After Deadline: Jim Dickson

After Deadline: Jim Dickson

[Music] Hi, I’m Gary Henley, daily Astronian sports writer. We’re here talking with Jim Dixon, the assistant baseball coach for Warrington High School. Going to be talking a little uh old seaside baseball and uh some current day stuff. So, any of your old professional days. So, coach, how are you doing? I’m fine. Gary, how long have you been doing this uh coaching? Oh, 30 years playing and coaching, probably. So, you must really enjoy I I’ve lost track of the years. You must really enjoy working with the kids then. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s enjoyable. How How you like working with this current warranting group? Uh oh, they’re they’re they’re a fine bunch of boys. I I have a lot of fun with them. They have a lot of fun with me. So, at least I hope they are. and we just completed our JV season and now I’m helping Lenny with the varsity the rest of the way. Uh where does a guy like Reese Johnson compare with some of the pitchers you’ve worked with in the past? Reese’s fine. He’s he’s added velocity this year and and is doing done a real fine job. Uh he compares favorably with our past pictures here. Now you’ve been in this area all your life, right? You grew up in seaside. I grew up in Seaside. I’ve been a story since 1975 living there. Mhm. And you went to Seaside High School. What year did you graduate? 1956. 56. Okay, that’s enough. You guys went to the state championship that year, didn’t you? Uh we we were runner up that year and the next year Seaside won it. Uh that was uh 56 was my senior year. And then you lost to Bale that year. We lost in 12 innings 5 to three. Uh Bailey Brim was the coach. Bailey was our coach there. Uh he left uh after the second year of 1957 and went to Albany. Is he still around or No, Bailey passed away a couple of years ago. And and talk about some of your teammates back then. You had Gary Holmes. I know he went on to play when Cleveland organization. And uh Gary is still in the area. Uh he retired from the state police and also security at Cingham and lives in Juel. and some of the uh one of the ball players right here, Hugh Springer, uh was one of our additions to a summer team that uh we went to California, Connie Mack, and he just moved to uh Gearhart, a University of Oregon, Cleveland High School. Uh Dick Wsburn was on our ball club. Dick has since passed away. Steve Lawson, a catcher. Steve’s passed on also. Quite a few really. So, but there are still some around. Lee Wilson see Lee was uh quite a bit. Uh well, Lee was young young boy at that time, but Lee Yeah, Lee pitched the seaside. I don’t remember what year he he went into the Philly organization for two years, I believe, and then uh got out of it. I think his arm was went bad on him or something. And anyway, he’s logging. He lives down till McNau. How about Jim? Does he did he come around after you guys? Jim was after us. Yes, Jim was about five six years uh behind us in school. So was after after high school you uh played for the Connie Mack team that won the we uh combined the teams Warrington, Atorian Seaside uh for the summer season. And then when we won that, we uh Hugh, we picked up Hugh, Eric Blitz, and Joe Gat catcher. And then we went down and played in San Bernardino and won that tournament. Uh how fun was that? Oh, that was exciting. That was uh for many of us that was our first plane ride and that was fun going down that runway. Go faster, you know. But everything everything worked out fine. Now, from there, you were uh were you drafted by the Pirates? Is that right? No, I uh went to University of Oregon my freshman year and then I stayed out of school of fall and enrolled in Clark College in Vancouver and then I ended up signing the middle of May with Pittsburgh. At that time, there was not a draft, but uh they sent me to Douglas, Arizona and Arizona’s Class C Mexican League, Arizona Mexico league. and I I pitched a year down there and then my professional that was my first professional year. I went I kind of went back through some history. You were you played for the Houston Colt 45s after that 1961. Yeah, I was drafted by them in that expansion draft and uh I spent well I went up with Houston in 1963 during the mid-season and then I was kind I was not doing that well so they sent me back down then I went back up at the end of the year again. Uh, and then then I went to the winter instruction league and well, I was playing baseball pretty much 10 months a year, winter ball and instructional leagues and things. Okay. When did you go to