So Cal's All-Time Roster: No. 53
No. 53:
Our pick:
==Don Drysdale, Dodgers (1958-'69, with his first two seasons in Brooklyn)
Big D always said he played baseball at Van Nuys High with Bobby Redford, who went on to fame in the movies. Drysdale didn't do too badly himself on the mound.
We could focus on his 1962 Cy Young Award when he won 25 games. Or when he set a big-league record with 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings during the 1968 season -- which would be his next to last season throwing because of arm problems that these days would be a routine proceedure. Or what about the 1965 season, when he was the team's only hitter above .300, tying his own NL record for pitchers with seven home runs. We know he and Sandy Koufax were the most intimidating 1-2 punch in baseball during the '60s, leading to three World Series appearances in a five-year stretch. Or, right, he led the NL in strikeouts in 1959 with 242, 1960 with 246, and 1962 with 232.
But before we talk about how his career ended 12 games into the '69 season at age 32, with 209 wins, 2,486 strike outs, 167 complete games, a 2.95 ERA and 49 shutouts in 14 seasons, leading to a Hall of Fame election in 1984.
When you talk about Don Drysdale, what about the NL record he still holds: 154 hit batters. The 6-foot-6 intimidator would back down to no one. "My own little rule was two for one. If one of my teammates got knocked down, then I knocked down two on the other team," he said.
His philosophy went this way: "When the ball is over the middle of the plate, the batter is hitting it with the sweet part of the bat. When it's inside, he's hitting it with the part of the bat from the handle to the trademark. When it's outside, he's hitting it with the end of the bat. You've got to keep the ball away from the sweet part of the bat. To do that, the pitcher has to move the hitter off the plate."
A year after his retirement, Drysdale decided to put his acting lessons to work and he started as a broadcaster in Montreal, then had a run with Dick Enberg and the Angels from '73-'79. He worked with Vin Scully and Ross Porter on the Dodgers broadcast team starting in 1988 -- in time to see Orel Hershiser break his scoreless innings streak record.
Some may remember Drysdale made appearances on "Dennis The Menace" and "The Brady Bunch" -- as himself. He married former UCLA All-American basketball star Ann Meyers (see No. 15) and remained always bigger than life. Even in death, when he passed away during a Dodgers' road trip in Montreal in 1993 at the age of 56. Scully told the viewing audience on TV: "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."
And a piece of trivia: Bill Walsh, producer of the Disney movie "The Love Bug," gave the star VW the No. 53 in Drysdale's honor.
Other No. 53s:
==Jim Youngblood, Rams ('73-'84)
==Keith Erickson, UCLA basketball ('63-'65)
==Lynn Shackelford, UCLA basketball ('66-'69)
==Sterling Forbes, Pepperdine basketball ('60 All-American, went onto a career with the Harlem Globetrotters)
Sports Illustrated's pick for the all-time No. 53: Drysdale, over Harry Carson and Artis Gilmore.
Did we miss anyone?
You've got our vote, now let's see yours: