black armbands for rfk

on june 4, 1968, don drysdale threw his sixth consecutive shutout, blanking the pirates in los angeles and extending his consecutive inning scoreless streak towards his record of 58 and two-thirds innings.  later that evening at the ambassador hotel, robert f. kennedy acknowledged big d in his speech following the california presidential primary.  shortly thereafter, rfk was shot by sirhan sirhan.  he died on june 6th.

the dodgers wore black armbands in honor of the former attorney general and senator, and this 1993 ted williams card of drysdale is the best example i can find.

the card focuses on the 1963 world series in which drysdale pitched brilliantly, but the photo is certainly from 1968 as the black armband is visible on drysdale's left sleeve.  it was the first time that the los angeles dodgers had added an armband to their uniforms, and the first time the franchise had done so since 1938.

here's a photo from getty images that shows the armband on both drysdale and his catcher, tom haller.

had he survived, today would have been rfk's 88th birthday.  in a couple of days, we will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of rfk's brother, president john f kennedy, and had he not been killed in november, i would imagine that there would have been black armbands for him, too.