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A nice guy, that Dempsey. Really. When I first got traded, I met them in Chicago and I didnt start a game for quite a while. The next year I went to Wisconsin Rapids and didnt hardly play at all. The all-time greatest punch. I was happy to get away from Cleveland, though.. 1 catcher for the Orioles through the 1986 season. He went to Spring Training with Baltimore in 1992 and didnt make the club, getting cut the last week of camp. [7] He became known for his exceptional ability to handle pitching staffs, his strong throwing arm, and for his agility behind home plate. He made it fun. October 21, 2019 | 00:01:51 Rick Dempsey's famous bit in 1977 where he runs around the infield tarp during a rain delay in Fenway and then slides home Baltimore Orioles Season 2019 One time, they batted out of order. He came to my mothers house in 1967 in Simi Valley and I signed a contract. I didnt know anything about being by myself and being on the road but I made a lot of friends early on. Dempsey spent all of 1974 with the Yankees, serving as Munsons backup for most of that time. Tim Simone's Rick Dempsey Rain Delay Imitation. Dave Skaggs #8 gets a hand from Eddie Murray #33 and Rick Dempsey #24 during the World Series at Three Rivers Stadium on October 1979 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Wild Bill Hagy gets the crowd goingOctober 1979With his signature look and humble backstory, Hagy, a local ice cream truck and cab driver, became a Baltimore sports icon for the way he famously led chants of O-R-I-O-L-E-S during the late '70s and early '80s from the upper deck at Memorial Stadium. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. In '78, Dempsey took over behind the plate, and upped his hitting to non-embarrassing levels, at .259/.327/.356 with six homers. Were getting to that age where we have to keep an eye on each other. Get some baseballs and get back out on the tarp." $415.37. They split the two games and Baltimore won its final two games to win the division. The mic caught every word. In the midsts of the downpour two younger doofs decide it would be cool to sit out in the bleachers, in the rain. Now Dempsey as an Os Extra announcer? No wonder television wanted him. Dempsey, of course, inherited their genes, and thus went on to stuff towels in his shirt during a 1977 rain delay at Fenway Park, imitating Babe Ruth and sliding across the tarp on his padded stomach. Thanks for sharing your memories, Enchanting Sunshine. I didnt even know who the heck he was. Storm Davis, John Shelby, and series MVP Rick Dempsey would reach the 1988 World Series, Davis with the Oakland Athletics and Shelby and Dempsey with the Los Angeles Dodgers . Baltimore won the series 4-1. Dempsey would wait until the tarp was nice and drenched, like a giant Slip-N-Slide. The Hall of Fame pitcher played all of his 19 years in the majors with the Baltimore Orioles, winning three World Series. Either way, thinking of the guy puts a smile on my face. Major League Baseball Stadiums. A story Dempsey might want to tell his Bakersfield team. Dempsey, a catcher . His teammates and members of the opposing team would stand in the dugouts and applaud with the fans, especially when Dempsey concluded his routine with a mammoth belly-flop slide into home plate on the infield tarp, his momentum carrying him for yards, a rooster tail of rainwater behind him. He told my mother dont change the furniture in my room because Id probably be back in six weeks. They made it pretty tough on the rookies in those days; the tough times are what I remember the most but I never let it bother me. True story. He was very outspoken and he told me just hustle and play hard for me every day and youll have nothing to worry about. He had the most impact on me of any person or player. WHO IS Rick Dempsey? 16, 2003Remember Cust, the left-handed slugger who had a productive four-year run with Oakland in the late 2000s? Billy Martin, Earl Weaver and Tom Lasorda stories. He eventually came out and I said Im sorry Mr. Claire, I never give up on anything, dont make me do it now. I went to Fred Claires office. 16 from Two Runs or More, The Start of Rookie League Ball in Bluefield. The secretary had gone home and it was dark outside. Dempsey's dad was a Vaudeville actor and his mother was a Broadway star. We didn't know if we were going to play the game or not. Lawsuits claim it wrecked their teeth. 