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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2009 > January > 25
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Chris Dickerson: ‘I’m your man’
Left field is a major hole in the Cincinnati Reds lineup - some call it a mine shaft - but Chris Dickerson doesn’t want left out in the cold.
“Manager Dusty Baker told me if I don’t make the team he is going to kick my butt,” said Dickerson.
Dickerson, 27, isn’t intent on making the team, he is intent on being the team’s left fielder on Opening Day.
Lack of confidence by fans struck him deeply last week during the team’s annual caravan and he related it with a smile Sunday during the team’s stop at the Air Force museum.
“It was in an Evansville (Ind.) car dealership and two guys back-to-back asked Dusty - and I was sitting right next to him at the podium, ‘Who is going to play left field this year?’ Then the next question was, ‘When Yonder Alonso moves up, will Joey Votto play left field?”
Those are questions Reds fans constantly ask, but they sting Dickerson, who hit .304 with six homers in 31 games after his August call-up last season, his first major-league experience.
“I thought to myself, ‘So, hey, where am I getting moved to?’ I bit my tongue not to say it out loud. I’m a mild-mannered person, but that was such a slap in the face,” he said.
“I could take it two ways. I could get upset or I could say, ‘OK, you two guys, I’ll be back in the gym (today) hitting and those comments will be the only things in my head.’ I’ll prove ‘em wrong.”
While Baker isn’t handing Dickerson the job - he probably has to be out Jerry Hairston Jr. and/or Jonny Gomes, Baker did tell Dickerson, “Don’t let everybody take away your potential for the job with words.”
Other than a propensity for injuries, a minor-league career full of them and a left ankle stress fracture that required surgery last September, Baker likes what he saw of Dickerson.
“I never heard of the guy when spring trainng began because he was barely on the radar screen,” said Baker. “If we started right now, it probably would be a platoon situation with him and a righthanded bat, either Hairston or Gomes.
“I told Chris to fight for the job because it has been a long hard road for him to get to the big leagues,” Baker added. “I told him I wasn’t here to give away his job, but I’m not here to give him the job, either. I’ll give him the opportunity to win the job, which is what he did last year.”
Baker knows some players develop later than others, “In sports not everybody figures it out at the same time.”
Dickerson agrees and cites the late arrivals of Travis Hafner and Chris Denorfia.
“Some guys spend a long time in the minors, then just get it, like Denorfia,” he said. “They were ready to give up on Hafner, then totally revamped him and he got it.
“I got it later and most of the time I worried about being the player other people wanted me to be,” he said. “I hit .303 in (Class A) Dayton in 2004 and they wanted me to hit for more power. I tried that the next year and hit .236. So much pressure to please everybody.”
Dickerson was hitting .136 on April 24 at (Class AAA) Louisville, “And it clicked in for me. Just clicked and locked in,” he said. Before arriving in Cincinnati in August, he had built his average to .287.
“When it clicks, it clicks in a big way - all the hard work I put in last winter with batting coach Brook Jacoby. I was able to take the rest of the season,” he added.
Now he hopes to take it through all of 2009, as the left fielder who’ll always remember the comments of a couple of guys in a car dealership in Evansville.
Bakers loves Dickerson’s bat - both for power and average - loves his speed and loves his defense. Health is the big issue, “But that’s a big issue for the entire team. We have to stay healthy.”
And how about shortstop Alex Gonzalez. One week the Reds say he won’t be ready for spring training and the next week, after an examination by team physician Tim Kremchek, Gonzalez is declared 100 per cent healthy.
I want some of that water from Kremchek’s office.
“Before Alex got hurt, he was one of the premier shortstops in baseball,” said Baker. “I’ve prayed a lot for Alex. Now it looks as if he’ll be OK. That’s so great.”
Baker knows what CEO/owenr Bob Castellini said about the bulging budget and there will be no more expensive additions. That, of course, doesn’t preclude a trade that doesn’t add significant payroll, if that can be done.
“We’re trying,” Baker said. “We’re really, really trying hard.” And about Castellini’s comment, Baker smiled and said, “I know you’ve ready about the payroll, but I’m still trying to push the envelope. I hope the fans understand what we’re trying to do and they’ll be happy when it all comes to fruition. Faith is what you can’t see. Sometimes you are forced to go in another direction. The direction we were taking before wasn’t working.
Baker said he senses the younger players get it more than some of the players who began with the team last season and there were three things he noticed last season that has to change:
ONE - “We had excessive strikeouts.” TWO - “We played poor defense.” THREE - “When we lost, some guys left the clubhouse like it was no big deal. It is a big deal to me. I don’t like to lose. My daddy used to tell people around me after I was part of a loss, ‘Stay away from him for about a week.’”
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