Once a Bum, Always a Dodger: My Life in Baseball from Brooklyn to Los Angeles [Hardcover]

Don Drysdale (Author), Bob Verdi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1990

Once A Bum, Always A Dodger: My Life In Baseball From Brooklyn To by Drysdale, Don With Bob Verdi

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drysdale joined the Dodgers in 1956, when most of the boys of summer were still on the team and "Dem Bums" were the pride of Flatbush. Although a California native, he was not pleased by the move to Los Angeles which necessitated playing baseball in a football stadium. But in the new ballpark, he and fellow pitcher Sandy Koufax helped make the team one of the strongest in the National League; he set a major league record (since eclipsed) for consecutive scoreless innings pitched. Assisted by Verdi ( McMahon! ), the outspoken former pitcher, who is now a radio-TV commentator, admits to using brushback pitches and the spitball. Drysdale's observations on the contemporary game and its players are scathing. Photos not seen by PW. 100,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Verdi, Chicago Tribune columnist and co-author of McMahon! (Warner, 1986) and Harry Caray's Holy Cow ! (Random, 1989), has given Drysdale his own voice in this nostalgic look at Drysdale's career with the Dodgers organization, and the nature of the changes in the game. Drysdale's colorful anecdotes and opinions make for an informative, enjoyable book, as he describes his teammates (e.g., Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snyder), his bosses (Buzzie Bavasi, Walter Alston, Walter O'Malley), his style (including his "mean" nature in protecting the plate and his use of the spitball), and his broadcasting career. Drysdale clearly has a great love for the game the way it used to be: Brooklyn and the old Dodgers made a powerful impression on him, and will on the reader, too. This belongs in all baseball collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/89.
- Robert Aken, Univ. of Kentucky Libs., Lexington
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (February 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312039026
• ISBN-13: 978-0312039028
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,199,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book for a true Drysdale fan., August 31, 2003

By 

Stephen Gill "dcssteve" (Berthoud, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Once a Bum, Always a Dodger: My Life in Baseball from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (Hardcover)

As a 1960s era Dodger and Drysdale fan, I found this book very interesting and entertaining. You follow Drysdale's career from a boy to becoming one of the most successful and aggressive pitchers of all time.

The 1960 era Dodgers were a very special team. They won by every player giving over 100 percent. Drysdale was no exception, throwing hard and doing everything to win. The Koufax / Drysdale pitching combo was death to batting averages.

Drysdale shares many of his experiences with Dodger management and players. I often found myself laughing as he related humorous events. It was a grand time in baseball. It was a time when players roomed together and socialized together. They lived baseball in way that is foreign to the players of today. It was also nice to find out the inside on many events that I had been curious about.

I with a book like this you hope to read about many of the Dodger players. However, Drysdale's stories involve only his closest friends on the club and management. Even with that limitation, it was wonderful to read the stories about Gill Hodges, Duke Snider and others.

He did waste a chapter on Howard Cosell at the end of the book. He and Howard were friends and I think he wanted to present the other side of Cosell. Although Howard may have been a cool guy, he was never a good sports announcer.

If you liked Don Drysdale you should enjoy this book. After reading it, I wish I could have met him. This was a perfect title. Once a Bum (Brooklyn Dodger) Always a Dodger - and that he was for his whole career.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Big D takes the mound one last time, September 7, 2006

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Once a Bum, Always a Dodger: My Life in Baseball from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (Hardcover)

Back in my teenage years, and mainly from 1962-67, I was a huge Los Angeles Dodgers fan, listening to every game that I could on my transistor radio. My chief heroes were hurlers Sandy Koufax and Don "The Big D" Drysdale, in that order. The most highly anticipated game day was one featuring a double-header in which both pitchers started. The ultimate delight was hearing both record a victory. Drysdale died in 1993 at age 56. His book, ONCE A BUM, ALWAYS A DODGER had been published 3 years before. For me, reading it only now, it represents The Big D's last walk to the mound.

This volume is Don's memoir of his time as a (Brooklyn) Dodger beginning in 1956 to his retirement from the (Los Angeles) Dodgers in 1969 and his subsequent career as a sportscaster.

Though California born and raised, Drysdale's biggest thrill in life was putting on the Brooklyn uniform, and that New York borough remained his sentimental professional home for the rest of his career. He remembers with fondness the Brooklyn greats with whom he first played, some of whom made the move to Los Angeles: Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Sal Maglie, Carl Furillo, Don Newcombe, and Duke Snider. Oddly, he has relatively little or nothing to say about the next generation of players whom I followed over the airwaves in Chavez Ravine: Maury Wills, Tommy and Willie Davis, Ron Fairly, Jim Brewer, Ron Perranoski, Claude Osteen, Johnny Roseboro, Jeff Torborg, Jim Lefebvre, Wes Parker, Dick Tracewski, and Lou Johnson. Sandy Koufax, of course, gets big mention inasmuch as it was Sandy and Don that joined forces for the infamous Great Holdout before the 1966 season. But, even then, I didn't sense that The Big D and Dandy Sandy were that close, not because either was overtly unfriendly, but because Koufax was (and is) a supremely private person. At one point Drysdale writes:

"I don't know if Sandy enjoyed watching me pitch, but I sure as hell enjoyed watching him do his thing. He was something."

The most useful personal insights, such as they are, are pretty much limited to Manager Walter Alston, General Manager Buzzie Bavasi, and Dodger owner Walter O'Malley during Drysdale's playing era, and to Vin Scully and Howard Cosell during his broadcasting years. But, even here, there's not much meat.

The book includes a 16-page section of photographs, but it lacks even a rudimentary section on Don's throwing statistics covering his 13-year major league career, though there is an entire chapter - "The Scoreless Streak" - dedicated to his most memorable achievement, the 58 2/3 innings of scoreless ball pitched in 1968.

The reader might be left with the impression that The Big D's life was without bumps. Therefore, I found refreshing his last chapter admission to and brief discussion about the failure of his 24-year marriage to his first wife Ginger. Indeed, it was only at this late point that I discovered the man to be human and his story retrospectively engaging. Nevertheless, Drysdale remains a larger-than-life figure in the endless summer of my adolescence.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A GOOD LOOK AT THE TWIN D'S, May 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Once a Bum, Always a Dodger: My Life in Baseball from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (Hardcover)

DON DRYSDALE DOES A NICE JOB OF TELLING HIS LIFE AND CAREER. HE REALLY DOESN'T GO INTO GREAT DEAL ABOUT HIS PRIVATE LIFE BUT THAT IS HIS RIGHT OF PRIVACY. HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH SAL MAGLIE, SANDY KOUFAX, AND WALTER ALSTON ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS BOOK. I WISH HE WOULD HAVE GONE INTO MORE DETAIL ABOUT HIS CAREER AND GAME SITUATIONS HE WAS IN. BUT OVERALL A GOOD READ FOR DODGER AND FANS OF THE TWIN D'S.