Hi Everyone —
Rich Hill started for the Kansas City Royals Tuesday night in Chicago. It was an emotional experience. Rich Hill is 45 years old, and the Royals are the 14th team he has pitched for, and this start came 20 years — almost to the day — after he made his very first start on the very same Wrigley Field mound. Hill battled through five rough innings with his 90-mph fastball, the occasional slider, and what’s left of his once knee-buckling curve. He. gave up three runs, but only one was earned.
He took the loss, but it was still a triumph.
Obviously, this has inspired me to write a Baseball 100 style essay about Rick Dempsey.
Those of you new to JoeBlogs will ask: Wait, what? Why? Huh? Fair questions, all. The best I can explain it is that I was looking over Rich Hill’s wild career — did you know he was actually born right-handed and taught himself to pitch lefty just because? — and I noticed that even though he has pitched for 21 years, he has never made an All-Star team.
And I thought: “Hmm, I wonder who has had the longest career without ever making an All-Star team?”
The answer is Rick Dempsey.
To know Dempsey is to be reminded of a British diplomat’s evaluation of the exuberant Theodore Roosevelt: “You must always remember that the President is about six.”
Dempsey is about five.
Rick Dempsey was named on Broadway. Seriously. In 1944, the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera performed an opera at New York’s Imperial Theater called “Song of Norway.” The story revolves around three friends — Edvard, Nina and Rikard.
A tenor named George Dempsey played Rikard.
When he and June Archer had a son five years later, they named him John Rikard Dempsey.
“I don’t know anything about ‘Song of Norway,’” Dempsey said when asked about the name. “I wasn’t born then. And I don’t think that show had anything to do with Mike Boddicker.”
Pitcher Mike Boddicker was born in Norway, Iowa.
And no, the show was not about him.
“I like his style. I love playing for him. I just can’t stand the #%@#.”
So many great Dempsey stories still to come
Keep reading about Dempsey’s love-hate relationship with Earl Weaver, his Ted Williams delusions, underwear showers, rain-delay pantomimes, and the full joy of a man who was never an All-Star but loved the game as much as anyone ever has.
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