A SPORTY FAMILY : If Don Drysdale Jr. Takes After His Mom and Dad, He Figures to Be Natural in Basketball or Baseball

It wasn’t as though athletic superiority was a physical requirement in a marriage partner. It just happened to work out that way.

Ann Meyers’ athletic prowess in women’s basketball is legendary. Don Drysdale is a legend.

Nor was their betrothal part of a scientific experiment in the reproduction of herculean offspring--Drysdale is 6 feet 6 inches, Meyers 5-9. That just happens to be working out, too.

“Little D” is already sinking baseballs--OK, whiffleballs--through a basketball hoop, and his coordination is seemingly above average for a 16-month-old.

“We call him Donnie, but he is a junior (Don Drysdale Jr.),” said Drysdale in their Rancho Mirage home.

“He was born on my birthday (July 23) by accident--Donnie wasn’t an accident, just being born on my birthday was, the Lord did that--so it was kind of a built-in name. If he gets old enough and the Junior becomes too much of a hassle for him, well, then he can change it.”

The lineage is in Donnie’s favor. Drysdale’s father pitched in the minor leagues until he suffered a back injury. Meyers’ father played basketball for Marquette University and was drafted by the pro Milwaukee Shooting Stars, although he did not sign. Even Meyers’ grandfather played ball in the Chicago White Sox organization.

Meyers is so aware of the pressure to excel in sports that awaits Donnie, that she has already made an attempt to establish his separate identity. She calls him D.J.

“When I was pregnant, Doug Rader (the recently hired Angels’ manager) said to Don, ‘I want the runt of that litter,’ ” Meyers said.

“I am concerned about what D.J. may go through. When D.J. was born, Don’s daughter, Kelly, commented on the pressure he would unfortunately face from carrying the Drysdale name.”

Kelly is Drysdale’s only child from his former marriage to Ginger Drysdale, which ended in divorce.

There is not attempt, though, to downplay athletics. In fact, there are plenty of trophies and memorabilia, reminders of the athletic prowess of each, in their sprawling, 4-bedroom home on the Morningside Golf Course.

“We have more trophies and stuff in this closet, and even more in the attic,” Drysdale said. “We just don’t have room for all of it.”

A silent timeout is called in their office, located adjacent to Donnie’s room, where many special moments have been preserved in the squiggly writing on what seems like 100 baseballs: First win in Montreal, 4-27-55, 15-0 , 6 hits ; 7th home runs ties pitcher record for hits in 1 season, 1958 . And there’s a picture of Meyers, the first women to carry the U.S. flag, at the 1978 Pan American games in Puerto Rico.

Their treasures, however, are displayed in the den--the Broderick Cup that Meyers received in 1978 as the nation’s best female athlete; Drysdale’s 1962 Cy Young Award and Baseball Hall of Fame plaques.

Meyers may soon have another plaque to add. She has been nominated to the Basketball Hall of Fame. If she is accepted in February, she will be the first female basketball player to receive the honor.

“I was fortunate enough to be at Cooperstown when Don was inducted and it was a sight to behold,” Meyers said.

That moment, said Drysdale, was the biggest thrill of his career. Now, he says, he’s on pins and needles waiting to see if Annie makes it.

Both Meyers and Drysdale are broadcasters--he for the Dodgers, the team he starred for on the mound, she for Prime Ticket and the Z Channel as a commentator for men’s and women’s college basketball. They even share the same golf handicap, 11.

“I have to cheat to beat her,” Drysdale said. “. . . Annie and I kind of have the same personalities. Everything she has done in her life has been a first. She has been a leader in so many respects in women’s sports. But what’s amazing, if you look at the world, is that it is made up of a lot of followers. There are not many leaders.”

For son Donnie, or the next child--”God willing,” both say--these parents will be a tough act to follow. Playing Nintendo in the den while sitting under Drysdale’s Cy Young plaque could be a little intimidating. But there’s more to this couple than trophies.

Meyers, 30, is 1 of 11 children, the majority of whom get together every Christmas Eve at the house where Ann grew up, in La Habra. A local girl meets a local boy. Drysdale, 53, grew up in Van Nuys, an only child.

Most of Meyers’ family participated in sports, the best known of them Ann, brother Dave, a former UCLA basketball star who went on to the National Basketball Assn. with the Milwaukee Bucks, and sister Patti, the starting center on Cal State Fullerton’s 1970 national championship team.

Meyers was on the playground playing kickball back in 1968 when Howie Bedell singled off Drysdale to end his scoreless inning streak at 58 2/3--a major league record that lasted 20 years.

Just a typical Hollywood story. Sounds like a movie script. Hey, Danny DeVito!

When Meyers met Drysdale 9 years ago, she thought he was Don Meredith. He knew who she was--a 4-year All-American from UCLA, and the first woman to be drafted and given a tryout by an NBA team, the Indiana Pacers.

