(photo contributed by mancavepictures)
As a 19-year old rookie, Don Drysdale made his Major League debut on April 17, 1956, for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Drysdale went on to have a Hall of Fame career. In 1962, Drysdale won 25 games and his only Cy Young Award. In 1963, he struck out 251 batters and won Game 3 of the World Series at Los Angeles's Dodger's 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 7 home runs. That year, he also won 23 games and helped the Dodgers to their third World Series Championship in Los Angeles. In 1968, Drysdale set Major League records with six consecutive shutouts and 58+2⁄3 consecutive scoreless innings. The latter record was broken by fellow Dodger Orel Hershiser 20 years later. Hershiser, however, did not match Drysdale's record of six consecutive complete-game shutouts.
Drysdale ended his career with 209 wins, 2,486 strikeouts, 167 complete games and 49 shutouts. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, and had his number 53 retired at Dodger Stadium on July 1, 1984. At the time of his retirement, Drysdale was the last remaining player on the Dodgers who had played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Don won three NL Player of the Month awards: June 1959 (6–0 record, 1.71 ERA, 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).
Sadly, on July 3, 1993 at the age of 56 and successful sports broadcaster, Don Drysdale died in Montreal Quebec of a heart attack, as a former teammate did years before, Now Hall of Famer, Gil Hodges.
The photo presented in our blog was the "newest release" of ManCave Pictures who wrote - "from 1956, a baby-faced #HallofFamer #Brooklyn #Dodgers #Rookie Don Drysdale at age 19. The 6'5" RHP was 5-5 for the NL Pennant winners, w/a very respectable 2.64 ERA. He then had 12 straight seasons of double-digit wins."
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