Known for being a fierce competitor, Drysdale won the Cy Young Award in 1962 and was a three-time World Series champion during his playing career.

He quickly made a reputation for himself as a brushback pitcher who was not afraid to pitch inside to batters in order to keep them off balance.

Drysdale was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984 and, the same year, had his number 53 retired by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After his playing career ended in 1969, Drysdale became a radio and television broadcaster until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1993.

His father was a repair supervisor for the Pacific Telephone and Telegraphy Company who had a brief minor league career before Drysdale was born.

[2] While he had played baseball since childhood, primarily as a second baseman, Drysdale only began to pitch during his senior year in high school; he posted a 10–1 record.

[3] Drysdale made his Major League debut on April 17, 1956, pitching a scoreless 9th inning in an 8–6 loss against the Philadelphia Phillies.

He made his first start on April 23, also against the Phillies, a complete game win in which he allowed only one run and struck out 9 batters.

[4] Drysdale, along with Dodgers teammate Sandy Koufax, served six months in the United States Army Reserve at Fort Dix, New Jersey and Van Nuys, California after the end of the 1957 season and before spring training in 1958.

You thought you were hot stuff being a major league pitcher, and then you went to Fort Dix and found out that it doesn't matter who you were.

In 1963, he struck out 251 batters and won Game 3 of the World Series at Los Angeles's Dodger Stadium over the Yankees, 1–0.

[3] In 1965, Koufax declined to pitch the first game of the World Series as it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

When Dodgers manager Walter Alston came to the mound to remove him from the game in the 3rd inning, Drysdale quipped, "Hey, skip, bet you wish I was Jewish today too.

Both wanted to be paid $500,000 over three seasons, but Dodgers' GM Buzzie Bavasi preferred to give them one-year contracts according to team policy.

After suffering a torn rotator cuff, Drysdale retired from Major League Baseball during the 1969 season, having made only 12 starts.

[20] In 1984, Drysdale called play-by-play with analysts Reggie Jackson and Earl Weaver for the National League Championship Series between the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs.

[21]In his last ABC assignment, Drysdale interviewed the winners in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse following Game 7 of the 1986 American League Championship Series against the California Angels.

[22] In 1985, for the Chicago White Sox, Drysdale broadcast Tom Seaver's 300th victory, against the host New York Yankees in 1985.

His post-game interview with Seaver was carried live by both the Sox' network and the Yankees' longtime flagship television station WPIX.

"[24] Drysdale also called Kirk Gibson's famous walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers Radio Network: Gibson a deep sigh, re-gripping the bat, shoulders just shrugged, now goes to the top of the helmet as he always does, steps in with that left foot.

The highlight of the series were numerous episodes dedicated to the memory and impact of Jackie Robinson as told by teammates, opponents and admirers.

Radio Baseball Cards aired on 38 stations, including WNBC New York, KSFO San Francisco and WEEI Boston, as a pre-game show.

[26] In 1958, Drysdale married Eula "Ginger" Dubberly, a native of Covington, Georgia, and a former Adrian fashion model.

[28] On July 2, 1993, Drysdale worked the television broadcast for the game between the Dodgers and the Montreal Expos at Olympic Stadium.

The cause of death was ruled to be a heart attack, and the coroner's report determined that Drysdale had been dead for at least eighteen hours by the time he was found.

[31][32] While this was going on, word reached Drysdale's former White Sox colleague Ken Harrelson as he was calling that evening's game against the Baltimore Orioles at Comiskey Park for WGN television.

[34] In the speech, Kennedy had noted, to the cheers of the crowd, that Drysdale had pitched his sixth straight shutout that evening.

[36] Drysdale's body was cremated and his ashes were placed in the Utility Columbarium in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.