Today is the 49th solar anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s victory in the California primary and his subsequent assassination. What an intense up and down day! I listened to the live broadcast of his victory speech — in which he commended Don Drysdale, who that evening had broken the record for pitching consecutive scoreless innings. A few minutes later he was shot and killed. That was also broadcast live. I listened to it all from my cabin on Dry Creek Road in Napa County. The end of a dream.
The record was 55 2/3, by Walter Johnson. Drysdale reached 56 that night and ended up with 58 in his next game, a record that was later surpassed by Orel Hershiser, who reached 59 with Drysdale calling the game from the broadcast booth.
On September 28, 1988, fellow Dodger Orel Hershiser surpassed Drysdale when Hershiser finished the season with a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings pitched. In his final start of the year, Hershiser needed to pitch 10 shutout innings to set the mark – meaning not only that he would have to prevent the San Diego Padres from scoring, but that his own team would also need to fail to score in order to ensure extra innings. The Dodgers’ anemic offense obliged, and Hershiser pitched the first 10 innings of a scoreless tie, with the Padres eventually prevailing 2–1 in 16 innings. Hershiser almost did not pitch in the 10th inning, in deference to Drysdale, but was convinced to take the mound and try to break the record. When Hershiser broke Drysdale’s record, Drysdale came onto the field to hug him, and said, ‘Oh, I’ll tell ya, congratulations… And at least you kept it in the family.’
Drysdale also called Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers Radio Network:
‘Well, the crowd is on its feet and if there was ever a preface to “Casey at the Bat” it would have to be the ninth inning. Two out. The tying run aboard, the winning run at the plate, and Kirk Gibson, standing at the plate. Eckersley working out of the stretch, here’s the three-two pitch…and a drive hit to right field (losing voice) WAY BACK! THIS BALL IS GONE! (followed by two minutes of crowd noise) This crowd will not stop! They can’t believe the ending! And this time, Mighty Casey did NOT strike out!!!!’
Drysdale died of a heart attack in a Montreal hotel* on July 3, 1993. He was 56.
“Among the personal belongings found in Drysdale’s hotel room was a cassette tape of Robert F. Kennedy’s victory speech after the 1968 California Democratic presidential primary, a speech given only moments before Senator Kennedy’s assassination. In the speech, Kennedy had noted, to the cheers of the crowd, that Drysdale had pitched his sixth straight shutout that evening. Drysdale had apparently carried the tape with him wherever he went since Kennedy’s murder.”
Is there a Jewish connection? Yes, of course. Aside from the numerous notebook entries that Sirhan Sirhan composed prior to the murder, in 1989, he told David Frost,
“My only connection with Robert Kennedy was his sole support of Israel and his deliberate attempt to send those 50 bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians.”
Some scholars believe that the assassination was the first major incident of political violence in the United States stemming from the Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East.
After his arrest, Sirhan said,
“I can explain it. I did it for my country.”
Sirhan believed that he was deliberately betrayed by Kennedy’s support for Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War, which had begun exactly one year to the day before the assassination.
During a search of Sirhan’s apartment after his arrest, a spiral-bound notebook was found containing a diary entry which demonstrated that his anger had gradually fixated on Robert Kennedy, who had promised to send 50 fighter jets to Israel if he were elected president. Sirhan’s journal entry of May 18, 1968, read:
“My determination to eliminate R.F.K. is becoming the more and more of an unshakable obsession…Kennedy must die before June 5th.”
They found other notebooks and diary entries which contained his growing rage at Zionists, particularly at Kennedy; his journals also contained many nonsensical scribbles, which were thought to be his version of “free writing.”
