Talking With: Rick Monday, Part I

AK: What prompted you to write it?

RM: Well, I was approached by Ross. And I think when you begin to look at the calender, there are anniversaries that go full circle. And this being the 25th anniversary of the '81 World Championship, (having the book hit shelves at the same time) was kind of the goal. It came out a couple months later than we were hoping for, but it still came out in April this year. And what makes it nice is, on the heels of this book coming out, when (the Dodgers) get back from this (current) road trip, there will be the celebration of that team. Most of the guys, we've been able to see. But there's been a couple guys that we have not seen that many times very often, so it's gonna be kinda nice.

What I was interested in seeing — and I mention this in the book — was the recollections of teammates from 25 years ago, because I wanted to find out if the fires burning in the bellies were the same degree that my recollection (of them) was.

AK: And were they?

RM: I was not surprised by the fact that, yes, they were. Because I know the people. I know what they are about. I know the professionalism. I know the character that they all have. It was just kind of a wonderful, warm feeling to go back and revisit some of the things that happened, including the fact that it all began before we got to spring training.

Having played 19 years at the Major League level, there was only one time that, prior to going to spring training, I received a letter from the manager. And that was before we went to spring training in 1981. Tommy challenged all of us. Tommy knew the buttons to push for all of us. What made us happy. What made us sad. What angered us. What challenged us. And he pushed every button in a letter that he sent to all of us.

AK: Was it a different letter for every player?

RM: My understanding, and I unfortunately have not been able to find a copy of the letter, is the only thing that changed is the address. The "dear Rick," "dear Steve," "dear Dusty," or whatever it may have been. And the final paragraph, "and my best to your family," mentioning your family and children. But in that letter, he was challenging us. And even before we went to spring training, I think we understood as we looked around that locker room, this was probably going to be the last revolution on this merry go-round, for all of us to have a chance to grab that brass ring.

AK: You talk in the book about being aware during spring training that 1981 would probably be the last time that great infield of 1B Steve Garvey, 2B Davey Lopes, SS Bill Russell, and 3B Ron Cey would work together after nearly 9 consecutive seasons as a unit.

RM: And what is also kind of overlooked is that Steve Yeager was there for the majority of that time. In fact, Yeager was here just before that group came together. There were one or two years where Steve may not have been the starting catcher, but he was in the mix on top of that. But you could see in that locker room, going into spring training, there was some sprinkling of some very good young players. It was perceived that their time had just about come, just as ours had come a number of years ago. So you could see that this was the last time that this club that was in that locker room was going to be together in mass.

AK: Does that '81 mix of old and young remind you at all of the 2006 team, which has a similar makeup?

RM: No. They're light years away, and only from a standpoint of, as a team, we'd accomplished something. As a team, we'd been able to leave our footprint in the sand. Having either won a division or twice having gone to the World Series, and there was an opportunity to come back. The year before, we had lost a playoff and it came down to the final series of the season against the Houston Astros. So as a club, it was different, because while some of the personalities in some of the areas of the younger players carry over, the club we were a part of then had reached post-season play, had reached the World Series. And we were hungry to get back.

AK: The O'Malley family had been so successful in creating a strong sense of community, both with the team and with the fans. Did it concern you, as someone who has been a part of the organization in many facets, when fans were visibly apprehensive to Frank and Jamie McCourt when they arrived? Not necessarily with anything they actually said or did, but just the perception they seemed to create?

RM: No. Let me tell you my perception. My wife Barbaralee and I happened to be in town when Frank and Jamie had the press conference here at the stadium. We were in town because I'm involved with a charity and I was going to emcee a fund raiser that night. And we arrived here at the stadium and you try to find out things as quick as you can. You call people. When the McCourts stood up and I heard what I view as the magical words- because what I had not heard since the O'Malley family had sold this ball club, I had not heard the word "tradition." I had not heard "organization." I had not heard "winning tradition"- I heard that with Frank McCourt. And I heard the word "commitment." And that's (important), as apprehensive as people may have been with new ownership, having been kind of left in the lurch with the ownership in the interim period. I think it was one of the things that piqued my interest and got my attention and I was anxiously looking forward to the journey that this organization was going to (take). Hopefully, return back to the tradition. I think the commitment to winning and the appreciation of the fact that it takes a commitment from the organization, it takes a commitment from the team and it also takes a commitment from the fans to stay with them.

AK: So do you think some of that apprehension towards the McCourts may have been a by-product of getting burnt by past ownership?

