Drysdale’s Opening Pitch Homers

Several pitchers are cursed with the unfortunate memory of allowing a home run on their very first pitch on Opening Day. But Don Drysdale managed to top them all. On April 7, 1969, as the Los Angeles Dodgers opened the season against the Cincinnati Reds, Drysdale, their ace, took the mound in his 14th year as a big league pitcher. Though he’d pitched on many Opening Days before, none began in more disastrous fashion than this one. Pete Rose was the first batter Drysdale faced. He glanced at catcher Tom Haller for the sign, wound up, and threw the first pitch of the new season. But the ball never made it to Haller. Rose pounced on it, launching the pitch over the left-field fence for a home run. Drysdale muttered to himself, clearly frustrated: “Well, this is a hell of a way to start the year.” But the nightmare didn’t end there. The very next batter, Bobby Tolan, stepped into the box. Drysdale, clearly rattled, threw another fastball. Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t fast enough. Tolan crushed it into the right-field bleachers for another homer. Amazingly, Drysdale’s first two pitches of the season were both sent out of the park. Even more surprising was that neither Rose nor Tolan had hit a single home run during spring training. Despite the early chaos, Drysdale found his rhythm and held the Reds scoreless for the rest of the game, allowing the Dodgers to secure a 3-2 victory. After the game, when asked if he was surprised by the back-to-back homers, Drysdale’s response was blunt: “Let’s just say they woke me up real quick. No one has ever started a season like that before.”

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