it’s presented to the family with the words, from a grateful nation.’”
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Monday said in 2020. “But I knew what they were doing was wrong.”
“It brings you to tears, to be honest,” Monday admitted in 2013 about the stories he’s heard from veterans since then.
“You know what’s really kind of strange is I get letters every week, some from people who were not even born at the time,” Monday said in 2023. “And twice today, here at the ballpark, I’ve already had people say, ‘Thanks for doing something for the flag.’ ”
An artist who does mock ups of a retro comic book covers created something that puts the event more into a pop culture history vein. It has been commemorated on posters, coins, pennants, U.S. postage collectables and a Dodger Stadium bobblehead giveaway. The Hall of Fame itself has a T-shirt available as well as limited-edition bats, pins and photo.
The fact Monday is a home-grown SoCal product with a baseball life aside from this event worthy of attention makes his biography worthy of a deeper dive. He’s far more than just a flag-rescurer.
The Dodgers scouts coveted Monday when he was at Santa Monica High in the mid-60s, and scout Tommy Lasorda was all about to sign him to a $20,000 bonus when Monday made good on a promise to his mother that he would attend college first. That’s the starting point. Currently Monday has contributed years as a Dodgers’ radio and TV broadcaster to the modern-fan narrative, going past his 80th birthday.
The other notable moments on Monday’s professional resume:
= The first player taken overall in the first Major League Baseball official draft, in 1965, by the Kansas City Athletics, out of Arizona State. The 19-year-old led the Sun Devils to the College World Series title.
= A dramatic ninth-inning home run off Montreal’s Steve Rogers during the National League Championship Series that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 win and sent them into the 1981 World Series. It is still called “Blue Monday” throughout Canada.
= Two All-Star selections, including 1978 with the Dodgers, a year after he was traded by the Cubs to L.A. in an exchange that included Bill Buckner. Monday came to the Dodgers hoping to keep wearing No. 7, but catcher Steve Yeager had it. Monday went with 1 plus 6 = 16.
= A total of 241 homers during a 19-year career, eight of them with the Dodgers, as well as 775 RBIs. He had a single-season best of 32 homers for the Cubs as their lead-off hitter in that 1976 season.
= A 30-plus year career as a Dodgers TV and radio broadcaster, brought on in 1993 after the death of Don Drysdale, after Monday had done four years of broadcasting for the San Diego Padres.
But saving that flag from peril …
While it is most often secure in a safe deposit box, it has been taken out occasionally for fundraising events, especially to help the U.S. military veterans and their families.
The Baseball Hall of Fame displayed the flag in Cooperstown in 2026, keeping it there from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend, as a way to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary. It has never previously been exhibited in one public location for as many days.
Monday was also at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown on May 23 for the Hall of Fame Military Classic, a seven-inning legends game.
Rick Monday put on his No. 7 again during an exhibition game at Cooperstown, N.Y.
“I didn’t do anything that people I know would not have done had they been geographically close enough to do something about it,” Monday has said. “I’m proud to say that all of my friends would have done the same thing. I think it’s about respect. I respect this country and what that flag represents.
“It’s only a piece of cloth, but, boy, it represents a lot of lives and freedoms that we have available to us because of the people who stepped up and sacrificed. All I did that afternoon was step up. I’m not a hero. I’m just a guy who acted upon what I thought was right. I’m happy I was close enough to do something about it.”
A story posted in 2025 about Jim Marshall, who, at 90, was the oldest living member of the New York Mets, there was mention that Marshall had been manager of the Chicago Cubs that day Monday saved the flag. Marshall said Monday was his favorite player to manage.
“He was such a great, young kid,” said Marshall. “I was there the day he grabbed the American flag when those kids were about to burn it. That was the greatest play of his career. I told Rick, ‘You owe me money, man. I put you in the lineup so you could do that, now you have a lifetime job with the Dodgers!’ So now he gives me $1 every time he sees me.”
Monday, who turned 80 in November of ’25, has already done one update of his 2006 book, “Tales From the Los Angeles Dodgers Dugout.” Maybe it’s time for another revision, 20 years later.
Flag that for the “to-do” list.
On the boardwalk at Dodger Stadium that runs next to the roofline of the outfield pavilions, a plaque commemorating Monday’s April 25, 1976 rescue is depicted on a “Legendary Dodger Moments” series — even thought he was playing for the Cubs, calling him a “future Dodger legend.”
