WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1960S STARS OF THE GAME: DON SUTTON

Today on the blog, we spotlight my 1960 "Stars of the Game" card for "Double-D" Don Drysdale, Hall of Fame pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers:

Though retiring at such a young age, Drysdale still collected 209 wins along with a 2.95 earned run average and 2486 strikeouts.
Imagine if he were able to pitch another three or four years. Would we be looking at a 300-win guy? Most assuredly a 3000 strikeout pitcher for sure.
Nevertheless, his accomplishments in such a short time were good enough for the BBWAA to elect him into the Hall of Fame in 1984, joining old teammate Sandy Koufax and eventually joined by Don Sutton.
Drysdale took home the Cy Young in 1962 while pacing the Senior Circuit in wins, starts, innings and strikeouts, while also posting one of his NINE sub-3.00 ERA campaigns.
Tough as nails when on the mound, he was named to eight All-Star Games, and of course had that magical run in 1968 when he threw 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, including six straight shutouts.

 

A REDO OF ONE OF MY OWN: 1970 DON DRYSDALE CAREER CAPPER

On the blog today, I never realized that I forgot to post here my redone 1970 Career Capper for "Double-D" Don Drysdale, for my Series 11 set released back in October of 2022:

This image made much more sense than the one I used when I first created such a card back in 2014, with this image a nice posed shot of the feared slinger at the end of his career.

Though retiring at such a young age, Drysdale still collected 209 wins along with a 2.95 earned run average and 2486 strikeouts.
Imagine if he were able to pitch another three or four years. Would we be looking at a 300-win guy? Most assuredly a 3000 strikeout pitcher for sure.
Nevertheless, his accomplishments in such a short time were good enough for the BBWAA to elect him into the Hall of Fame in 1984, joining old teammate Sandy Koufax and eventually joined by Don Sutton.
Drysdale took home the Cy Young in 1962 while pacing the Senior Circuit in wins, starts, innings and strikeouts, while also posting one of his NINE sub-3.00 ERA campaigns.
Tough as nails when on the mound, he was named to eight All-Star Games, and of course had that magical run in 1968 when he threw 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, including six straight shutouts.

 

SPECIAL REQUEST: DO-OVER FOR MY 1971 "MINOR LEAGUE DAYS" DON DRYSDALE: LEGENDS EDITION

We card collectors can be quite the fickle bunch!

And today is a good example, as I go and "fix" a card that has bugged me ever since I originally created it, my 1971 "Minor League Days" card for Don Drysdale, which I originally designed as part of the "current player" set, that is, with some color elements, with today's version the more appropriate "Legends Edition" black and white design, which is how it should have been created in the first place:

"Big D" retired at a young 32 years of age, and it's fun imagining his career extending into the mid-70's or so, something we didn't get to see.

The fresh-faced 18-year-old you see here on this card went 11-11 for the Montreal Royals, posting an ERA of 3.33 over 173 innings, with three shutouts and only 80 strikeouts.

He'd make his MLB debut in 1956 and show the Brooklyn faithfull what he was capable of, going 5-5 with a very nice 2.64 ERA over 99 innings of work, completing two of his 12 starts while relieving in another 13 games for the eventual N.L. champs.

He'd go one to become a true ace, posting double-digit wins every full year of his career, making eight All-Star teams, taking home the Cy Young Award in 1962, and posting seven seasons of sub-3.00 ERAs.

Though he did eventually make the Hall of Fame, he retired with a 209-166 career record, a 2.95 earned run average and 2486 strikeouts. Excellent numbers of course, but arguably borderline stats for the Hall (think Jack Morris, Luis Tiant, etc).
So imagine if he was able to tack on some more wins and maybe even reach 3000 strikeouts, which at the time of his retirement only the great Walter Johnson had done in Major League history.
The man WAS a beast though, intimidating batters along contemporary hurler Bob Gibson like few before or since, five times leading the National League in plunked batsmen, just to let them know who was boss.
Love guys like that!
Only wish we would have been able to see him pitch more, and more importantly regale us with stories a lot longer than his short 56 years, shockingly passing away in 1993.