Kansas City athletics? Uh, I was drafted uh in 19 uh that was 1965. Uh I was drafted and spent the year the next two years in Kansas City. I was down I was down winter ball in the draft. I had a good season down there in in Puerto Rico and came back and found out I was now property of Kansas City. So, uh, suitcase life certainly. Now, you went down your your list of your teammates is pretty impressive. Uh, Joe Morgan and Jim Win with Houston. Do you play with those guys? Yes. Yeah, I was. Yeah. Jim Win came up when we were in New York. He had two home runs in the polo grounds. And a lot of those ballparks are that’s all history now, but uh certainly remember them. Toy Cannon, he had a lot of pop. Yeah. Joe Morgan, too, right? Yes. Then uh Cincinnati, uh Frank Robinson, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, those of yours. Yeah. For a short while. Uh Tony Perez and I ended up playing the whole season. I got shipped out of Cincinnati after a month and went to San Diego and Tony uh played that year with him and then also in winter ball. So you played for the Reds after after the Col 45s NBA. I went over I was traded over there and I broke camp with them was there a month and and then they sent me to Triple A and I finished a year in San Diego. Then with Kansas City, uh some of the original, you know, Burke Capan, Catfish Hunter, Blue Moon Odum, those those names, all they were all young ball players then and uh that turned into quite a kind of a little short dynasty there. They they were that was a good bunch of days. Yeah. Yeah. Rick Mundy was there, Joe Rudy, uh Catfish. I remember Catfish. Uh he asked catfish if he wanted to pitch against Minnesota and my memory is right he threw a forehead shut out 18 years old looked like he was painting the black with the sliders and fast balls. It was all history after that. Yeah. So the future Oakland A’s they won some World Series rings. Oh yeah. Then I wanted to ask you about Satchel Page. Was he did he play one year with Kansas City? Play Yeah. In 1965, uh, the owner, Charles Finley, brought him there, kind of a publicity stunt and they had an easy chair for him in the bullpin. And, uh, really a nice old man and he pitched three innings against the Red Sox and Stressy got a uh, left field, left center field double off him. I was only hitting three innings really. But it was he would he would throw in the bullpen. I jumped up one time and I’ll catch you. You know, I just want to say he just sit there. He put a gum wrapper down like you know I’ve read in the story he throw it right over that you just sit there and the ball come straight there wasn’t any problem catching him but it’s really interesting to to see uh you know to see him throw of course I don’t know what his age was at that point I don’t think anybody knew anything he was 59 there’s some question there but in his prime he could throw at the best of any of them did he serve as kind of a a a coach too or Oh he was he was there just it was a PR thing and uh he basically sat down there in that in that chair and he’d get up and throw once in a while, you know, and we’d all sit there and watch him and listen to his stories. And what were some of those stories? You kind of have a character. Oh god, I remember when he was talking about it. I can’t remember it verbatim, but I he he had he had a bit part in a movie and he was talking about riding a horse and trying to hold on the horse. I it was some western but uh it was funny. I mean it just just to hear him talk and uh he was he was a guy he was a real thin not heavy long fingers big feet and so just kid. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of solemn guy. Yeah. But uh yeah, it was quite a quite an experience. But and what were some of your favorite moments from the major leagues? Oh, I don’t know. Things that stand out in my mind coming up to the big leagues and uh the team that originally signed me was Pittsburgh. And I I was recalled in the first game I was ever in. I they brought me in relief and Clementi was a batter and bases had base load and how do I pitch how do I pitch this guy? They said keep it down the way. Well, I did and uh he in a double play and and I thought, well, this one too bad. But I found out otherwise later on that you fool around and don’t get the ball where you want it. you you uh go back to the miners. Well, especially against Roberto Kamed, I guess. Yeah. I mean, he was he was a great great ball player. But, uh that was kind of funny because they they had signed me and some of the guys that I was pitching against had been