Postscript:
Mark Langill, the Dodgers’ team historian, does a far better job of telling this story in an April, 2026 piece for the Dodgers’ fan magazine, given out the night of the 50th anniversary:
Who else wore No. 16 in SoCal sports history? Make a case for:
Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings center (1975-76 to 1986-87):
Best known: The Little Beaver — a nickname that stuck to the Hockey Hall of Famer because his 5-foot-9 stature — needed fewer than 1,000 games (921) to set a franchise record for career points with 1,307, which lasted for some 40 years before Anze Kopitar eventually passed him at 1,316 during his 1,521-game run. Dionne also stands second in goals (550, seven behind leader Luc Rotaille) and assists (757, more than 100 behind Kopitar).
The Kings pulled the trigger before the 1975 season to get the 23-year-old just coming off his All-Star selection in Detroit in a multi-player deal involving Dan Maloney and Terry Harper. Dionne made three All Star teams right away, but his was elevated more when he was combined with Dave Taylor and Charlie Simmer on the famed “Triple Crown Line,” which stayed together from 1979 to 1984. (Interestingly, before that happened, Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke had been talking to Boston legend Bobby Orr about coming to Los Angeles to join Dionne after the 1976 season, and they appeared to have it locked up — until Orr decided to go to the Chicago Blackhawks on a five-year, $3 million deal instead. Chronic knee issue held Orr to just 26 more games over three seasons with the Blackhawks before retiring at age 30). Kings coach Bob Berry put Dionne in the middle with second-year right winger Taylor and career minor-leaguer Simmer on either side. Taylor was the play maker, Dionne was the scorer and Simmer pulled the puck out of the corners. Perhaps by no coincidence, after the Triple Crown Line’s first season together, Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Kings, Lakers and the Forum from Cooke for $67.5 million. The Triple Crown Line dominated the NHL in its first season, scoring 146 goals and 182 assists, good for 328 points and Dionne was also awarded the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer — two more goals than rookie Wayne Gretzky. By ’80-’81, the line did better: 161 goals, 191 assists and 352 points, and, for the 1981 All Star Game played at the Forum in Inglewood, the three were voted in as a unit. Not well remembered:Dionne remains the Kings’ all-time leader in hat tricks (24, 10 more than second-place Bernie Nichols and Luc Robitaille), shots taken (3,848), goals created (507.5), goals per game (0.60), even-strength goals (369), total goals on-ice for (1,723), power play goals on-ice for (670) and offensive points share of 101.0 (the only one in triple digits, ahead of Robitalle’s 98.7)
Hideo Nomo, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher(1995 to 1998):
Best known: The “Nomomania” that happened in Los Angeles upon the arrival of “The Tornado” during the ’95 post-strike delay generated a Japanese fan following that had not been seen before in Major League Baseball. The ’95 NL Rookie of the Year and league strike-out leader with his baffling forkball and deceptive windup was also the starting NL pitcher in the All Star game, striking out three of the six he faced. A no-hitter at Coors Field in Denver added to his legend. After stops in New York, Milwaukee, Detroit and Boston, Nomo returned to L.A. (wearing No. 10, as catcher Paul LoDuca had No. 16, the magical number for Japanese players) and had back-to-back 16-win seasons before undergoing shoulder surgery. In honor of Nomo and the Japanese history of pitchers, Yusei Kikuchi made the 2025 Opening Day start with No. 16, having worn it with Houston and Toronto previously.
Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher (2019 to present):
Best known: His 11th inning solo home run in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series at Toronto provided the winning margin as the Dodgers clinched the championship. A three-time NL All Star, Smith was a first-round draft pick by the Dodgers out of Louisville. He went 2-for-4 in his MLB debut on May 27, 2019 and a month later, he hit a walk-off homer against Colorado. He served mostly as a DH in the Dodgers’ 2020 World Series run and became the full-time starting catcher in 2021. He signed a 10-year, $140 million contract extension in 2024 as he became the fourth catcher in franchise history to hit more than 100 career homers. Smith set a World Series record for most innings caught — 73 — as he handled every inning of the Dodgers’ 2025 run, including the 18 inning Game 3 victory and 11 in the Game 7.
Gary Beban, UCLA football quarterback (1965 to 1967):
Best known: In ESPN’s 2020 list of the 150 greatest college football players in the game’s first 150 years, Beban managed to get in at No. 146 as still the only Bruin to win a Heisman.
The blurb reads: “Beban may be the classic example of the bromide: All he could do was beat you. He was not big (6-0, 191), didn’t have a particularly strong arm, and beat no one with his legs. But Bruins coach Tommy Prothro made two comments about Beban that defined his worth: ‘He has no weaknesses.’ And: ‘The more pressure, the better he is.’ As a three-year starter, Beban went 24-5-2, including an upset of national champion Michigan State in the 1966 Rose Bowl, 14-12. Beban and No. 1 UCLA lost to O.J. Simpson and No. 3 USC, 21-20, in 1967. Beban threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns, and he beat Simpson for the 1967 Heisman.” That ’67 season, by the way, showed Beban throwing for 1,359 yards and eight TDs, and UCLA finishing 7-2-1. But since he was fourth in the Heisman voting in ’66, Beban seemed to have the best qualifications, considering his career stats: 33 TDs, 3,940 of passing yards and 5,197 of total offense.
Not well known: If UCLA fans were to draw up a list of the Top 5 quarterbacks in its history, Beban might be somewhat forgotten. Since Beban’s time, only a few UCLA players have ever finished in the Top 3 in the Heisman voting: Quarterbacks Troy Aikman (1988) and Cade McNown (1998) were third. Prior to Beban, only Bruins running back Paul Cameron had made it into the Top 3 (in 1953). Quarterback Billy Kilmer was fifth in the 1960 voting and Donn Moomaw finished fourth in 1952. A second-round pick by the Los Angeles Rams in 1968 — 30th overall — Beban’s rights were traded to Washington and only got into five pro games, also wearing No. 16 for the Redskins) as a backup to future Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen.
Frank Gifford, USC football running back, quarterback, defensive backer and kicker (1949 to 1951):
Best known: As a senior, the Santa Monica-born Gifford ran for 841 yards on 195 carries and seven touchdowns, completed 32 of 61 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns, made 11 receptions, had three interceptions, kicked 26 PATs and two field goals. Gifford benefited from incoming coach Jess Hill switching from the T-formation to a combination of the winged T and the single wing. His first action was as a sophomore safety, recording two interceptions in a 42-20 season opening win against Navy at the Coliseum. He was also USC’s placekicker, making 25 of 31 PATs that season. A 22-yard field goal that season against Cal was USC’s first field goal made since the 1935 season, 14 years earlier. He led USC in scoring and interceptions in 1950. Before he graduated, Gifford married his college sweetheart, USC homecoming queen Maxine Ewart, in early 1952, and they had three children. As a first-round pick by the NFL’s New York Giants — becoming a league MVP, an eight-time Pro Bowl pick and having his No. 16 retired by the franchise — he parlayed that into a longtime career as a TV broadcaster on “Monday Night Football.” Gifford was inducted into the inaugural USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994, after he made the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in ’77 and the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2012. Not well known: Gifford wrote in his 2008 biography that he was given No. 16 by coach Jeff Cravath because USC initially recruited him as a quarterback after he spent a year at Bakersfield Junior College, trying to get his grades up as his dad provided for the family working in the oilfields.
Rodney Peete, USC football quarterback (1985 to 1988):
Best known: The three-year starter was a dual-threat Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year and as a senior combined to win the Johnny Unitas Award and Pop Warner Award — and finish second in the Heisman voting behind Oklahoma State’s record-breaking running back Barry Sanders. At a school known for its running game success, Peete finished as the all-time leading passer with 8,225 yards and 54 touchdowns, as well as 12 more rushing.
Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers center/forward (2008 to 2013-14):
Best known: His seven seasons with the Lakers as Kobe Bryant’s running mate brought him three All-Star selections and two NBA titles, resulting in the team retiring his number in 2023, the same year he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The 7-footer from Barcelona who was the NBA Rookie of the Year with Memphis in 2002 came to L.A. in a deal that upset many league owners — the Lakers were able to unload Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie — along with his brother, future All Star Marc Gasol — to add him as Bryant’s teammate. In the first game Gasol played with Bryant, he caught a pass and scored, leading Bryant to yell to coach Phil Jackson: “We’ve got a big man that can catch and finish! We’re going to the Finals!” They did for the next three seasons. Gasol averaged 17.7 points and 9.9 rebounds in his seven seasons with the Lakers before leaving to Chicago. Not well known: Gasol wore No. 16 because rookies in Spain were given that number (or No. 17), as he was in his first season with F.C. Barcelona. He said he had so much success, he wanted to keep it.
