Don Drysdale carried a cassette of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 primary victory speech, in which RFK congratulated him on a scoreless-innings milestone, for 25 years. The towering Dodger did not pitch until his senior year of high school, then weaponized an intimidating sidearm delivery.

This deep dive covers his Big D persona and record hit batsmen, the 1966 joint holdout with Sandy Koufax that shook baseball’s economics, a historic 1968 scoreless-innings streak, a career-ending rotator cuff tear, and a celebrated broadcasting second act.

• Won the 1962 Cy Young Award with 25 wins
• Set a modern NL record by hitting 154 batters over his career
• Staged a landmark 1966 salary holdout with Koufax, topping 100,000 dollars each
• Threw six straight shutouts and over 58 scoreless innings in 1968
• Died of a heart attack in 1993; Vin Scully broke the news on air