American Memory at Library of Congress - A Real Treasure

This was taken from the American Memory site

at the Library of Congress, a real treasure of baseball history

Branch Rickey's Scouting Report on

Don Drysdale, 15 June 1954

Wesley Branch Rickey (1881-1965), major league baseball manager and executive, was associated over a long career with the St. Louis Browns, St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Pittsburgh Pirates. While with the Dodgers in 1947, as president, general manager, and co-owner, he brought Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) into the major leagues, the first black player to be admitted. For this Branch Rickey was hailed as "baseball's emancipator." Throughout his career he was known for his recognition of baseball talent and its subsequent development, especially through the farm system which he had pioneered. He joined the Pittsburgh organization relatively late in life, but on the evidence of his 1954 scouting report on the eighteen-year- old Don (Donald S.) Drysdale (1936-1993), his baseball instincts were as sharp as ever.

Rickey wrote that Drysdale had "a lot of artistry" and a fastball that was "really good" and "way above average." He deemed the young pitcher "a definite prospect." That Drysdale went on to meet and even exceed Rickey's opinion of him is beyond question. He never played for the Pirates, however. As the handwritten annotation at the bottom of the report indicates, Drysdale signed with the Dodgers, for whom his father was a scout. He then spent his entire major league career of fourteen years with the Dodgers franchise, first in Brooklyn and then in Los Angeles. He led the National League in strikeouts three years and won the Cy Young Award as the best pitcher in baseball in 1962. He was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1984. Branch Rickey had preceded him there in 1967.

This was taken from the American Memory site
at the Library of Congress, a real treasure of baseball history