Rick Dempsey: Oriole turned tailor

I tell people that former catcher and current MASN analyst Rick Dempsey is my favorite Oriole “not named Ripken.” (I hope “the Dipper” would take that as a compliment, which is how it’s intended!) First off, in my opinion Dempsey is the best catcher in Oriole history. That’s certainly a matter of opinion, however I don’t say that based totally upon statistics. Dempsey meant a lot to the Oriole teams of which he was a part; he was the vocal and emotional leader on the team, he’d throw his body around to block the plate when needed, all among other things. Since retiring from baseball, Dempsey has held various coaching positions (with the Orioles and with other teams) at times, but he’s worked as an analyst on MASN’s O’s Xtra pre/post-game show since 2007.

One thing I’ve noticed about him is that in my opinion Rick Dempsey’s a “good dresser” (if that’s a term). Unlike my father and grandfather, I live in the white collar world; that means you have to “dress for success.” Rick Dempsey appears to take great care to match his ties with his shirts and suits. Recently I came across this video clip in which Dempsey was a guest on MASN analyst Tom Davis’ Take me out tot he ballgame program last June.

Dempsey has started an online company called TV Ties. According to Dempsey, the ties are in essence made to look good on television. We’ve all heard of “made for TV movies”; these are “made for TV ties.” I actually find it interesting because if you watch the clip it’s obvious that they’ve done a decent amount of research in finding out how to make ties that show well on television. Up until recently you would simply use the term “power tie” when looking to get a bit of an extra bump in your appearance.

One thing I’m not going to do is turn this into a fashion column, because that’s kind of not my style and I’m not that type of guy! However there is something to be said for how things show on television. I remember reading that from the time that color TV became mainstream until very recently, the Dallas Cowboys actually had a greenish tint to their pants. Apparently Tex Schramm came to the conclusion that the pants showed more silvery on television if they were a greenish tint of silver in real life. Ironically, this was changed sometime around 2010 because they realized that when watching a game in HD the pants really did look green!

I suppose that the same kinds of studies have been done here by Dempsey and his crew. They use materials and colors/patterns on their ties which come across very well on television. This is not to say that you can’t buy the ties to wear to work on a daily basis and not look great in real life. (Keep in mind that real life is about as HD or 3D as you’re going to get!) The website is shown in the video clip, however if you’re interested in buying a tie or in just seeing what they have to offer you can do so at www.tvties.com. You can also visit Rick Dempsey’s official website at http://rickdempsey24.com/.

Incidentally, Davis and Demspey have always had a certain moxie about them in that they seem to mesh well on television together. Notice how Dempsey seems to critique Tom Davis’ appearance (in a positive light) with regard to the kerchief in his pocket! In my opinion Tom Davis is probably second only to Chuck Thompson in terms of covering Baltimore sports. He’s obviously known guys like Rick Dempsey (along with many other former Orioles and Colts/Ravens) for a long time because he covered them when they were playing. As we lead up to this weekend’s Oriole FanFest, clips like this should give Oriole fans a taste of baseball season.

Follow me on Twitter @DomenicVadala