Typing Through My Tears Baseball Will Miss Darrel Doc Rodgers

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It was an early evening before a Reds' game in 1994.  I was seated in the press dining room with Charles Henderson from the Reds media relations department.

A tall young man with a shaved head asked permission to join us.  As he smiled and sat down he immediately joined our baseball conversation.  It was clear he had advanced knowledge of the game but I had never met Darrel Wayne Rodgers before that day.

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I didn't know he was an assistant in the player development department in the Reds' front office.

After a pleasant conversation and our meal was finished, he got up and walked away.  Charles Henderson, who worked in the tiny over worked media relations department with Joe Kelly,  tapped me on the shoulder.

"That is Doc Rodgers. He and John Allen have been like a breath of fresh air in the office," Henderson said.

I would often see Rodgers, who was born in Walters, Oklahoma on October 6, 1962.  He was drafted in the 36th round by the New York Mets in 1981 as right-handed pitcher out of Eisenhower High School.  Rodgers chose to pitch at the University of Oklahoma.  He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 38th round in 1984 but returned for his senior year after which he was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 16th round.

Doc Rodgers pitching in the Mexican League

Doc spent three seasons in the Giants organization, never advancing past A ball. He signed with the Reds and won 14 games with Cedar Rapids in 1988. He was teammates with Reds' coach Freddie Benevides and former Reds' starter Scott Scudder.

He finished his playing career at the age of 27 in 1990 but the Reds' recognized his baseball intelligence and kept him in the organization as a minor league pitching coach.  He worked in the Reds' front office from 1997-2002. He became a director of player development in Baltimore and Detroit.

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Rodgers moved back to Cincinnati and hosted postgame shows on 700WLW. He got his real estate license and refereed high school basketball.

Doc and I would often talk baseball.  He taught me so much about the game-withing-the-game, the individual battle between the batter and the pitchers.  Doc was always free to talk and answer questions.  He would tell stories about life in the minor leagues and he would point out little things about players on the field that were oblivious to me.

I wish that I had the chance to say goodbye.  When I saw him at a Colerain girls game in January, he told me he was feeling fine. I honestly believed he had beaten cancer.  How sadly  and painfully wrong I was?