Donald Scott Drysdale (July 23, 1936 – July 3, 1993), nicknamed "Big D", was an American professional baseball pitcher and broadcaster who played in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent his entire 14-year career with the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers. Known for being a fierce competitor, Drysdale won the Cy Young Award in 1962 and was a three-time World Series champion during his playing career.
Born in Van Nuys, California, Drysdale made his major league debut in 1956. He quickly made a reputation for himself as a brushback pitcher who was not afraid to pitch inside to batters in order to keep them off balance. Often overshadowed by teammate and Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax, Drysdale nevertheless made his own mark, winning the Cy Young Award in 1962 and setting a record six consecutive shutouts and 58 consecutive scoreless innings in 1968.
Drysdale was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984 and, the same year, had his number 53 retired by the Los Angeles Dodgers. After his playing career ended in 1969, Drysdale became a radio and television broadcaster until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1993.
Drysdale was born in Van Nuys, Los Angeles to Scotty and Verna Drysdale. His father was a repair supervisor for the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company who had a brief minor league career before Drysdale was born.
Drysdale attended Van Nuys High School where one of his classmates was actor Robert Redford. While he had played baseball since childhood, primarily as a second baseman, Drysdale only began to pitch during his senior year in high school; he posted a 10–1 record. He was signed out of high school by the Brooklyn Dodgers for a minimum salary and a signing bonus of $4,000.
Drysdale began his professional career in 1954, playing for the Class-C Bakersfield Indians of the California League where he posted an 8–5 win-loss record with a 3.46 earned run average and 73 strikeouts in Bakersfield.
The next season, Drysdale was promoted to the Triple-A Montreal Royals of the International League. In 1955, he posted an 11–11 record with a 3.33 earned run average and 80 strikeouts for Montreal. The following year, he was promoted to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers (1956–1969)
Drysdale made his major league debut on April 17, 1956, pitching a scoreless 9th inning in an 8–6 loss against the Philadelphia Phillies. He made his first start on April 23, also against the Phillies, a complete game win in which he allowed only one run and struck out 9 batters. Drysdale finished his rookie season with an 2.64 earned run average and 55 strikeouts in 99 innings pitched.
Drysdale, along with Dodgers teammate Sandy Koufax, served six months in the United States Army Reserve at Fort Dix, New Jersey and Van Nuys, California after the end of the 1957 season and before spring training in 1958. In his autobiography, Once a Bum, Always a Dodger, Drysdale wrote:
Those six months were good for me. When you wake up at three-thirty every morning, and you realize that some of your buddies are just getting in back home, it gives you a lot of discipline. The service should be mandatory for every kid in America. You thought you were hot stuff being a major league pitcher, and then you went to Fort Dix and found out that it doesn't matter who you were. There were no exceptions.
In 1962, Drysdale won 25 games and led the Majors in strikeouts with 232. He won the Cy Young Award and was named The Sporting News Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year. In 1963, he struck out 251 batters and won Game 3 of the World Series at Los Angeles's Dodger Stadium over the Yankees, 1–0. In 1965, he was the Dodgers' only .300 hitter and tied his own National League record for pitchers with seven home runs. That year, he also won 23 games and helped the Dodgers to their third pennant in Los Angeles.
In 1965, Koufax declined to pitch the first game of the World Series as it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Drysdale pitched for the Dodgers instead of Koufax, giving up seven runs in 2+2⁄3 innings, with the Dodgers losing 8–2 to the Minnesota Twins. When Dodgers manager Walter Alston came to the mound to remove him from the game in the 3rd inning, Drysdale quipped, "Hey, skip, bet you wish I was Jewish today too." Despite the setback, the Dodgers went on to win the Series behind Koufax's MVP-winning performances in Games 5 and 7, with Drysdale winning Game 4 at Dodger Stadium.
Drysdale and Koufax took part in a famous joint holdout in the spring of 1966. They had set an NL record the year before for strikeouts by teammates, with a combined total of 592. Both wanted to be paid $500,000 over three seasons, but Dodgers' GM Buzzie Bavasi preferred to give them one-year contracts according to team policy. They both finally signed one-year contracts just before the season opened. Drysdale's contract was for $110,000, and Koufax's contract was for $125,000. Those contracts made them the first pitchers to earn more than $100,000 a year.
In 1968, the "year of the pitcher", Drysdale set Major League records with six consecutive shutouts and 58+2⁄3 consecutive scoreless innings, winning NL Player of the Month honors in June and starting the All-Star Game in Houston. The scoreless innings record was broken by fellow Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser 20 years later. Hershiser, however, did not match Drysdale's record of six consecutive complete-game shutouts.
Recurring shoulder injuries had slowed Drysdale down in his final years. After suffering a torn rotator cuff, Drysdale retired from Major League Baseball during the 1969 season, having made only 12 starts. At the time of his retirement, he was the last active player on the Dodgers who had played for them in Brooklyn.
In his 14-year career, Drysdale compiled a record of 209–166 with an earned run average of 2.95. He struck out 2,486 batters, posted 49 shutouts, and hit 154 batters. He struck out 200 or more batters six times and won 20 games twice. In the World Series, he had a record of 3–3 with a 2.95 ERA. Drysdale led the Majors in strikeouts three times, wins once, and lead the NL in shutouts once. In 1962, with a record of 25-9 and a Major League-leading 232 strikeouts, he won the Cy Young Award.
Additionally, Drysdale won three NL Player of the Month awards: June 1959 (6–0 record, 1.71 earned run average, 51 strikeouts), July 1960 (6–0 record, 2.00 earned run average, 48 strikeouts), and May 1968 (5–1 record, 0.53 earned run average, 45 strikeouts, with 5 consecutive shutouts to begin his scoreless inning streak, which was carried into June).