Now that is entertainment! Major League Baseball was not easy to break into at that time. Catcher who won World Series titles with the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers during his 24-year career. In Baltimore it was hard to break the ice, Dempsey said. He appeared in 77 games, hit .251 [42-for-167] with seven homers and 30 RBIs. He held it until the next day before the gag was exposed. I wouldnt tell them that stuff. He then did an exaggerated Ruth home-run trot around the bases, sliding into each base and falling when rounding third. Bakersfield is not Dempseys first crack at managing. And, at the time, not a very good one. But whatever, he's Rick Dempsey. Top 40 Orioles of All Time: #20, Rick Dempsey. Im going to hit a homer every 24 at-bats, drive in a run every five at-bats, turn your staff around, win the division, win the playoffs and then win the World Series. I took Robin's jersey. What does a successful 2023 look like for the Orioles best hitters? "Players Swap Memories of Yankees-Orioles 10-Player Trade", "Rick Dempsey Looks Back on his 24 Seasons as a Big League Catcher", 1979 American League Championship Series at Baseball Reference, Rick Dempsey post-season batting statistics, "Rick Dempsey: His Career Survives Fires of Combat", "You're Looking at One for the Ages Here", Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rick_Dempsey&oldid=1132443572, Florida Instructional League Twins players, American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela, World Series Most Valuable Player Award winners, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2010, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, September 23,1969,for theMinnesota Twins, September 27,1992,for theBaltimore Orioles, Career statistics and player information from, This page was last edited on 8 January 2023, at 22:38. I went into the clubhouse and was drying off because it was pretty wet out there. With his players, and himself. Dempsey would point to the outfield seats, then hit an invisible pitch with an exaggerated swing. "Hey Rick," I shouted, "I saw your rain delay act at Fenway back in 1977!". Nfl Colts. Dempsey joined the Air National Guard in 1969, which allowed him to continue playing for much of the summer and he played well back in the Midwest League, hitting .364 in 151 at-bats. He is famous for being a Baseball Player. The Twins were impressed and put him on the 40-man roster before calling him up to the big club in September, allowing Dempsey to play for Billy Martin and watch as the Twins captured the newly formed American League West crown. He remained the starting catcher through 1986 but hit just .208 at the age of 36. You might get hurt." I used to listen to him and Jim Palmer battling. Loved it! He signed with the Dodgers and played three seasons there as a backup (two of them dreadfully bad), then moved to Milwaukee to catch 61 games in 1991. 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 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. Sudakis was traded to the Angels after the season. Otherwise, he said, he would have to use his gun. I was able to catch some good pitchers. Oh, that Rick Dempsey. Yeah, a Rick Dempsey rain delay was a gas, and Wild Bill Hagy was more popular than the mayor, but when the Birds took the field, they never arrived via a fire-spewing UFO that descended from the . 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. But I would like to be involved with a team in some respect.. 2023 Orioles vs. projections: Cionel Prez. Rick Dempsey: What Inspired His Rain-Delay Theatrics. 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. Were getting to that age where we have to keep an eye on each other. He appeared in only 60 games and hit .177. Thanks for sharing your memories, Enchanting Sunshine. Nov 18, 2011 73 Dislike Share Save TheHalocodplayer 8 subscribers This montage was shown during a Boston Red Sox rain delay back in 1983. The mic caught every word. Rick Dempsey Rain Delay Theater, Part I Sept. 30, 1977 A singular figure in Orioles lore, Dempsey remains beloved to this day as much for his personality as for his on-field accomplishments. In 14 World Series and 11 playoff games, he batted .303 (20-for-66) with 11 runs, 11 doubles, 1 home run, 7 RBI, 1 stolen base and 7 bases on balls. Dempsey, 73, is semi-retired and living in California. [20] Dempsey also won a Little League World Series in 1963 with the team from Canoga Park-Woodland Hills, California. Autograph - Q&A Segment . Doncha just bet hes having a hoot about this? I loved everything about him, especially the way he would pick off every would be base-stealer. Included in this is the famous Rick Dempsey. It seemed to Dempsey that the team was usually leading when Dupree came in and trailing by the time he came out. He told me he gave that ball to the Hall of Fame. Then, in the late 1980s, he moved over to play near his family's home in Agoura Hills, becoming a . They put the tarp down at the end of batting practice, and by then it was raining pretty heavily. I didnt get to play baseball when I was a freshman or sophomore because I didnt have a way home. I hit him, Dempsey says. Press Box - Thu, 23 Jul 2020 . Max Power I did another version of it in Milwaukee one night. I saw Thurman a couple of days before he crashed the plane, Dempsey said. 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. "Yeah, sure you did!". So, I said okay, Ill play for the worst team in baseball before I play for the Orioles., Former Baltimore Orioles player Rick Dempsey leads cheers between innings during a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 9, 2014 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland. Not only that, but the teams and Major League Baseball said they didn't want players running around on the tarp because somebody could get hurt and cost someone a lot of money. He talked about players and the things theyd done.. Dempsey occasionally must be reminded that he is dealing with a cast of mostly teen-agers. 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 . Deep into their storybook Why Not? stretch run in 1989, every win and every run mattered. Not dark, just different. Dempsey first performed his act during a rain delay at Fenway Park in 1977, well short of the YouTube and DVR generation. Back in those days, even though they fined players for throwing balls into the grandstand, Sparky didn't care. 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. John Rikard Dempsey (born September 13, 1949) is an American former professional baseball player. Soon after, his teammates arrived, quickly setting up a poker game. Sports Legend Revealed: Was Jack Lambert ejected from a game for hitting a quarterback too hard? He made it fun. It was a Catholic high school so the priests helped me a little but with my grades so Id be eligible to play sports. When his teammates fled, Dempsey took their money. He would even pantomime the pitching. This performance, however, differed from any before.