THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230512
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: 76 lines
In Rick Dempsey, the Norfolk Tides are getting a manager as tough as an old catcher's mitt and about as subtle as a fastball to the ribs.
``I won't,'' he says, ``be pulling any punches with the guys.''
Mention fundamentals and Dempsey smiles. ``We'll spend so much time on them,'' he says, ``the players will hate me.''
Maybe like he once hated Earl Weaver, who he eventually came to revere while playing for Baltimore in the glory days of the '70s and '80s.
Weaver, says Dempsey, ``was a miserable person to be around. He was the toughest guy to like. His style was to beat on you every day. He managed from a negative point of view. He kept telling you what you couldn't do so you'd go out and prove him wrong.''
Weaver turned the Orioles into baseball's winningest franchise, though great pitching and the three-run homer had something to do with it, too.
``I don't think I'd ever have wanted to play for anybody else,'' Dempsey said Wednesday, sitting in his new office at Harbor Park. ``Even though you had to put up with a lot of aggravation, you knew he was going to keep you in the race every year.''
Dempsey was a blue-collar catcher who worked 1,222 games in an Orioles uniform in a little more than 10 seasons. And while he never hit better than other end of the Chesapeake Bay.
The reason for his popularity is obvious.
``There weren't too many guys who were more intense than I was,'' he said.
So, then, is Dempsey a clone of Earl the Pearl? Not exactly. Weaver, he said, ``couldn't come back today. He always needed to be in total control. He couldn't do that now.''
If the game hasn't changed all that much, clubhouse politics have. But while adapting to the ballplayer of the late '90s, Dempsey won't forget what he's learned. Not only from Weaver, but from the Yankees' Billy Martin and the Dodgers' Tommy Lasorda, under whom he also saw duty.
For anyone with managerial aspirations, playing for Martin, Weaver and Lasorda is like taking voice lessons from Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Pavarotti.
Martin, says Dempsey, ``never went by the book. He was a player's manager. I hope to bring some of that here.''
Weaver, he continued, was a ``tremendous strategist'' and ``hard-nosed.'' Lasorda, a ``great motivator.''
Said Dempsey: ``If I can touch on a little bit of all those guys, I don't see how I can't be successful.''
Truth be told, Dempsey, 47, thought he'd be managing in the big leagues by now. ``I'm two years past my deadline,'' he said.
Dempsey played parts of 24 big-league seasons before retiring at 42. After managing at Bakersfield and Triple-A Albuquerque, he left the Dodgers organization, spending last season as an advance major league scout for the Colorado Rockies.
``I'm just hoping someone will take a look at me,'' he said. ``The credentials are there.''
Dempsey was interviewed by the Orioles a couple years ago, before Baltimore hired Phil Regan, who lasted one season. He's impatient for a major-league assignment. He makes no secret of this. Or of his desire to have a big impact on the Tides' players.
``I know what it takes to get to the big leagues,'' he said. ``They will never have anybody who wants to work with them more.''
Maybe, too, players at Harbor Park will find the dream Weaver too intense and far too unwilling to pull punches. For them, a story:
Not long after the Weaver Era came to an end in Baltimore, the lunch-pail catcher ran into the manager's wife.
``Earl loved you,'' Dempsey heard the woman say. ``He knew that no matter how often he yelled and screamed at you, you'd never quit and you'd never back down to him. You were one of his very favorite players.''
After telling the story, Dempsey holds out his hands and smiles.
``I never knew.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
New Tides manager Rick Dempsey: ``I won't be pulling any punches
with the guys.''