Youkilis hopes for backup position Infielder seeing rapid improvement

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FORT MYERS, Fla. – Less than four years ago, Kevin Edmund Youkilis was an eighth-round selection of the Boston Red Sox in the 2001 first-year player draft.

Two years ago, he was manning the hot corner for the Portland Sea Dogs in his first season of Double-A ball.

This spring, the 26-year-old infielder is expected to secure a spot as a backup infielder at both corners for the defending World Series champion Red Sox.

Talk about being on the fast track.

“Ah, it’s definitely different in that I pretty much had no chance of making the team last year and was basically coming in as a first-year guy and then going on to Pawtucket,” Youkilis said as he paused between batting practice and heading to the clubhouse for a team lunch Wednesday. “This year is different in that I’ve got a chance to make the team.”

The Cincinnati native is being a bit modest. After playing in 72 regular-season games and one divisional playoff game – batting .260 with seven home runs and 35 RBIs in the process – Youkilis has a better-than-average chance to make the big league roster.

“Right now, I’m kind of in a backup role between first base and third base, so my thing is to make sure I’m prepared and ready at any time to fill in or get a spot start or pinch hit,” Youkilis said, the sweat beading on his forehead and running down his face after a few rounds of BP in humid, 82-degree weather. “That’s what I’m here for is to be ready. You have to prepare yourself as if you’re going in that day and starting.”

Right now the 6-foot-1, 220-pound third baseman is locked in a battle with Ramon Vazquez, an infielder hitting .267 with two homers and five RBIs in 30 at-bats this spring, for the right to back up starting third baseman Bill Mueller.

Youkilis is hitting .270 with one homer and six RBIs. He has made two errors to Vazquez’s one.

“I’m trying to improve my third-base skills and now I have to work at first base a lot, so I’m working on my hitting and fielding,” said Youkilis, who feels much more comfortable in camp this year. “I’m feeling more at home and I’ve gained other players’ respect.

“Knowing how it is to be in the big leagues and not being as nervous are key. It’s a little nerve-wracking when it’s your first year in a big-league camp.”

The two-time All-American at the University of Cincinnati still has memories – both profound and fond – of his season in Portland, where he played 94 games for the Sea Dogs in 2002 before moving up to Pawtucket.

“When I was there, it was freezing. I remember that. It was a terrible winter and it never got warm there until June, but I enjoyed the town and I had a lot of fun,” he said. “I lived in the Back Bay apartments in Portland. We went to the Old Port all the time. We went to OPT, Old Port Tavern, Foreplay, and another sports bar I can’t remember the name of.

“It’s just such a good town with good seafood and I had a lot of fun there. It’s a lot smaller than Boston, but it’s a good environment.”

Youkilis also remembers the people who came to the games.

“The fans were great,” he said. “I liked the environment and the setting of a New England town that loves the Red Sox and loves their team.”

Catching up with Dempsey

Former Cleveland Indians manager and player Mike Hargrove might have earned the nickname “The Human Rain Delay” for the inordinate amount of time he took to get ready for each at-bat, but former Baltimore catcher Rick Dempsey could be known as “Mr. Rain Delay.”

Dempsey, now in his fourth season as the Orioles first base coach, was a standout catcher who spent 111/2 of his 24 major league seasons with Baltimore. Ironically, despite earning World Series MVP honors in 1983 and becoming one of only three catchers (Carlton Fisk and Tim McCarver are the others) to play in four decades, Dempsey is almost as well-known for what he did when the field was covered.

“Every year, a hundred times a year, people mention that to me,” he said with a smile before throwing batting practice at City of Palms Park on Wednesday.

The 56-year-old Dempsey, who is the son of an actor, must have inherited his family’s penchant for entertainment as he used to do impersonations of Babe Ruth for Orioles fans during rain delays at home games. One day, during a particularly rainy afternoon, Dempsey decided to go all out for the fans.

Dempsey, who retired in 1992, began running around the bases and sliding along the rain-slickened tarp with a padded uniform, basically entertaining the fans with clownlike moves and stunts that had fans roaring as he sent water everywhere in large sprays.

