Dempsey's Roots Still Run Deep

While Crespi and Notre Dame highs renew their intense baseball rivalry today in Sherman Oaks, Rick Dempsey will be busy serving as third-base coach for the Dodgers in Arizona.

Not that Dempsey, 49, doesn't retain a rooting interest.

He graduated from Crespi in 1967, signed at 17 with the Minnesota Twins for $6,000 and spent 24 years in the major leagues as a catcher.

Dempsey was most valuable player of the 1983 World Series for the Baltimore Orioles and a member of the Dodgers' 1988 world championship team.

He has been a Valley resident most of his life. He met his wife, Joani, when they were in sixth grade at St. Mel's Grammar School in Woodland Hills. They married at 19, bought a house in Agoura Hills and raised two boys, John and Christian, both of whom played baseball at Crespi.

"We called Notre Dame the steak-and-eggs team because they came from a little wealthier background and always considered Crespi the dirt boys," Dempsey said.

Those who have played in rivalry games never forget the experience. Alumni, in particular, become energized whenever rivalries are renewed.

In the weeks preceding the Crespi-Notre Dame game, professional scouts who graduated from the schools make friendly wagers.

Joe Ferrone of the Dodgers, a Crespi graduate, was lecturing Rick Magnante of the Oakland Athletics, a Notre Dame grad. Bill Hughes of the Colorado Rockies, a Notre Dame grad, was challenging Ferrone to put up or shut up.

Last week, Chatsworth played rival Granada Hills, and there was a stunning reaction from Granada Hills players after a difficult 6-5 loss to the Chancellors.

Pitcher Kameron Loe, a 6-foot-7 senior for Granada Hills, didn't throw his glove or kick the bench in disgust after giving up the winning run in the seventh. Instead, he celebrated the fun and excitement that comes with competing in a rivalry game.

"I'm not disappointed in anything we did," he said proudly.

That's the kind of attitude and spirit that might propel Loe to a career in the major leagues.

Teenagers who play the game for fun--and not simply to become millionaires or impress scouts--are the ones who will keep going and survive the inevitable highs and lows of baseball.

Dempsey was one of them.

"What does it take? It takes a tremendous amount of perseverance, luck and talent," he said. "I was so hell-bent on making it to the major leagues. I had talent; I just didn't have the experience. God blessed me with a very strong arm. I could throw with anybody. I had pretty good mechanics, and believe it or not, back then I was a good hitter."