Jarred Goff, Los Angeles Rams quarterback (2016 to 2020):
Best known: Rams head coach Jeff Fisher was so convinced the team needed the 6-foot-4, 217-pounder out of Cal they gave Tennessee their first-round pick, two second-round picks and a third-round pick, plus their ’17 first- and third-round picks, so they could take Goff No. 1 overall. Goff then signed a four-year, $27.9 million guaranteed contract. Four noteworthy moments in his Rams career: On Nov. 19, 2018, he threw for 413 yards and four touchdowns as the Rams outlasted Kansas City, 54-51, at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the highest-scoring Monday Night Football ever. Goff guided the team to a Super Bowl in the 2018 season, ending with a 13-3 loss to New England. His contract option was picked up and extended to $134 million, with $110 million guaranteed, then an NFL record. In a Week 4 loss to Tampa Bay in 2019, Goff threw for a career-high 517 yards (completing a career-high 45 passes on 68 attempts with two TDs and three picks). But by the 2021 draft, the team changed course and traded him to Detroit in a deal (with a ’22 and ’23 first-round pick) for veteran QB Matthew Stafford. Not well known: Goff wore No. 16 as a tribute to his idol, Joe Montana.
Jim Plunkett, Los Angeles Raiders quarterback (1982 to 1986):
In 1985, a two-pannel billboard by Nike spanning the 605 Freeway near Irwindale showed Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett, right, completing a pass to tight end Todd Christensen on the other side of the road. The Raiders had just started floating the idea about moving from the L.A. Coliseum to a new home in the San Gabriel Valley area of Irwindale. (Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photo/Mike Mullen/Los Angeles Public Library Digital Collection).
Best known: The last five seasons Plunkett’s 15-year NFL career were in L.A., coming over with the Raiders after having spent three seasons previously in Oakland. In 1982 and ’83, he led the team to eight fourth-quarter comebacks, as well as eight game-winning drives. His record as a starter was 27-12. He arrived in L.A. after leading the Raiders to a Super Bowl XV title on Jan. 25, 1981.
Garrett Anderson, California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder (1994 to 2008):
April 16, 2026
Best known: The 15 seasons he spent in three different variations of the Angels’ franchise existence speaks to the fact of his longevity at an odd time in the team’s identity crisis. The Kennedy High of Granada Hills standout was picked by the team in the fourth round in 1990 and five years later was second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting (.321 in 106 games, 16 HR, 69 RBIs). The three-time AL All Star was MVP of the 2003 game when hit a two-run homer and a double in the eighth during a 3-for-4 night to lead to an AL comeback win. Anderson led the league in doubles with 56 in their World Series title year of 2002 and 49 the next season. He also won two Silver Slugger Award. He finished his 17-season career wearing No. 9 for the Dodgers in 2010. Voted into the Angels Hall of Fame in 2016, he remains the franchise career leader in games, hits, RBIs and at-bats, and third in overall average. With his death at age 53 in the spring of 2026, he was remembered by columnist Mark Whicker: “He didn’t really mind being misunderstood. For one thing it gave him room to take care of business. There was no way he’d be a team spokesman. Too presumptuous. But the closer people got to him, the more they heard his incongruously throaty laugh and heard his wide range of opinions. He was a cheery skeptic about the analytics “revolution” and never abandoned his method of swinging hard at the first thing he liked, yet striking out only 13.3 percent of the time. Fifty-one percent of his batted balls went up the middle, just like the coaches tell you.” Not well remembered: Anderson is the first in MLB history to win a World Series title, a Home Run Derby and All-Star Game MVP in the span of a year (actually, nine months).
Lisa Fernandez, UCLA softball (1990 to 1993): A three-time winner of softball’s Honda Award, Fernandez became the first in her sport to win the Broderick Cup in 1993, given to the most outstanding collegiate female athlete in all sports. A four-time, first-team All-American led the Bruins to national titles in ’90 and ’92, plus runner-up finishes in ’91 an d’93. The Pac-10 Player of the Year her final three years, she posted a 93-7 record with a 0.22 earned run average, 784 strike outs and 74 shutouts. The Long Beach native from St. Joseph’s High also garnished three Olympic gold medals, in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Summer Games.
Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder (2006 to 2017): A two-time NL All Star had a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger in his 12 seasons. His top offensive year — 2009, when he hit 31 homers, 42 doubles, drove in 106, scored 92 times and played 160 games, finishing sixth in NL MVP voting. In Game 7 of the 2017 World Series against the Astros, he drove in the only run for the team in a 5-1 series-ending loss with a sixth-inning single. In doing so, he set a Dodgers franchise record by appearing in 51 career post-season contests. Ethier came to the Dodgers from Oakland in a December, 2005 trade for Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez and was the first Dodger to have 30 doubles in seven straight seasons.
