#rick dempsey

[maturemenoftvandfilms]

Question for all of the followers of this site. Which catcher would prefer to take to bed: Johnny Bench, Rick Dempsey or Mike Scoscia?

Mike Scoscia for me.

[baseballthrowbacks]

catcher rick dempsey lifts orel hershiser after hershiser pitched a complete game to win the world series, 1988 

[celebrateasimplelife]

Probably the picture of my lifetime!  Rick Dempsey, Baltimore Orioles Catcher, now sports announcer. MY Favorite!!!

[gummyartstradingcards]

[waxpackgods-blog]

The Slammin' Baseball Cards of 1980s Home Run Derby Winners

The Home Run Derby in Major League Baseball began life as a weekly TV game show in the off-season between 1958 and 1959 that paid real Big Leaguers (e.g., Mickey Mantle) to hit home runs for ratings. These days, of course, the Home Run Derby is a multi-round beast that takes place the Monday before…

The Slammin’ Baseball Cards of 1980s Home Run Derby Winners was originally published on Wax Pack Gods

[oldtimefamilybaseball]

Jeff Polman: Rick Dempsey's Wild and Wooly Traveling Rain Delay Show

We are closing in on raising $5,000 for Doctors Without Borders, an amazing total! Help us get over the edge by donating here.

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My all-time favorite baseball season was 1977. Had a job and Back Bay apartment in Boston that were each about 20 minutes by foot to Fenway Park. Even sprung for a partial season ticket plan, and what a year to be watching those Red Sox! All they had in their lineup was Fisk, Evans, Rice, Lynn, Yastrzemski, Scott, and Carbo. They hit 213 homers for the year, including 33 in one ten-game stretch, battled the Yankees and Orioles for the AL East title all season before a complete lack of worthy pitching sunk them.

While my '77 nirvana had to be their three-game sweep of the Yanks in mid-June, out-homering them sixteen to nothing (you can look it up, or just read my account), the other memorable moment came on the final day of the season, Sunday October 2nd. The Sox had eliminated the Orioles on Friday night at Fenway by outlasting them 11-10, and on Saturday the Birds returned the favor with an 8-7 win, giving the division to the soon-to-be World Champ Yankees.

It was raining cats, dogs, and pigeons that Sunday at the Fens, and the contest was delayed for hours. I sat with some other shivering souls under the third base grandstand roof, hoping against hope for an actual game.

Suddenly an odd cheer rippled around the place. Orioles catcher Rick Dempsey emerged from the Baltimore dugout in his socks, a massive pillow stuffed under his jersey and tucked in his pants. He waved to the crowd, walked across the tarpaulin to where home plate was. Everyone stood, having no idea what this was all about but thrilled by the anticipation.

It was quickly obvious that he was mimicking Babe Ruth. Without a bat in his hand, Dempsey pantomimed a few swing and misses from an imaginary pitcher, then “belted” one. He started jogging around the bases—or at least, the billowing tarp—raising his arms in glory, acknowledging the cheering, rain-soaked crowd. Picked up speed as he rounded third and went flying into home. Left his feet about five yards from home plate and slid on his belly like a car on Splash Mountain, producing a mini-wave and turning the crowd delirious. None of us had ever seen such a thing.

The game was called shortly thereafter, the Sox and Birds joined at the hip with their final 97-64 records, two and a half out. I left the yard, somewhat disappointed but ready to tell everyone I knew about Dempsey’s rain delay act. Years later, it became common knowledge that Rick did this sort of thing quite often. Witness this abbreviated version in Milwaukee.

Flash forward to either 1999 or 2000, I was attending a game at Dodger Stadium and was lucky enough to score someone’s season seats behind their dugout. Dempsey had become a Dodger coach for those two years, and he was hanging out atop the dugout steps before the game.

“Hey Rick,” I shouted, “I saw your rain delay act at Fenway back in 1977!”

He glanced at me with a smirk. “Yeah, sure you did!”

“No, really! Last game of the season!”

“Everyone tells me that,” he replied, “Must’ve been 60,000 people there.”

And then he dropped out of sight and into the dugout.

Whatever, I thought. I don’t need him to believe me. Years later, I still have the glowing memory to prove it.

Jeff Polman writes fictionalized, baseball replay blogs. BALL NUTS, a book version of his “Play That Funky Baseball” blog about 1977, will be available on Amazon January 22nd. He can be followed on Twitter at @jpballnut.

[kevinbayly]

Rick Dempsey. #NeverForget