It was Dec., 1979, and Drysdale was in the Bahamas, along with Bob Uecker, to broadcast a “Superstar” competition for ABC-TV.

“I was playing for the New Jersey Gems in the Women’s Basketball League, and had just come from the Indiana Pacers when I was invited to compete in the Superstars,” Meyers said.

“I remember walking down one of the corridors and seeing my mom . . . talking to Don, and, I thought he was Don Meredith,” Meyers said. “I had no idea what Don had accomplished in his baseball career and had not heard of him as a broadcaster.”

Meyers finished fourth in the competition that year.

“Then she saw what kind of money they were giving away, and she trained and won it the next 3 years,” Drysdale bragged.

“You should see the first time she held a golf club. She made it look so easy. I was thinking, ‘Not this too.’ Then the pro came down and gave her a few pointers and all of a sudden, here I had been struggling with the game all my life, and she picks up the club and she’s halfway there.”

“What’s my problem now?” Meyers asked.

“That little guy in there,” Drysdale replied, pointing to Donnie’s room. “He talks during your backstroke.”

They were married in November, 1986, at Morningside Country Club.

“Ed Johnson (at Morningside) opened the club for us a week early so we could have the wedding,” Drysdale said.

Although they live a busy life, Meyers and Drysdale appear to do it simply. They don’t have a maid, a cook or even a once-a-week house cleaner. Not that they couldn’t use an agent--or even a secretary--because their phones never stop ringing.

“Let it ring, Annie,” Drysdale yells out while counting the rings. “It has to ring six times, then the fax machine picks up. Annie got that for me for a birthday present and it is the best.”

Drysdale is planning the annual charity golf tournament that he holds in January; Meyers is preparing for a Loyola men’s basketball game. She is frequently in touch with colleges, seeking information. And then, well, there are the family and friends, and laundry.

“It’s a challenge just to get this interview in,” Meyers said.

Meyers was one of the candidates for the Clippers’ radio commentary job for this season. She didn’t get it.

She has been turned down for other broadcasting jobs for various reasons--even told her hair is too short, or that her look is not quite right. Yet she has endured in a business where women are basically not welcome and has still been able to maintain the same outlook she had in 1979, when she was criticized by both men and women athletes and coaches for accepting the Pacers’ $50,000 offer for a tryout.

“Even though I didn’t get the Clipper job, just the fact that people in the business talk highly of me and that I have gained respect is important,” Meyers said.

“I gave it my best shot, and, like Don says, many times the decision is in somebody else’s hands. As long as you give it your best, there is nothing more you can do.

“After I was cut by the Pacers, people said I failed. But I didn’t fail. I did the best job I could do and I gave it my all.”

In 1981, Meyers said, she thought there would be more opportunities for women in basketball in the next 5 to 10 years, yet little has changed. She has been in the broadcasting business for 9 years, and still hasn’t cracked the top. But she credits her ability to persevere in the business to things she learned in sports.

“In high school, between my junior and senior years, I played in the boys’ summer basketball league and I wanted to try out for the boys’ high school team,” Meyers said. “But a lot of people talked me out of it, and if I were a boy that would not have happened.

“I think many times girls are not geared toward achievement and I believe sports has a lot to do with that. It has always been dominated by the male and you can see their energy in how they compete. Girls also need that trait in order to compete in the business world.”

It is somewhat of a mutual admiration society at the Drysdale house.

“Don decorated the house by himself,” Meyers says.

“Annie helped me decorate, I didn’t do it myself,” Drysdale says.

They are both used to leading, yet it seems to work.

“I’d rather have someone that says something than nothing,” Drysdale adds.

Their viewpoint on raising children and encouraging their participation also seems to be the same.

“The difference today is the emphasis on winning,” Drysdale said. “Unfortunately, parents, God bless them, are their own worst enemies. They put pressure on the kids to win and to succeed, and, sure you want to win, but you want to learn while you win.

“My advice is to let the kids play, let them have fun. I talked to a lot of athletes for a story recently and invariably the first thing they would tell me was to have fun while you are playing.

“The other day, somebody even asked me how they could teach their 8-year old to throw a curveball. I said, ‘Why would you want to teach an 8-year-old a curveball and hurt his arm? It could never be the same again. Let your child play the game. Maybe he will be a shortstop, maybe a great outfielder.’ ”

Added Meyers: “I don’t think the kids are learning today--not only the fundamentals of the game, but what the game is for--how to get along with kids, how to communicate with the coach. Sports is a base for what your life is all about, because once you get out of competing in sports, you have to learn how to get along with workers, your boss. . . .

”. . . We won’t force D.J. to do anything. We’ll encourage him, direct him, but let him choose to participate in whatever he wants.”