Have you heard this story:
Brice Taylor, USC football fullback/offensive guard (1924 to 1926):
Best known: The Trojans’ first All-American player and its first African-American player was a descendant of African slaves and a Shawnee Indian chief, orphaned at age 5. Born without a left hand, he enrolled at USC as Gus Henderson’s starting fullback. When Howard Jones took over the next season, Taylor moved to the defensive line and was also its kicker. He played in all but four minutes of USC’s 11 games in 1924. Taylor was also a sprinter and hurdler at USC and picked to be on the U.S. Olympic track team in 1924. After he coached Southern University, a historically black college in Louisiana, where he started the Bayou Classic game with in-state rival Grambling State, Taylor circled back to become the coach at Jefferson High in L.A. as well as the associate pastor at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was honored as the L.A. City Teacher of the Year in 1969 and L.A. Mayor Sam Yorty appointed him to the Mayor’s Community Advisory Board in ’65. Not well known: Inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995, Taylor has a plaque honoring his career at the Coliseum’s Memorial Court of Honor. The Brice Taylor Award is given annual to USC alums for outstanding civic service.
Willie Wood, USC football quarterback/safety (1957 to 1959):
Best known: The first Black quarterback in the history of the Pacific Coast Conference (which became the AAWU, which became the Pac-8), Wood threw for 772 yards and seven TDs versus eight interceptions, and also ran for two touchdowns. When he was not picked in the 1960 NFL Draft, Wood wrote a letter to Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi to ask for a tryout. The team signed him, switched him to safety, and he made it onto five NFL Championship teams (including the first two Super Bowls), was a five-time All-Pro first team and four time second team. He led the NFL in interceptions in 1962 with nine and, after 12 seasons, was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Not well known: After starring in Washington D.C. and coming West to play as a junior college All-American at Coalinga Junior College, Wood went to USC under first-year head coach Don Clark.
The 1962 National League Rookie of the Year for the Chicago Cubs as a Gold Glove winning second baseman rests today in Colton’s Montecito Cemetery, having perished in a private plane crash in February of 1964 at age 22.
The front of a special Topps baseball card issued in 1964 after Hubbs’ death.
His funeral at Colton High’s Whitmer Auditorium drew some 2,000, including Cubs teammates and pallbearers Ron Santo and Ernie Banks. Wearing No. 16 for the Cubs — he came up as a 19-year-old wearing No. 33 for 10 games in the ’61 season — Hubbs played just two full seasons out. The number was never retired, but held out of circulation for nearly a decade. Hubbs was already a local legend a 12 year-old in the 1954 Little League World Series as the shortstop on the Colton team that made it to the championship game where it lost to Schenectady, N.Y. He hit a home run in the game with a broken toe. At Colton High he was All-CIF in football, basketball and baseball and was was a high jumper on the track team. The 1959 Los Angeles Examiner “Best All-Around Athlete in Southern California” was recruited to play basketball for John Wooden at UCLA as well as play quarterback at Notre Dame. A member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Hubbs was considering going to BYU or USC when he was signed to a $50,000 bonus to join the Cubs.
The back of a special Topps baseball card issued in 1964 after Hubbs’ death.
As a rookie in ’62 he set an MLB record with 78 consecutive games/418 chances without an error — his glove remains on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Riverside-born athlete who was All-American in football and basketball is remembered with the Ken Hubbs Award from the family foundation for the top high school male and female athlete in San Bernardino, celebrating its 60th year in 2024. Notable winners have been Football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott (1977) and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels (2019). The L.A. Times’ Jim Murray wrote: “Kenneth Douglass Hubbs was more than just another baseball player. He was the kind of athlete all games need. A devout Mormon, a cheerful leader, a picture-book player, blond-haired, healthy, generous with his time for young boys; he was the kind of youth in short supply in these selfish times.”
We also have:
Rocky Colavito, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder (1968) Paul LoDuca, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher (1998 to 2004) Paul McDonald, USC football quarterback (1976 to 1979) Holly McPeak, UCLA women’s volleyball setter (1990) Eddie Joyal, Los Angeles Kings center (1967-68 to 1971-72)
Tom Hoffarth's The Drill: More Farther Off the Wall 