RM: I think, with familiarity, and having had that with the O'Malley family, there is a comfort level. And that comfort level was interrupted by the ownership that followed the O'Malley family. And now you have a comfort level that has to be established with new ownership. They have earned the right, not just because they've purchased the ball club, to really kind of see it go circle. I had a meeting with Frank McCourt last year and one of the things I told him is that I was looking forward to this ball club returning to being one of the premiere organizations in Major League Baseball. It had drifted away from that for a few years. And for those of us that had been here- I can't say "in the glory days," because I think if you look at the winning tradition that you've had, all of us that have been fortunate enough to be a part of this consider whatever period as part of the "glory days"- it hurt to not see this organization in the upper echelon as far as the competitiveness, the reception and also the perception around Major League Baseball.

AK: When you look back on that '81 team, who do you think was the most underrated player?

RM: I think the club (itself) was underrated. As far as the team, you could make an argument for anybody and everybody on that ball club. As far as underrated, we were underrated. In fact, if we had been paying attention to the papers- and I've got it in the book- when we returned from Houston having dropped two in a row (in the Western Division playoffs), the sports page was more like the obit page. The call-in shows were more like a eulogy as opposed to a sports call-in show. And it's one of those things that (according to the media), "we were down and out." And had we listened to them, we only had one game to play to make it official that we were eliminated. Had he have listened when we were in Montreal (for the League Championship Series) having to win two in a row, we would have gone to the ballpark to play one more game to officially (get) eliminated. Had we listened to the pundits after going into New York and dropping the first two to the Yankees, we would have come home and then gracefully dropped the next two to make it official that we had lost. And our ball club was just goofy enough not to believe that.

AK: And speaking of "goofy," who was the funniest guy on the team? There appeared to be a lot of candidates.

RM: We had some guys with the ability to laugh at themselves. We had some things that happened, the Jerry Royce incident in the hotel in Montreal (which AK won't spoil the surprise by revealing) was a priceless moment. There were different moments that led up to it. That was a ball club that, quite frankly, if you came into our locker room and did not know the personalities, if you had not been around to know the inside jokes, you might get the feeling that it was a club that didn't get along. But that was a false indication, because we were our own hardest critics. If there was something that happened on the field that we did not like or we did not believe that a player on our ball club put forward and the ability that player had, Tommy was normally the second, third or fourth one to speak with that player, because we policed ourselves very well. And one of the reasons was because we cared. We cared about ourselves. We cared about one another. And we did not want to sell ourselves, individually or collectively, short. We had high demands of ourselves.

AK: Talk a bit about "Fernandomania." What that was like to see that building, to witness up close a guy come in and take a city and a league by storm?

RM: To begin with, the first day was just a young left hander replacing a veteran left hander (Jerry Reuss) because Tommy did not want to disrupt the rest of his starting rotation. But we had already seen Fernando and Fernando had already shown us glimpses of the fact that he resembled a player that already been here, had already done it, and had been reincarnated. He was playing a game that he had already experienced. He was not a rookie from some remote village by his outward appearance, by the way he went to work, by the way he got the job done. And yet he was very childlike. Childlike in the way that he occupied some of his time on the bench. Childlike in the fact that he was loving life and soaking up the energy of the moment like a dry sponge would soak up a fine champagne. But it built into a huge crescendo, as far as what Fernando did, because the first thing that happened was you stopped, you watched, you were intrigued, then you want to see more and then you became almost intrigued to the point where you had to be a part of it. And then when Fernando pitched, it became a social event. Not just here, a social event in other ball parks.

And I think it was fortunate that Fernando, quite frankly, (while he) understood English and could speak it, he was a very proud, proud man at that time and still is, he did not want to misspeak in English. And I think it was wonderful that he had Jaime Jarrin as the interpreter, because it allowed him a little more freedom as a buffer, where people could not just go to him directly. And we became, as a team, very protective of Fernando when it really built up to that furthest part of the crescendo. Protective in a standpoint of "don't bother him. Please go through the proper channels." If we saw someone was heading to Fernando, we would call to him or do something and occupy his time. But Fernando did things that you didn't see rookies do.

AK: How much did Fernando, through his popularity, bring national attention to Latin and Mexican cultures, which are such a particularly prominent part of Los Angeles? Having grown up in the Midwest, where the Latin population isn't very large, he was still a huge deal for me, both as player and as a "Mexican celebrity," so to speak.

RM: Put it this way. With Fernando, sombreros and sarape's were being sold in areas besides Olvera Street. Places that you went, places that you would go, it was "Fernando." He was intriguing. He was capturing, as far as the interest level. And he had a charisma that was just special. And he happened to be pitching for a pretty damn good ball club. People of Swedish descent were sombreros and sarape's and singing "Cielito Lindo." Dodger Stadium became an international house when Fernando was pitching.

PART II TO COME NEXT WEEK...