Happy Belated Birthday, Don. Mods, move this if you must, but lots of DU'ers are sports fans...

Yesterday would have been Don Drysdale's 75th birthday. This dominant Hall of Fame rightie cum Sportscaster died in his hotel room before a game between the Dodgers and Montreal Expos. I'll never forget that day... When Vin told the world that Drysdale had died, he choked up. I cried. They were fast friends and colleagues.

"Drysdale's broadcasting colleague Vin Scully, who was instructed not to say anything on the air until Drysdale's family was notified, announced the news of his death by saying "Never have I been asked to make an announcement that hurts me as much as this one. And I say it to you as best I can with a broken heart." Fellow broadcaster Ross Porter told his radio audience, "I just don't believe it, folks." Drysdale was replaced by Rick Monday in the broadcast booth.

Among the personal belongings found in Drysdale's hotel room at the time of his death was a cassette tape of Robert F. Kennedy's victory speech after the 1968 California Democratic presidential primary, a speech given only moments before Senator Kennedy's assassination. In the speech, Kennedy had noted, to the cheers of the crowd, that Drysdale had pitched his sixth straight shutout that evening. Drysdale had apparently carried the tape with him wherever he went since Robert Kennedy's death.

Apparently, RFK was not only a fan of Drysdale, but Drysdale was a fan of RFK. It must have been a high point in Don's life that someone so lofty as RFK mentioned his achievement.

I got to shake this Man's hand as a Little Leaguer. He was one of my Idols.

Happy Birthday Don.

The Dodgers organization, if they can be called that currently, paid homage to a great pitcher and a great man tonight. Then they went out to win after having their faces pushed into the infield clay twice. I like to think they did it for Don.

I read a story once about a game between the Dodgers and Giants. This new rookie Giant was being talked about non-stop. His name was Dave Kingman. He came in as a pinch runner for Willy McCovey. His first major league at bat was as leadoff hitter a couple of innings later. He was standing outside the batter's box timing Drysdale's warmup pitches. Drysdale drilled him in the hip with what some call the hardest ball he'd ever thrown. When Kingman looked at Drysdale, all Don said to him was "Go back to the on-deck circle where you belong rookie". Gotta respect a guy who owned the game like that.

God damn I feel so old...

Drysdale and Koufax would keep opposing teams awake all night when they knew they had to face one of them the next day.
You stepped into the batters box against these two guys with great trepidation.
They could kill you with one pitch if they wanted to, and hitters KNEW that.