Remembering Don Drysdale, Van Nuys High's Most Famous Sports Alumnus
Although Drysdale was a star pitcher for the Dodgers who made it to the Hall of Fame, he never turned his back on his old friends or his community, '50s classmates say.
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The world knew Don Drysdale as a tall, intimidating pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers who was never afraid to throw inside.
Dick Yoxall and John Pemberton, Drysdale's former classmates at Van Nuys High School in the 1950s, first knew him as a chubby little 9-year-old—and as a second baseman.
"We called him 'Porky,' " Yoxall said from his home in Napa, CA. "He didn't start pitching until his junior year."
Yoxall played baseball for Van Nuys High—still the main public school for Sherman Oaks residents—on the same team as Drysdale, the school's most famous sports alumnus (excluding onetime cheerleader Marilyn Monroe).
By the time he reached high school, Drysdale had grown into his body.
"He was a normal kid, kind of big, tall," said Pemberton, now living in West Hils. "He didn't look too porky to me."
Lifelong friendship
Yoxall and Drysdale were best friends. "We were best men at each other's first wedding," Yoxall said.
They stayed in touch over the years until Drysdale died on July 3, 1993, in Montreal.
In the spring of 2004, Yoxall and Pemberton attended a campus ceremony renaming the Van Nuys High baseball diamond the Don Drysdale Memorial Baseball Field.
Drysdale, born July 23, 1936, grew up around baseball. His father, Scott, coached American Legion league teams. His father didn't want him to wear out his arm by pitching too many innings, so Drysdale also played second base.
Jim Heffer was a star pitcher at that time, along with Drysdale. In 1953, Drysdale's junior season, Van Nuys faced Fairfax, featuring pitcher and future Dodger Larry Sherry, in the City Section quarterfinals. Yoxall said it was Drysdale's turn to pitch, but his coach went with another pitcher on two or three days' rest.
Drysdale was visibly annoyed, Yoxall said, and when Fairfax got off to a big lead, Drysdale relieved and shut down Fairfax over the last innings. But by then it was too late, and Fairfax won.
Drysdale also was on the football team as a quarterback.
The little rascals
Like a lot of teenagers, Drysdale had a bit of a mischievous streak. He worked at the local Piggly Wiggly maret, Yoxall recalled, and would sometimes snatch a beer or two for his friends to find behind the store.
"That's a good friend, isn't it?" Yoxall said.
Drysdale was Van Nuys High's No. 1 pitcher in 1954, and he led the team, the Wolves, to the city final, where they lost, 8-1, to Dorsey High.
The Dodgers signed Drysdale and sent him to minor league teams in Bakersfield, CA, and Montreal before putting him on the Brooklyn roster in 1956.
Yoxall and Pemberton disagree on how the right-handed Drysdale came to throw sidearm. Pemberton said Drysdale learned the throwing motion in Bakersfield; Yoxall said Drysdale's Brooklyn roommate, Sal "the Barber" Maglie, influenced him.
Drysdale's star gets bigger
As Drysdale flourished, his friends watched with pride and awe.
"Every time he pitched, you'd listen on the radio or ... watch it on TV," Yoxall said. "You rooted for him, and you kind of lived each pitch through him."
Drysdale didn't lose track of his friends. If they needed money to buy kids baseball uniforms or were looking for someone to speak at a function, Drysdale would come through for them, they said.
Drysdale used to host meetings at his restaurant on Oxnard Street in Van Nuys, Pemberton said, and from those meetings came donations for uniforms.
"He was the name that drew people," Pemberton said. "If it was me who was the featured speaker, the meeting would have been in a phone booth in the rain."
Also, if his friends wanted tickets to a game, Drysdale made sure to provide them, Yoxall said. That was how Yoxall came to be sitting in the right-field bleachers at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 5, 1963—the day Drysdale pitched a three-hit shutout to win Game 3 of the World Series, 1-0, on the way to the Dodgers sweeping the New York Yankees.
"That was quite memorable for me," Yoxall said.
When the Dodgers moved west and played temporarily in the Los Angeles Coliseum, Drysdale didn't like it, Yoxall said. His won-loss record was 57-50 in those years with a 3.50 earned run average.
Home sweet home
It was at Dodger Stadium that Drysdale found success. He won the Cy Young Award in 1962 after going 25-9 with a 2.84 ERA and a career-best 251 strikeouts.
Drysdale's career ended on Aug. 5, 1969, due to a torn rotator cuff. He finished with a record of 209 wins and 166 losses, with a 2.95 ERA, 2,486 strikeouts, 167 complete games, 49 shutouts—and 154 hit batters, a record that still stands. He was a good hitter, too. Drysdale ranks sixth among all Major League pitchers, with 29 career home runs.
"I don't think anybody would have guessed he would be a Major League pitcher and home-run hitter," Yoxall said.
Most notably, "Big D," as he became known, hurled 58 consecutive scoreless innings, a record that stood for 20 years. When Orel Hershiser broke the record, Drysdale met him in the dugout.
Drysdale was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, his 12th year on the ballot. Incidentally, the Volkswagen Beetle race car from the Disney movie "Herbie the Love Bug" was given No. 53 in honor of Drysdale, who wore that number.
Through the years, it became more difficult for Yoxall, living in Napa, to see his old friend, who lived in Palm Springs.
But they often would meet up when Drysdale came to the Bay Area as an announcer for Montreal, Texas, the Chicago White Sox and eventually the California Angels (1973-79, '81) and Dodgers (1988-93).
"I lived my life through Drysdale," Yoxall said. "We all wanted to be Major League Baseball players, and I had a friend who was one."