some of my teammates earlier on. Mhm. So, yeah, it was interesting. But, oh, a lot of moments. I I can’t think of any particular one other than that first one. And actually, I can remember my last one. They recalls me one year and the last out in the big leagues is Striky hit a double off my hind end. The shorts stop threw threw him out and the rain came. That was that was the last time I saw the big leagues in Boston or Yeah, it was in Boston. Yeah. Third inning. It was a day similar to today like today. Now, some of the more recent news, uh you were talking about the major league pension plan. Oh, that Yeah, that just came up. uh uh the ball players like myself, there’s uh there right now there’s like 874 still living that had less than four years and they finally passed. They said they were going to award myself and the other group uh a pension, but as of yet we don’t know how much it’s going to be. They said they said like $10,000 if you got four years and depending on quarters. Well, I don’t know how they figure a quarter, but it would certain it’d be nice. There’s a lot of people I have a teammate that’s uh pretty sick and uh there’s just a lot of them that need the extra money and if they hopefully they will have a a medical plan thrown in with that because they have excellent medical. It’s the major league baseball has the best pension of any of the major sports. So, it certainly would be nice. What were the terms of service be? I mean, how you played four years? Well, I I played parts for four years. Uh I had a a total a little over two years. So, whatever it may be, I don’t know. But uh right now I looked on the internet and if you got age 62, if you got 43 days of service in the big leagues, they award you $1,000 and one day of active as a player, your lifetime medical. So that’s that’s quite a thing. Uh I don’t know what two years will give me. Kind of wish you were born 30 years later. Yeah. Yeah. It would be it would be something. Yeah, I I just uh ball players now really have it set up nice. So, or a guy like Brian Brun for instance. Oh, Brian. Yeah, he’s done real well with baseball and more power to him. Get it while he can because age stops for no one. Did you get to work with him at all when you were here? Oh, I I uh was coaching here when he was a freshman and then I started going to I started going to Italy and uh so I missed out uh the rest of his high school career. But you could see he, you know, he was a big strong kid and threw the ball hard and he he was going to go into baseball. So, that really is a suitcase life uh for him. He’s he’s moved and he’s you move uh yeah, I remember when I was at Cincinnati at the time I was married, we had a we got an apartment and after 3 weeks and two days later I was in the car going to San Diego. So, it’s it’s very fluid, but but you make money and uh like you said, you get in when you get out when you can and Yeah. And I don’t have any regrets over it. I would Yeah. I would like to made more money at it, but uh I didn’t. And uh uh between winter ball and summer ball, I I was fine. So, Well, you played during baseball’s golden age pretty much, didn’t you? Yeah. No steroids, nothing. No, you had you had to like it. Uh, a lot of people they dropped out and went on to better things, but uh, I had a chance years ago to go to Italy and god I I really missed it and I went I spent 10 seasons over there. So, I enjoyed it. It was baseball. It’s a little different over there than here, but it’s still baseball. Okay, coach. Well, thank you very much for talking with us. Thank you, Gary. And we have uh SR Coach Dave Gasser coming along, too. Take me out to the ball game. Take me out with the buy me some peanuts and crack the jack. I don’t care if I never get back. Let me root for the home. It’s a shame. But it’s one, two, three strikes. You’re out at the old game. This is Gary Henley, dailyian sports writer, and you’ve been listening to After Deadline.

Originally aired on KMUN Coast Community Radio in Astoria, Oregon. Interview with former Major League Baseball player Jim Dickson, who talked about his playing career spanning from Seaside High School in Oregon, to MLB appearances with the Houston Colt .45s, the Cincinnati Reds and the Kansas City Athletics. He was teammates with such stars as Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Frank Robinson and Pete Rose, to the beginnings of the Oakland A’s dynasty with Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Rick Monday and Bert Campaneris. He also caught a bullpen session with one-time teammate Satchel Paige.