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. Rick Dempsey Rain Delay Theater, Part IIOct. Dempsey s words proved to be prophetic. He opened 1968 with Wisconsin Rapids of the Class-A Midwest League but was there for 11 games before moving to Auburn of Class-A New York-Penn League. [18] During his career, Dempsey caught ten different 20-game winning pitchers. [1] He played for 24 seasons as a catcher in Major League Baseball from 1969 to 1992, most prominently for the Baltimore Orioles where he played for 10 years and was a member of the 1983 World Series winning team. The ones that provided levity and laughs, and for those reasons, went on to live forever. You might get hurt." He went on for more than an hour, Lund says. People who heard him say he was great. Consider his "rain delay theater" a blend of both, and one of the more famous comedy bits in MLB history. 8. Dempsey went 0-for-2 with a walk. Once you master that, all youre left with is the game itself. I held him to less yards that [Brian] Bosworth did. [16] After only one season with the Indians, he became a free agent once again and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he would be a member of another World Series-winning team in 1988, this time as a backup catcher to Mike Scioscia. Cleveland was one strange organization, Dempsey said. [2] In 1997, he was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame. I got to my room and stuck my key in the door and it didnt open. So, he decided to try close to home and paid the Dodgers a visit. He talked about players and the things theyd done.. Got any funny rain delay stories? 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. Then I "hit" the long drive to straightaway center field and started to take the home-run trot. There isn't a ton to say about Dempsey the player. Ask Dupree about Dempseys other side. Gambling problem? Former MASN analyst Rick Dempsey, who had worked on the Orioles' pre- and postgame shows since 2007, admits the ballclub's decision to move on from him as part of the cuts at MASN "is. Other times, the players do not consider Dempsey to be so great. The pantomime of Babe Ruth calling his home run. I remember turning toward him and he was right in my face, Dempsey says. Then, after a while, I pretty much came to terms with the fact that were developing here. 22. My father and I spent the majority of it eating in the machine room on the portch. This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. Some too-early Week 1 spring training reactions. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Dempsey was a backup plan for New York, then was sent to Baltimore in the big deal of '76. Presenting an unusual Rick Dempsey bobblehead that talks and plays music.Rick Dempsey was the Baltimore Orioles' catcher from 1976 to 1986, and was well loved for his sense of humor. Last night, our good. Tonights rain delay in the World Series brings one name to the mind of most baseball fans: Rick Dempsey. Then, about halfway down the third-base line he would start his slide, which would hydroplane him down the tarp and across home plate, where he would call himself safe. Then, in the late 1980s, he moved over to play near his family's home in Agoura Hills, becoming a . After jury approval, Palmer was fined. I have my grammar school sweetheart and well be married 54 years in February. Yeah, its too early to draw conclusions about anything, but its not too early to feel the optimism already. Rick Dempsey was a catcher for 24 MLB seasons and MVP of the 1983 World Series in which the Orioles beat the Phillies. Today. The ball was worth $6.5 million. When the music was over I threw the ball to the fans in left field. Early in June, on a late-night bus ride home to Bakersfield from Riverside, Dempsey held court for the first time. I knew at that point they just wanted me to come in and quit so they didnt have to pay me but I refused to do that. One of his most infamous umpire interactions came in the middle of an eventual 9-3 win over Detroit, when first-base umpire Bill Haller called a balk on Os pitcher Mike Flanagan. Dempsey didnt want to start anything on the plane but when the team arrived at the hotel in Milwaukee, Sudakis started in again and a fight ensued. The manager not only seemed constantly to be searching for a catcher who could hit home runs (ideally from the left side of the plate); he also, until 1981, pulled Dempsey for pinch hitters rather more frequently than Dempsey preferred. I ran out there, and people started to cheer a little bit just because I ran out on the tarp. 