Once a Bum, Always a Dodger: My Life in Baseball From Brooklyn to Los Angeles [SIGNED FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING] [VINTAGE 1990]

Drysdale, Don; Verdi, Bob

Published by St. Martin's Press, New York, 1990

About this Item

As new unread condition dark blue boards, navy blue cloth spine, and gold spine lettering contained in a fine condition non price-clipped color photographic dust jacket. Includes Index. Illustrated with a section of black-and-white photographic plates and photographic front and rear endpapers. Signed and inscribed by baseball Hall of Famer Don Drysdale with blue pen on the verso of the second free front half title page (see photographs). "When a tall, wide-eyed, hard-throwing rookie righthander first walked into the clubhouse of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he wasn't sure that he belonged there. Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Carl Furillo - these were the Bums, the pride of the Ebbets Field faithful, and the young pitcher from Van Nyys, California, had never seen baseball played quite like they played it. But Don Drysdale did belong, and he went on to a Hall of Fame career, winning 209 games for the Dodgers. Once a Bum, Always a Dodger is his warmly nostalgic and entertaining recollection of a life in baseball on both coasts. Beginning in 1956 - when the Dodgers won the National League championship, only to lose the World Series to Don Larsen and the New York Yankees - Drysdale evokes the special quality of baseball in Brooklyn: a magical relationship between a team and a city that would end in heartbreak. The controversial move to Los Angeles in 1958 marked the end of one era, as the Bums were dismantled by age and injury, and the beginning of another. The Los Angeles Dodgers were one of the dominant teams of the late 1950s and the 1960s, winning four pennants and three World Championships. Baseball in the West was a homecoming for Drysdale, and he starred with Sandy Koufax as the most dominant pair of pitchers in the National League. Anecdotes about Koufax (including the inside story of their famous joint holdout in 1966), Frank Howard, Johnny Podres, Walter Alston, and the other Dodgers spice Drysdale's honest and often humorous look at the fine art of pitching and intimidation. (He holds the National League record for hitting batters, and was known to throw a spitter or two.) After retiring in 1969, Don Drysdale became a successful broadcaster. His experiences in the booth - including a spirited chapter on his friend Howard Cosell - and his frank opinions on the game today round out a book that any red-or-Dodger-blue-blooded baseball fan will read with pleasure." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps.

Seller Inventory # 008737

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Once a Bum, Always a Dodger: My Life in Baseball From Brooklyn to Los Angeles [SIGNED FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING] [VINTAGE 1990]
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press, New York
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Freeman, Irving (jacket design)
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Signed and Inscribed