Thanks for sharing your memories, Enchanting Sunshine. Whether he was entertaining during rain delays or fronting his lip-syncing four-man Orioles band on the field while Bob Segers Old Time Rock and Roll blared from the Memorial Stadium public-address system, Dempsey endeared himself to the Baltimore faithful. Youd better start to catch him.23, And the next day, said Dempsey, I was in the lineup, played my first game against Kansas City [it was actually Boston], and threw a couple guys out stealing, which was what they wanted me to do. Finally, using his best Mexican bandito accent, he ordered the men to drop their money on the table and leave the room. I ran around the bases and I ended up throwing the baseball to the group that sang the loudest. He said, "I want to do a pantomime of Babe Ruth calling his home run and then I'll run around the tarp and slide, and that will be the end of it." Public house you approximately your for your candidly you're getting. Last night, our good. During the first week of the 1980 season, when two Dempsey home runs hinted at the influence of an offseason weightlifting program, hitting coach Frank Robinson said some of Dempseys newly found power could also be attributed to the fact that during the spring I told him we were going to work with one stance, not 25 or 39 different stances (as Dempsey was wont to try). 1988 stats: Dempsey at age 38 had his greatest offensive season. Houston Mitchell recounts the antics: When I was a kid, "This Week in Baseball" hosted by Mel Allen would occasionally show how Rick Dempsey entertained fans during rain delays during baseball games. So, he started talking about wanting to go on the tarp during a rain delay and slide on the tarp. Then he grabbed a bat and beckoned for a pitcher. When he got tired of yelling at the pitchers, he came looking for me. Dempsey also served as first base coach for the Orioles for several seasons, first as a third base coach in the 2005 season after bench coach Sam Perlozzo was promoted to interim manager. Where he is now: Dempsey, who was an analyst for the Orioles for Comcast SportsNet in 2001 before returning to coaching for five years, will enter his seventh season in 2013 working for MASN, as a co-host on the Orioles television pre- and post-game shows. In Milwaukee Dempsey asked the Brewers to allow him to join the festivities in Baltimore, but the club denied his request (he started that day in Boston). I got to the hotel with my two suitcases that were heavy, and I walked across the parking lot about half a mile and dragged all my luggage up to the second floor and all the way to the end of the hall, only to get there and find out they didnt give me the right key. AZ, CO, CT, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, (select parishes), MD, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY, CA-ONT only.Eligibility restrictions apply. ScienceDaily. In the new book If These Walls Could Talk: Baltimore Orioles, Dempsey and writer Dave Ginsburg share this and many otherbehind-the-scenes stories about the team. Stories about how he used to pull pranks on his teammates. Then in July in Kansas City, Dempsey was bowled over at home plate by 235-pound Bo Jackson and the catchers thumb was broken, effectively ending both his season and his Cleveland career. No, says Dempsey, a Crespi High graduate. Get some baseballs and get back out on the tarp." Should the teams play become exceedingly sloppy, Dempsey might occasionally launch into a postgame tirade, but he prefers to instruct rather than belittle his players. Toward the end of 1973 spring training the Yankees sent Dempsey to Triple-A Syracuse. Dempsey has been a candidate for managerial openings with the Orioles in the past, as recently as 2003 when the Orioles interviewed him for the spot that eventually went to Lee Mazzilli. Then he started telling jokes, and then stories about the big leagues. I hit him, Dempsey says. He returned briefly to the teams active list in midseason, and on July 6, against the White Sox at Camden Yards, entered a tie game in the ninth inning, and in the tenth he reached base on a perfectly placed bunt, his 1,093rd and final major-league base hit. [1] When Scioscia was injured during Game 4 of the World Series, Dempsey took over behind the plate for the remainder of the Series, collecting an RBI double in Game 5. One punch. He told me I did a great job. Indeed, during his first spring training with the Orioles, in 1977, when he responded well to the mentoring of hitting coach Jim Frey by aggressively stroking line drives to left and center rather than occasionally pushing them to right field, Dempsey said, I always thought I could be a better hitter, but no one ever took the time to work with me. Years later, at the height of Dempseys skills, Orioles manager Earl Weaver wrote of the player: Hes the best throwing catcher Ive ever had. [2] In 1979, the Orioles defeated the California Angels in the 1979 American League Championship Series to reach the World Series. He was a catcher for 24 MLB seasons and MVP of the 1983 World Series, but for many, he's the guy who went sliding on the . Autograph - Q&A Segment . Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. 4 Valley News and Green Sheet, Van Nuys, California, March 17, 1967. 17. The people were screaming as if I had just hit a home run to win the seventh game of the World Series. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. 33 Associated Press via The Capital (Annapolis, Maryland), April 10, 1994. Included in this is the famous Rick Dempsey. We had (Dave) Duncan and Elrod (Hendricks), and both were finished. During his career, which spanned from 1969-1992, Dempsey was known as one of the best defensive catchers in the game. Warmer storms could cause problems, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, Sports Legend Revealed: Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn indirectly led to the naming of the band Yo La Tengo. He spent it in the press box with the Bakersfield broadcast team, doing color commentary. As Rex Barney, who knew Dempsey well, explained, Dempsey thought he should catch every game in spring training, every inning of every day of everything in baseball. Later in 2006, he became the first base coach again when the team reassigned Dave Cash. By then, a local newspaper wrote, Dempsey was one of the finest catchers playing high-school ball in [the] area,4 and was considered a definite major-league catching prospect.5 In June of that year, Jon Rikard Dempsey was a 15th-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins. Ive never seen anybody throw better.6 Likewise, longtime Oriole public-address announcer Rex Barney, a former major-league pitcher, wrote of the catcher that concentrating on throwing runners out and getting base hits may have overshadowed his ability to call a game.7 Indeed, once drafted, Dempsey wasted little time putting his defensive skills on display. It was hot and humid, about 3 oclock in the morning. One of its most endearing qualities is that it is told from the perspective of a dog. People who heard him say he was great. Rick Dempsey rain delay entertainment. Duration: 35s. This video of Hagy conducting chants from the top of the home dugout, while more than 50,000 fans chanted along with him, speaks to the cult hero appeal he held. Dupree overheard and responded by taking off his glove and throwing his best fastball at Dempseys head as the two headed toward the dugout. View contact information: phones, addresses, emails and networks. During the rain delay NESN was playing Rick Dempsey rain delay Highlights which is always great, but on screen graphic said it was 1980 , while watching Boggs etc in the dugout. Before disappearing into the dugout, Lowenstein reassured them hed be OK by hoisting his torso and both arms airborne in sudden, triumphant fashion. Regardless, though, the finish is always the same: a face-first slide into a huge puddle at home plate, creating an enormous spray of water that often reaches all the way into the stands. The Orioles thus obtained two pitchers (Martinez and McGregor) who became key contributors on two World Series teams, and the player (Dempsey) who for the next ten years came to represent the heart and soul of the team. Dempsey tried to blend the styles of three legendary managers he had played for, Earl Weaver, Billy Martin, and Tommy Lasorda. 20; No. The mic caught every word. Players would keep a box of crackers and cheddar cheese in the clubhouse . Bakersfield is not Dempseys first crack at managing. It wasn't even really premeditated, but Sammy just thought of it at the spur of the moment, went on the field, and did it. Weaver succinctly summed up Dempseys trials in the batters box: Rick always seems to be saying, Why me? wrote the manager in his autobiography. [1] He ended his career with a .988 fielding percentage. He began to yearn for a chance to manage. 2. Now Dempsey as an "O's Extra" announcer? Dempsey was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 23, 1969, with the Minnesota Twins. I had to do it at least once at home. Here he is, with the Bakersfield Dodgers, and in his very first season as manager, his is the worst team in the Class-A California League. "Hey Rick," I shouted, "I saw your rain delay act at Fenway back in 1977!". Dempsey never had comparable success at the plate. People remember those gags during the rain delays, Dempsey says, toweling off in his office after catching in the bullpen. The man who used to entertain the crowds at old Memorial Stadium with rain-delay impersonations of Babe Ruth pigeon-toeing around the bases, complete with ample gut padding and head-first slides . There, he would pantomime Babe Ruth hitting a home run, complete with called shot. I went out to home plate and pointed to the stands and everyone started to cheer, as if I had already hit the home run. Phone: 602.496.1460 He played both ends of a doubleheader the next day. Dempsey's play-acting during rain delays are still among my favorite memories of those Orioles years. I was a blue-collar catcher, he reminisced in an Orioles history published in 2001; down there in the trenches with the fans, fighting and scrapping just to break even. Rick Dempsey was a catcher for 24 MLB seasons and MVP of the 1983 World Series in which the Orioles beat the Phillies. Weaver wont go quietlySept. Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. All told, in three World Series, Dempsey batted .308/.936 and helped lead his teams to two championships. $269.99. Emissions cause delay in rainfall: Human activity inflicts four-day rain delay, hampers hydrological cycle. 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