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. He was famous for his rain delay performances, in which he emerged from the dugout in stocking feet onto the tarpaulin covering the infield and pantomimed . I said, "Well, that might be pretty cool, Sparky.". Players would keep a box of crackers and cheddar cheese in the clubhouse . 7. Rick Dempseyof the Los Angeles Dodgers attemptsto catch a foul ball at Dodger Stadium circa 1988 in Los angeles,California. We were having a good time, but then it started to rain. The Orioles played the next night in Yankee Stadium, earning a 1-0 victory that seemed very hollow. I had to do it at least once at home. He was hooked on baseball and had been so since an early when he began listening to Vin Scully on Dodger broadcasts as an 8-year-old. We could have sold it, split the money and been very happy., Rick Dempsey while with the Los Angeles Dodgers.(Getty). So, I said okay, Ill play for the worst team in baseball before I play for the Orioles., The Case of the Missing Folder: A Two-Part Hollywood Mystery. Tommy [Lasorda] had a little heart attack around that time and there was a lot of speculation as to who would replace Tommy. On his team was a fellow named Mike Dupree. You can see him out on the field sometimes and you know he just wants to pull his hair out.. I forget the game, but it was a month or two ago and there was a lengthy rain delay. Covered a Mets-Astros doubleheader in 1987 and never looked back. Thats where I made my mark. Stories about how he used to pull pranks on his teammates. Before that, Cust was briefly an Oriole, appearing in 28 games with Baltimore from '03-04. Sammy had a way of playing with the ball, flipping it with his hand, that added a nice touch. But as she often did, Morganna stole the show. Which leads to this piece on Rick Dempsey's rain-delay entertainment: [1] Dempsey spent a few more seasons shuttling between the Twins and their minor league teams, before being traded to the New York Yankees for Danny Walton on October 31, 1972. It ended when the second baseman and right fielder pulled up short on a fly ball between them. As usual, his effort was a little off. Spent eight years at MLB.com, more than half of that as the Mets beat writer. One time in Toronto, one of the Blue Jays staffers called me and asked me to do it. He did this a few more times in his career, once in '82 at Milwaukee with a Robin Yount jersey on, pretending to be Yount hitting a homer. Rick Dempsey Scouting Report 30 HITTING 40 POWER 30 RUNNING 60 FIELDING 60 THROWING 20 = NOT MLB CALIBER 30 = WELL BELOW AVG 40 = Below Average 50 = MLB AVERAGE 60 = ABOVE AVG 70 = EXCELLENT 80 = RARE, ELITE Earl Weaver was known for many things, among them his temper and penchant for getting ejected from ballgames. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. You could tell he was in his element. $269.99. New York came calling, Dempsey said. The Business of Baseball: In Praise of Peter Angelos? After I slid into home plate, Yount came out and took his jersey back. Dempsey may have gotten along with Martin and Martin with him but Martin was fired after the season and Dempsey found himself in the Double-A Southern League in each of the next two seasons. The people in Milwaukee just loved it. Dempsey would point to the outfield seats, then hit an invisible pitch with an exaggerated swing. It was a lot of fun because I was flexible enough to get around the field without pulling a muscle or breaking anything. Dempsey went 3-for-6 with a walk in five games. That was so embarrassing to start one game all season long. The idea for a line of neckties, many characterized by vibrant colors and sheens, came directly from his work with MASN, where the on-air talent is expected to dress up and look sharp. They knew that if anyone got in trouble, I was the one who was going to end up paying for the balls. So, to pigeon-hole Dempsey as simply the guy who ran around in the rain would not do justice to someone who was one of baseballs most durable and dependable players for 24 seasons. Rick Dempsey rain delay entertainment. [19] He is the uncle of former major league catcher Gregg Zaun. Managing, he says, is like batting. The Dodgers longest winning streak of the season is three. The Yankees had already won the division because the Red Sox eliminated us on Friday, and we knocked them out of it with a win on Saturday. Rich Dauer came into the clubhouse to get me and thats when it came to me.