November 11, 2011
Hangin' out with ... Rich Gedman
by Ian Browne/
Former Red Sox catcher Rich Gedman is now the hitting coach for the Lowell Spinners.
You became the hitting coach for the Lowell Spinners in 2011. How much fun was that?
“I enjoy it a lot. It’s what I do. It was fun going to the park every day and seeing different kids with different talents and seeing them improve their routines and gain confidence in the game and just feel like they were competing better.”
You got to manage an Independent League team (Worcester Tornadoes) for six years. How did you like that experience?
“Having the opportunity to manage, I think you get to see the game from a different view and how the people around you make the job better or easier. You leave a lot of responsibility to other people, but you take what comes your way in terms of results. You wear it in terms of the results, but a lot of the other guys are doing the work for you. That’s why I like the hands-on of coaching, the one-on-one stuff, a little better.”
When you think back to your own career, what comes to mind first?
“I think everything starts at the beginning. When you first get into the minor leagues, you’re thinking of how to get to the big leagues. After that, you’re trying to find a way to stay. After you find a way to stay, you’re finding a way to be one of the best. And, oh, I’d love to play in a World Series. I think we all have those goals when we first start out. To have a chance to be a part of most of them was pretty rewarding.”
What was it like when you first started, as a kid from Worcester, replacing Carlton Fisk behind the plate for the Red Sox?
“For me, that took the pressure off. At a very young age, I realized that you’re not going to become Carlton Fisk overnight. So therefore, it’s like, please don’t measure me to him. It wouldn’t be fair for you to do it, it wouldn’t be fair for me to try to be him. The Red Sox had a plan for how I was going to develop in their organization.”
Do you keep in touch with a lot of your ex-teammates?
“It’s a baseball fraternity. Even though you don’t talk to each other every day, you have something that you had in common for a long time, and you forget how long it’s been in some cases that you haven’t talked to them. I guess I don’t really keep in touch with a whole lot of them, but when I do see them, it’s like we skip back to a time that was pretty special.”
Being a hometown guy playing for the Red Sox, is that something you embraced?
“I think when you’re young and naïve, you don’t realize that it’s pressure packed. You’re playing the game. When you’re locked into playing the game, a lot of the other things, you’re not really paying attention to it. You’re just playing the game. You’re just playing. You’re part of a team. Once you put your uniform on, it doesn’t say you grew up in Worcester, Mass. It says you play for the Boston Red Sox. Those are things I guess you don’t think about at the time but later on you say, ‘Gosh, that’s pretty special. How many kids would love to be in your shoes?’”
How hard was it to watch what happened to the Red Sox down the stretch this season?
“We’ve been spoiled the last few years with how good the Red Sox have been and their ability to find a way to make the playoffs. That’s become an expectation. I think the one thing we saw is that their human beings. There’s going to be human error. They face high expectations, and in order to have that special thing happen, a lot of things have to fall into place. One of them is that you have to stay healthy. Guys have to perform the way they are expected to. But that doesn’t take into consideration the grind of the season and time that you’ve lost. Sometimes you have the ability to overcome it. This year they didn’t.”
How much fun was it to watch when the Sox won it in ’04, ending all those years of heartbreak?
“I think it was wonderful for a lot of different reasons. It was wonderful for the players of that time. It was wonderful for the new ownership group. It was wonderful for the people who waited so long for the Red Sox to win a World Series. It was displayed the day of the parade how many people showed up and to see how many happy people there were in Boston. You saw smiles from little kids to elderly women and men and to find them hanging off places and you go, ‘My God, how could they even get up there where they were?’ I mean, what a celebration that was. It was long and hard earned.”
You and your teammates were one strike away from being that team in 1986. Does what happened in ’04 take any of the sting away from ’86?
“It just gives you an appreciation for how hard it is to actually win it. If you’re not there, you don’t have an opportunity to win it. There were 24 other teams at the time who would have liked to have been in our position. We had a chance. We didn’t do it. It was a hard pill to swallow, but you have to live with and deal with it and know that hey, we did everything we could to be a championship club. You saw it with Texas this year.”
Who was the most influential teammate you ever had?
“The first one was Carl Yastrzemski just because of who he was. He was the Triple Crown winner. When I was 8 years old, I thought he was the greatest thing since apple pie. He was a great influence on my baseball career. And then to finally be standing next to him in the same uniform, it was kind of hard to believe. Just the way he was to me when I was there, I was just a pup and he was a guy who was ending a glorious career and he took the time to acknowledge the fact that I was there and was always encouraging. He was a role model in terms of how the game is supposed to be played. He played it hard until the end. That was the only way he knew how.”
Who was the best manager you ever played for?
“It would have to be John McNamara because he’s the one who really gave me a chance to play every day. But then if you’re Joe Morgan, he’d say, ‘Well you played for me, too’. And if you’re Ralph Houk, he could have said the same thing because he gave me an opportunity when maybe some other people would have written me off. There’s plenty of people for plenty of different reasons, some of them who you don’t even know.”
Who was the nastiest pitcher you ever faced?
“Anyone who threw left-handed. Certainly Frank Tanana. Rich Gossage. Nolan Ryan. Bret Saberhagen. The list goes on and on. Lamar Hoyt, Rich Dotson, Jack Morris, I faced a lot of tough guys. But when you’re going through it, you don’t think they’re that good because you can’t think they’re that good. You have to figure out a way to hit off them. Thank God I didn’t have to face Roger (Clemens). I just had to catch him.”
What was the best part about playing in Fenway?
“It was home. It was home. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
What was your favorite visiting field to hit at?
“Baltimore was always nice because they always had a good crowd and good teams. It was a wonderful place to play. The people loved the team there. They loved the Orioles, and it was always competitive. And Yankee Stadium goes without saying.”
As a former Red Sox catcher, how rewarding has it been to watch Jason Varitek through the years?
“You don’t get the captain title for being someone who doesn’t influence people. It says a lot about who he is as a person and his ability to help his a team in some way.”
The Dave Henderson game — Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS. You were 4-for-4 in that game. How great a memory is that?
“It was one game. It was more that we found a way to win than anything I did. It’s being in the right place at the right time. For me, the most important thing was getting on base. I got hit by a pitch right before Henderson hit the home run. We had two outs, and you just had to get on base.”
Do you watch a lot of other sports besides baseball?
“I love New England sports. I always have. It’s always been a part of my life. I probably don’t follow it as much as I should, but I really enjoy the different franchises in the Boston area.”
FAVORITES
What kind of movies do you like to watch?
“I like the sports stories kind of stuff. ‘Major League’ was fun. And ‘The Natural,’ that was great. I like baseball stories. I read baseball autobiographies. I’m more sports-oriented than anything else.”
Do you have a favorite TV series?
“None that I can think of. ‘Monday Night Football.’ Baseball Game of the Week. ”
What do you like for music?
“I like all kinds of music. I like country music. It tells a story, whether it be simple or complicated.”
If you’re going out for a nice meal, what do you like to eat?
“I’m not opposed to a nice steak place. But I’m pretty simple when it comes to that stuff. When you have kids, you end up going more toward Chili’s or TGI Fridays or Olive Garden than you do toward finding a nice steak place.”
This article originally appeared in the November-December 2011 issue of New EnglandBaseball Journal.
Ian Browne can be reached at feedback@baseballjournal.com
