In the fall of 1957, then-Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale, 20, found out via an early morning phone call from team General Manager Buzzie Bavasi that he had to enter into a six-month program with the U.S. Army Reserves or else he would be drafted into military service. Drysdale, along with Dodgers teammate Sandy Koufax, was destined to spend the next half a year in the U.S. Army Reserves at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
In his book entitled “Once a Bum, Always a Dodger,” Drysdale wrote: “Those six months were good for me. When you wake up at three-thirty every morning, and you realize that some of your buddies are just getting in back home, it you a lot of discipline. The service should be mandatory for every kid in America. 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. There were no exceptions.”
This lot features the U.S. Army field jacket that Drysdale wore during his time in basic training. The jacket shows considerable wear with some staining and spotting throughout and a few small rips. The front of the jacket sports four different pockets; inside the left breast pocket an empty pack of Tareyton cigarettes was found. Above that same pocket is a black-and-gold “U.S. ARMY” patch, while just above the right breast pocket is a sewn-on white identification tag in black lettering: “DRYSDALE.” The left sleeve of the jacket boasts an embroidered, sewn-on, red-white-and-black “A” patch. His length of service, according to his Armed Forces of the United States identification card featured in a separate lot, ran from October 11, 1957, to April 5, 1958.
Includes LOA from the Drysdale Family.