MISSING IN ACTION: 1965 WORLD SERIES GAME 4

On the blog today, we move on to Game 4 of the 1965 World Series, which was left out of the 1966 Topps set for some reason:

The Los Angeles Dodgers came back to tie the Series up two games apiece after the Twins stunned everyone, taking the first two games for a commanding lead.

Thanks to pitcher Don Drysdale, who took the Game 1 loss, the Dodgers won Game 4 7-2, with Drysdale throwing a complete game, striking out 11 batters while walking two.

Wes Parker and Lou Johnson hit solo homers for the Dodgers, while Ron Fairly drove in three runs, giving Drysdale all the support he needed.

For the Twins, opening game winner Jim "Mudcat" Grant took the loss, giving up five runs in five innings, while Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva hit homers in the losing cause.

Next up, game 5!

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS: DON DRYSDALE

As a favor to my buddy Eric, today on the blog I went and created a 1971 "Minor League Days" fantasy card for former Los Angeles Dodgers great Don Drysdale, who retired a couple of years earlier:

"Big D" retired at a young 32 years of age, and it's fun imagining his career extending into the mid-70's or so, something we didn't get to see.

The fresh-faced 18-year-old you see here on this card went 11-11 for the Montreal Royals, posting an ERA of 3.33 over 173 innings, with three shutouts and only 80 strikeouts.

He'd make his MLB debut in 1956 and show the Brooklyn faithfull what he was capable of, going 5-5 with a very nice 2.64 ERA over 99 innings of work, completing two of his 12 starts while relieving in another 13 games for the eventual N.L. champs.

He'd go one to become a true ace, posting double-digit wins every full year of his career, making eight All-Star teams, taking home the Cy Young Award in 1962, and posting seven seasons of sub-3.00 ERAs.

Though he did eventually make the Hall of Fame, he retired with a 209-166 career record, a 2.95 earned run average and 2486 strikeouts. Excellent numbers of course, but arguably borderline stats for the Hall (think Jack Morris, Luis Tiant, etc).
So imagine if he was able to tack on some more wins and maybe even reach 3000 strikeouts, which at the time of his retirement only the great Walter Johnson had done in Major League history.
The man WAS a beast though, intimidating batters along contemporary hurler Bob Gibson like few before or since, five times leading the National League in plunked batsmen, just to let them know who was boss.
Love guys like that!
Only wish we would have been able to see him pitch more, and more importantly regale us with stories a lot longer than his short 56 years, shockingly passing away in 1993.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK-1968: DON DRYSDALE'S INCREDIBLE SHUTOUT STREAK

Next up in my on-going “Turn Back the Clock” series is 1968 and Don Drysdale’s amazing shutout streak, a record that remained intact until another Dodger pitcher, Orel Hershiser, topped it exactly 20 years later:

Drysdale was coming towards the end of his Hall of Fame career in 1968 because of a chronically sore shoulder, but in May & June of 1968 he was just incredible, tossing six straight shutouts, on his way to 58 2/3 shutout innings pitched, topping Walter Johnson’s 55 2/3 innings in 1913.
Ironically, just about as Drysdale’s streak was ending, one of the other longest such streaks began, as St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher Bob Gibson began a 47-inning stretch of shutout ball that encompassed the entire month of June.
Drysdale would finish the season with a record of 14-12, with a 2.15 earned run average and eight shutouts over 31 starts, 12 of them completed.
The following year, because of his constant shoulder pain, Drysdale decided to retire after going 5-4 with a 4.45 E.R.A. over 12 games, finishing his career with 209 wins and a very nice 2.95 E.R.A., with 49 shutouts and 2486 strikeouts in 14 Major League seasons.