The 6-foot, 190-pound catcher feigned slipping and falling moves while also diving into the bases and sending waves and geyserlike fountains of water everywhere – getting himself soaked in the process. His routine was caught on camera and shown on local, regional and national sports and news shows afterward.

“It was fun at the time, but I think about it now and I think it’s crazy. I’d certainly never do anything like that again,” Dempsey said while chuckling at the memory. “At the time, it’s something Richie Dauer and I thought about doing and I just went out and did it. I never thought it would turn out anything like it did. A lot of people certainly remember it though.”

57 years … and still counting

Former All-Star shortstop and Red Sox Hall of Fame member Johnny Pesky may have bragging rights when it comes to the number of continuous Sox spring training sessions he has attended (36), but former All-Star third baseman Frank Malzone isn’t far behind.

“This end of it, I’ve only been doing for five or six years,” Malzone said of his current role as player development consultant. “Since I started playing, it’s got to be 57 years, probably. It seems like 56, but no, it’s been a long time.”

Malzone, who won three Gold Glove awards in his 11 seasons (1955-65) with Boston, started his career in 1948 as a player right out of high school.

“I never even thought about pro baseball until a scout came up and asked me if I’d be interested,” said the 65-year-old Malzone. “I figured for $150 a month, I could just about get by. I never reached $40,000 a year in my whole career and I played in eight All-Star games.”

Malzone now works with the infielders, primarily third basemen such as Kevin Youkilis, one of Boston’s better young players.

“It’s great. He definitely helps me out a lot,” Youkilis said. “Two years ago in Portland, he said I had improved a lot. He tells me little things with footwork and what I’m doing wrong, so it helps.”

Malzone, a Bronx, N.Y., native who grew up as a casual Yankees fan, has lived in Needham, Mass., since he started playing in the Red Sox organization. He doesn’t get around as much as he used to when working as a Red Sox scout, but still travels to a couple of minor league parks.

“I go up to Portland to watch the Portland Sea Dogs. I’ve been up there the last three years to see them play and I spend about five days up there,” Malzone said. “Portland and Pawtucket are the only places I go now other than Boston.”

After asking him if any current players are among those he would call favorites, he winked and gave a cagey answer.

“I had one, but he’s no longer around with us – and you can guess who that is.”

If you still need a hint, he’s playing shortstop for a team in the other league that’s trying to end a long World Series title drought.

Red Sox reshaping roster

Boston optioned left-handed pitchers Lenny DiNardo and Mark Malaska to Triple-A Pawtucket and reassigned catcher-outfielder Jeff Bailey, right-handed pitcher Scott Cassidy, infielder Tim Hummel and left-hander Jason Kershner to minor league camp, bringing the total number of players in the team’s major league training camp to 35. Of those 35, seven are nonroster invitees: first-baseman outfielder David McCarty, first baseman Robert Petagine, right-handed pitchers Jeremi Gonzalez and Jack Cressend, outfielders Billy McMillon and George Lombard, and catcher Shawn Wooten.

Nipper is pitching in

Former Red Sox starting pitcher Al Nipper has taken the reins as Boston’s minor league pitching coordinator.

“It’s my job to make sure everything’s running smooth in the minor leagues,” said the man who was a rookie starting pitcher in Carl Yastrzemski’s last major league game in 1983. “Everyone likes to come home and this is where my career started. It feels good to be back.”

The 45-year-old Nipper, who was a pitching coach for rookies in the Red Sox system from 1992 to 1997, will return to Portland as his new duties require him to oversee coaches and scout players on all teams in the Sox organization in North America and Central America.

“I was with the Red Sox as a Double-A guy in Trenton and we played in Portland a few times,” Nipper said. “I like to travel, so I consider that a plus in this job.”

Nipper was a major league pitching coach for Kansas City in 2001 and 2002. Before that he was the minor league pitching coordinator for the Texas Rangers from 1998 to 2001. For the last two years, he was pitching coach for the Single-A Sarasota Red Sox.

“This is a very good job to have, but ideally, I’d like to get back to the big leagues at some point,” he said.