HIT MAN

From obscurity to the major leagues in three years, Don Drysdale’s career took off like one of his intimidating fastballs.

Drysdale was an average 5-foot-7 second baseman at Van Nuys High before growing well over six feet before his senior season in 1954 and becoming a dominant pitcher.

But Doug MacKenzie, former baseball coach at Canoga Park, recalled another part of Drysdale’s game.

“I told scouts he was a better hitter than a pitcher,” MacKenzie said.

Drysdale hit 29 career home runs in 14 seasons with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, including seven each in 1958 and 1965. It wasn’t his bat that made him a Hall of Famer.

The 6-foot-6 right-hander got to Cooperstown in 1984 on the strength of a 209-166 career record, 2.95 earned-run average and a marvelous consistency that reached a zenith with a record streak of 58 2/3 scoreless innings in 1968.

Orel Hershiser of the Dodgers surpassed the mark with 59 innings in 1988.

Drysdale won the National League Cy Young award in 1962, when he had a major-league best 25-9 record, a 2.83 ERA and led the majors with 232 strikeouts. In the early 1960s, Drysdale and Sandy Koufax formed the most formidable pitching tandem in baseball and the game’s first unofficial labor union.

After helping the Dodgers defeat Minnesota, four games to three, in the 1965 World Series, Drysdale and Koufax staged a joint holdout. Each wanted a $500,000 three-year contract, but the club held firm. They signed one-year contracts, Koufax for $130,000 and Drysdale for $105,000.

“We never really expected [three-year contracts] anyway,” Drysdale said.

That was quite a ransom for someone who signed with the Dodgers for a $2,200 bonus after graduating from Van Nuys in 1954. Drysdale was 5-5 with a 2.64 ERA for Brooklyn in his rookie season.

Throughout his career, Drysdale lived in Van Nuys and Hidden Hills and was a partner in a Van Nuys restaurant, Don Drysdale’s Dugout, from 1962 to 1982.

He retired after the 1969 season because of shoulder problems and became a broadcaster.

On the mound, Drysdale proudly perpetuated the roguish disposition of many major league pitchers, who believed they owned the inside of the plate. He intimidated batters, knocking them down with “chin music” or drilling them.

When Drysdale joined Brooklyn, he learned to pitch aggressively by watching Sal “The Barber” Maglie, who closely “shaved” plenty of hitters.

“My own little rule was two for one,” Drysdale said. “If one of my teammates got knocked down, then I knocked down two on the other team.”

The take-no-prisoners style was part of his legacy, although Drysdale was known for his warmth and kindness off the field.

Drysdale died at 56 of an apparent heart attack in 1993 in Montreal where he was broadcasting a Dodger series with the Expos. Hundreds packed his funeral to remember the man they knew as “Big D.”

His widow, Ann Meyers, a former UCLA basketball All-American, Olympian and Hall of Famer, asked several of Drysdale’s friends to speak. None explained the pitcher’s competitive spirit better than Bob Uecker, the zany broadcaster and former major league catcher, who worked with Drysdale at ABC Sports.

“Don first touched me in 1961 . . . right here,” Uecker said, pointing to his neck. “I was even brushed back by Don getting off a bus in Vero Beach.

“You didn’t have to be in uniform to be brushed back.”

And you didn’t have to be shaking in your cleats to realize the impact Drysdale made in the national pastime.