FANTASY 1972 MIA-MIA: DON DRYSDALE

Thus completing my “fantasy” run of Don Drysdale cards, today I post the “missing” In-Action card for the 1972 set that would accompany the 1972 card I created for him a couple weeks ago:

As stated earlier in the other post, I wonder what his career numbers would have been had he played into the 1970’s.
Would he have been the second 3000-strikeout pitcher after Walter Johnson? Could he have reached 250 wins?
Sadly it wasn’t meant to be as he left the game after the 1969 season, just one year removed from his record-breaking scoreless streak that saw him set a record that wouldn’t be matched until another Los Angeles Dodger, Orel Hershiser, would come along in 1988.

1972 FANTASY CARD- DON DRYSDALE

Here’s the last of my Don Drysdale “Fantasy Cards” where I wondered what his cards would have looked like had he been able to play more than his relatively short 14-year career that spanned between 1956 and 1969:

Drysdale, though he did eventually make the Hall of Fame, retired with a 209-166 career record, with a 2.95 earned run average and 2486 strikeouts. Excellent numbers of course, but arguably borderline stats for the Hall (think Jack Morris, Luis Tiant, etc).
So imagine if he was able to tack on some more wins and maybe even reach 3000 strikeouts, which at the time of his retirement only the great Walter Johnson had done in Major League history.
The man WAS a beast though, intimidating batters along contemporary hurler Bob Gibson like few before or since, five times leading the National League in plunked batsmen, just to let them know who was boss.
Love guys like that!
Only wish we would have been able to see him pitch more, and more importantly regale us with stories a lot longer than his short 56 years, shockingly passing away in 1993.
“Big D”, Don Drysdale.

FANTASY 1971 DON DRYSDALE CARD

A long while back in the beginning of this blog I created a “career-capping” 1970 card for Don Drysdale, also imagining if the star righthander didn’t retire at the young age of 32.
Today I go one year further and create a fantasy 1971 card for “Double-D”:

Though retiring at such a young age, Drysdale still collected 209 wins along with a 2.95 earned run average and 2486 strikeouts.
Imagine if he were able to pitch another three or four years. Would we be looking at a 300-win guy? Most assuredly a 3000 strikeout pitcher for sure.
Nevertheless, his accomplishments in such a short time were good enough for the BBWAA to elect him into the Hall of Fame in 1984, joining old teammate Sandy Koufax and eventually joined by Don Sutton.
Drysdale took home the Cy Young in 1962 while pacing the Senior Circuit in wins, starts, innings and strikeouts, while also posting one of his NINE sub-3.00 ERA campaigns.
Tough as nails when on the mound, he was named to eight All-Star Games, and of course had that magical run in 1968 when he threw 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, including six straight shutouts.

1975 "CY YOUNG AWARD" SUB-SET: WHAT IF? 1962

The Dodgers and Yankees had the Most Valuable Players in their respective leagues in 1962, and if the people at SABR have anything to do with it, the two teams would also have the Cy Young winners as well.

As we all know, Dodger great Don Drysdale went on to win the award that season, when it was only given to one pitcher instead of one in each league.

But according to a great article from 1993 in a SABR journal, the consensus winner in the American League would have been Yankee pitcher Ralph Terry.

First take a look at my card design for the 1962 entry in my imagined 1975 sub-set:

For Terry, he finally seemed to put it all together in 1962 after six seasons in the big leagues, going 23-12 with a 3.19 earned run average in a league-leading 39 starts.

The previous year he had his first truly successful year in the big leagues, going 16-3 for the Yanks. But it was 1962 that would be the pinnacle of his 12 year career.

In addition to the stats mentioned, he also led the American League in innings pitched with 298.2, getting him selected for his only All-Star game and a 14th-place finish in M.V.P. voting at the end of the year.

He would also end up being voted most valuable player of the World Series, as he won two games against the San Francisco Giants, most importantly, a 1-0 shutout win in Game 7 with Willie McCovey famously lining out to second baseman Bobby Richardson with the winning runs on base.

This would atone for his "other" well known World Series moment: giving up Bill Mazeroski's 7th-game/ninth-inning home run to win the series for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960.

