Dodgers Interview: Dempsey compares his ’88 “Stuntmen” with the 2025 Champs

LOS ANGELES — Claremont got a little bit of 1988 along with its 2025 celebration the other night. Before fans filed through Legends Attic in Claremont to get autographs and take photos with Miguel Rojas and the back-to-back World Series trophy, our own Alysha Del Valle sat down with former Dodger catcher and 1988 World Series champ Rick Dempsey.

They talked about the card shop, the new title team, and even those famous rainy-day tarp slides. The stories came easy. So did the love Dempsey still has for the Dodgers and their fans.

Right away, Dempsey lit up when Alysha asked what he thought of Legends Attic. “It’s not like a card shop at all,” he said. “You can tell they did it all exactly the way they wanted it, but there’s so much here. It’s so exciting to see. It goes back to the olden days with great Dodger players from all eras.” He said that as you walk the walls and get closer to the current group, the energy builds. “It just seems like it gets more exciting the closer you get to the team that the Dodgers had this year,” he said, tying the memorabilia on the walls to the fresh memories of another title run.

That naturally brought him back to his own championship season. Dempsey remembered how little faith the experts had in the 1988 Dodgers. “We had an exciting time when I was here with the Dodgers in 1988,” he said. “We had a great run that season. That team was picked to be dead last in all of baseball.” He shook his head at the memory and added, “To do what the stuntmen and the regular players on the Dodgers did back in those days was miraculous. I’ve never seen a season or even heard of a season like the one that the Los Angeles Dodgers had in 1988.”

Not surprisingly, Dempsey had his best year in Dodger blue during that championship season of 1988. He caught 77 games for the team that year, and posted solid offensive numbers: .234/.338/.455 slash line along with an impressive 129 OPS+. He was part of those “stuntmen” he mention–the reserves and utility guys who ended up being a major part of the that magical campaign.

Alysha reminded him that the ’88 club will always sit in Dodgers lore with names like Oral Hershiser and all the stories from that October. Then she steered him to the present day and this new group that just finished off back-to-back titles. “I wanted to ask you about this team,” she said, “this back-to-back team. What are your thoughts, especially Games Six and Seven? Were you watching?”

Dempsey did not hesitate. “The World Series was a throwback to the old days,” he said. “The way the Dodgers used to really play a full series of good offense and good defense.” He admitted the bats were not always at full roar. “I don’t think the Dodgers hit the ball as well as they have in the past in these series,” he said, “but they played great defense and they turned those double plays at the end when they really had to do it.”

Even when the series seemed to tilt Toronto’s way, Dempsey stayed confident. “Even when the Dodgers were down to their last game if they lost, I still was behind them thinking they’re going to win those last two ballgames,” he said. “They pulled it out by playing good defense and they let Toronto make the mistakes on the bases. That’s what cost it for them because they were out-hitting the Dodgers for a while.”

Alysha laughed and told him she had to ask the obvious question. Was he pulling for the Dodgers? Dempsey smiled. “No doubt about it,” he said. “I love the Dodgers. Ever since I joined them in 1988, I’ve loved the Dodgers. They’re a classy organization. They treat their people well, and you can’t ask for anything more than what they give the fans.”

He praised how the front office pushed in its chips these last couple of years. “They’ve got good players out there on the field,” he said. “Right now they went out and they extended themselves to sign Ohtani and Yamamoto. Those might be the two biggest players on the team right now. They really give every bit that they have to the Dodgers and everybody else just falls in place.”

From there, the catcher in him took over. Dempsey wanted to talk about Will Smith. “I particularly like to watch Smith catch because he does a pretty darn good job,” he said. “It’s very difficult to be a 100% great defensive catcher when you have to go to one knee all the time. It limits your space. But he moves around really good back there, and I can appreciate that.”

He also likes what the infield is doing behind the pitching staff. “With Mookie at shortstop and the double play combination that they have, they’re going to save the pitchers a lot of hassles by turning those double plays,” he said. He pointed to the outfield work in October as well. “They platoon the outfielders. The outfielders just did a terrific job. You saw that in the World Series.”

Then he brought up one of the series’ wildest moments. “You know, the center fielder took charge on that one play late when he crashed into the left fielder,” Dempsey said, referring to the ball that lodged in the padding in Toronto. “They knew what to do when that ball got stuck underneath the fence. If they touch that ball, they lose that World Series. That’s the way it goes. So they were smart and on top of it at the same time and they did the little things that it took to win that World Series.” He finished that thought with a simple line: “I was very proud of them at that time.”

Alysha told him how much it meant to hear that from someone who has spent a lifetime behind the plate. She even joked about her own catching days in softball. Dempsey grinned and played along. “Well, I could tell you had a good arm,” he said, giving her the kind of nod every former catcher understands.

Before the crowd outside was let in, Alysha had one more topic she had to hit: the tarp. When fans think of Rick Dempsey in Baltimore, they often picture him sliding across a rain-covered field. “Is that a way to keep the team loose?” she asked. “Are you the Kiké Hernández of your era?”

Dempsey traced the idea back to his time with the Yankees. “The idea really came when I was a New York Yankee and I played with a great relief pitcher named Sparky Lyle,” he said. “Sparky always wanted to do the pantomime of Babe Ruth hitting a home run and sliding around the tarp all the way around.” The chance finally came in Boston. “One day in Boston at the end of the season, we were tied with the Boston Red Sox for second place. So we were playing for second place money. The rain came that washed us out of that, so we had to split it fifty-fifty. But I did get an opportunity and I worked up the guts to get out there on the tarp and slide around.”

He gave the Fenway crowd its due. “The Boston fans are terrific,” he said. “They are behind their team all the way, but that’s what you’ve got to expect when you go to Fenway Park. It’s one of the toughest places to come there as a visitor and play. But the fans appreciated what I did out there.” He laughed and said, “I ended up doing it three times and then called it quits. It was just one of those crazy moments where you can turn the page a little bit and be somebody else other than Rick Dempsey, the catcher.”

With that, it was time to open the doors and let the Claremont crowd in. Alysha thanked him for coming out to Legends Attic to help celebrate Miguel Rojas and the back-to-back champs. Dempsey shook her hand and answered the way he has for decades in this city. “Well,” he said, “thank you for including me.”

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