\"I needed some new material,\" Dempsey said. He would go from the clubhouse to the dugout, where he would take off his cleats, stuff a pillow under his jersey and head to the approximate area of home plate. Within a week he crashed. Gross tubs? His buddy Munson would die in a plane crash on Aug. 2, 1979. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [6], For the next ten and a half seasons, Dempsey would remain as the Orioles' starting catcher. Check resumes and CV, arrest records, social media profiles, public records, places of employment, publications, business records, photos and videos and news . Rick Dempsey Rain Delay Dance Framed Photo 12"x15" Hammer Price: Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot Auction Date: Nov 06, 2020 10am ET Auctioneer: Paul E. Saperstein Co., Inc. See item details . Dempsey was one of the best defensive catchers in the latter half of the 20th century. Got any funny rain delay stories? * 21+ (19+ CA-ONT) (18+ NH/WY). Call 1-800-GAMBLER. The son of two former vaudevillians, he had a knack for performance, and was particularly renowned for his Baseball Soliloquy in Pantomime. It was a comic turn hed occasionally perform during rain delays, stuffing his uniform with padding and prancing around a soggy tarpaulin performing exaggerated parodies of hitters, pitchers, umpires. When I was a kid, 'This Week in Baseball' hosted by Mel Allen would occasionally. I saw Sparky a year or two after I did it the first time and said, "I finally did what you wanted to do." The place was packed because we were still playing for second place. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Dempseys play-acting during rain delays are still among my favorite memories of those Orioles years. Dec 11, 2006 17,921. I went into the managers office and said can you send me somewhere where I can get the opportunity to play? Tommy [Lasorda] had a little heart attack around that time and there was a lot of speculation as to who would replace Tommy. He is fairly certain Duprees recollection ends there too. As usual, his effort was a little off. I loved the way he played the game and we became very good friends.. Mar 28, 2014 - Rick Dempsey rain delay entertainment. Covered a Mets-Astros doubleheader in 1987 and never looked back. That was that.. His sense of humor during his playing career was renowned, and he was famous for his "rain delay theatre" performances, in which he emerged from the dugout in stockinged feet onto the tarpaulin covering the infield during a rain delay and pantomimed hitting an inside-the-park home run, climaxed by his sliding into home plate on his belly on the wet tarp, all to the raucous delight of the soggy fans. The Yankees were a game out of first heading into the final two games. I was in the outfield with Sparky during batting practice [with the Yankees] and he said one of these days Im going to run around the tarp and do a pantomime of Babe Ruth doing his home run, Dempsey said. It was a lot of fun. Dempsey became the Orioles starting catcher in 1978 and held that position for a decade, helping the Orioles to the World Series in 1979 [they lost in seven games to Pittsburgh] and then again in 1983. 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. I was 40 years old but I knew I could still play, Dempsey said. The Comedic Stylings Of Rick Dempsey Published on 5/9/2007 by GC When Gary Thorne is the one embarrassed at your poor choice of words, something has gone horribly wrong. Search Reddit posts and comments - see average sentiment, top terms, activity per day and more [1] Dempsey is one of only 29 players to play in four different calendar decades. He didn't have a good season, hitting .231/.311/.323 with four homers in 128 games. He then got the crowd to sing "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head." She was also charged with trespassing and spent eight hours in jail, according to the Baltimore Sun. Which is why such a swing of emotions unfolded when Indians center fielder Brad Komminsk seemed to take a home run away from Ripken Jr. on this September night at Memorial Stadium, only to have his momentum carry him over the center-field wall. It is supposed to bring joy, every night a chance to escape for nine innings. Really. It was tough for a while, Dempsey says. Broncos. And plotted. The next year I went to Wisconsin Rapids and didnt hardly play at all. Whenever I think of Dempsey as a player, two memories come to mind: his rain delay routine and his 1983 World Series MVP. Fox ought to track down footage of it and show it during Game 5 on Tuesday, which is also expected to be rained out. -- Excerpted by permission from If These Walls Could Talk: Baltimore Orioles by Rick Dempsey with Dave Ginsburg. 22. He possessed a cannon for an arm and was a magician who helped guide some of the games greatest pitching staffs to a pair of World Series titles, picking up a World Series MVP for himself along the way. I learned the game from Thurman. I sat there crying asking myself is this what its come to? He met Cal Ripken, Sr., who Dempsey called the greatest catching coach. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window). We were having a good time, but then it started to rain. The people in Milwaukee just loved it. But as she often did, Morganna stole the show. Well, for that I think of him pronouncing Melky Cabreras first name as Milky. Either way, thinking of the guy puts a smile on my face. Palmer told me I had to stand up to him otherwise hed bury me. No one ever interviewed me about being the Dodger manager but my name showed up in the L.A. Times about it and that upset someone, so I left the Dodgers. We got to the World Series and I caught the last pitch and gave him the ball. He was drafted in the 15th round of the 1967 draft by Minnesota, and after never really catching on there (though he did make his major league debut in 1969, ten days after turning 20), he was traded to the Yankees in 1972. Los Angeles, This fabled orchid breeder loves to chat just not about Trader Joes orchids. I thought he was a great players manager. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. I went to Fred Claires office. Dempsey was ejected from one game for bumping an umpire. Thanks to the Tigers' Todd Jones, shown in the rain delay video above, this week's Flashback Friday could only be about one thing: Rick Dempsey's "Baseball Soliloquy in Pantomime." Daniel Okrent describes Dempsey's efforts: He was an intense man, who concentrated mightily on the game. The long-time Baltimore catcher, however, proved over the course of his career, which encompassed parts of four decades, that he was more than one of baseballs most memorable characters.