Terry would wind up his career after the 1967 season with the New York Mets, posting a 107-99 record with a 3.62 E.R.A in 257 starts and 338 games.

As for the actual winner of the Cy Young in 1962, Don Drysdale, he was already a feared star on the mound for the Dodgers by the time he really got it all together in '62.

But that year he was simply awesome, posting a leading 25-9 record with a 2.83 E.R.A. and a league-leading 232 strikeouts over 41 starts (also tops in the N.L.).

Though the Dodgers fell just short of the World Series that year, they'd be vindicated the following year with the arrival of one of the all-time best one-two punches on a Major League mound: Drysdale and the emergence of a guy named Sandy Koufax (you'll be seeing a lot of his on this thread over the next few weeks!).

The Dodgers would go on to sweep the Yankees in the World Series in 1963, but Drysdale would be taking a back-seat to Koufax as the ace of the Dodger staff.

But 1962 would be Drysdale's year, easily distancing from the rest of the pack in Cy Young voting, getting 14 of 20 votes to beat out Giants pitcher Jack Sanford.

By the time "Big D" was done, he'd retire at the young age of 32 with a 209 and 166 record, 49 shutouts, a 2.95 E.R.A.,  and 2486 strikeouts.

It took him a while, but he finally got voted into the Hall of Fame in 1984, though many consider him a borderline Hall of Fame member at best (like Catfish Hunter among others).

Next up, 1963 and the beginning of the "Sandy Koufax Era". The man was simply unstoppable from 1963 through 1966.

If only we could have seen him pitch into the 1970's. Boy oh boy…

In the A.L., it was pretty clear that the winner would have been Whitey Ford had they given the award for both leagues at the time.

See you then…

RANDOM QUICKIE: DON DRYSDALE'S APPEARANCE IN THE 1970'S

A while back I created a "Career Capper" 1970-style card for the late Dodger pitching great Don Drysdale, wishing Topps would have had a card for him post-retirement in that year's set.

Well it turns out Drysdale did indeed make an appearance in the 1970's,  on the Dodgers team card from 1970, #411.

The "Big D" on the right, #53.

 

That's the "Big D" on the extreme right side, middle row glaring at the photographer.

A nice little surprise I never knew about, and has me now scanning team cards from the decade looking for players I never realized were included in team shots, whether they be already-retired players or guys that switched teams over the off-season (like the Reggie Jackson appearance on the 1977 Orioles team card I profiled earlier on this blog).

I'll be posting more of these little gems in the future, so if you're into this type of stuff keep an eye out for them.

"CAREER CAPPER" # 7: 1970 DON DRYSDALE

We've often heard talk about how Don Drysdale was one of those "marginal" Hall of Fame inductees. And while I've wavered on that topic from time to time, what always struck me was that Drysdale retired from the game at a young 32 years of age, yet posted some solid numbers.

Sporting a 209-166 career record with 2486 strikeouts and 49 shutouts by your 32nd birthday isn't all too shabby, and I always wondered what his career stats could have been had he pitched into his mid 30's.

Hall of Fame worthy? I can't really say either way. But he was a dominating pitcher for a big-time organization, teaming up with Sandy Koufax to form one of the all-time kick-ass one-two punches in baseball history.

Also, along with Bob Gibson, Drysdale's fierceness on the mound is legendary. A great quote on his "Baseball-Reference" page states: "He started the game mad, and would hit two of theirs for one of ours…". 

How can you NOT love that? I don't think many players today would be able to deal with a competitor like "Big D". He was one mean dude who controlled his games. HE was the boss when he was on that mound.

Anyway, on a more selfish (collecting) note, it would have been cool to have Don Drysdale cards well into the 1970's as a kid growing up.

But at least I can design a card for him after his final season that just gets him into the decade: a 1970 Don Drysdale "career capper" card.

I went with a nice photo of him peering in for the sign, looking as intimidating as ever on the mound. Classic Drysdale…

"Big D" looking in...