Former Red Benzinger named Dragons manager

[westofyou]

Former light hitting first sacker follows the Francona method, stink as a player and try to be a skipper.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/con...spdragons.html

He takes over position after departure of Dismuke for job with Braves' AAA team.

By Marc Katz

Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

DAYTON — Todd Benzinger — best known for recording the final out of the 1990 World Series for the victorious Cincinnati Reds — today, Dec. 31, will be named the fifth different manager of the Dayton Dragons.

Benzinger, a first baseman during his nine-year major-league career with Boston, the Reds, Kansas City, L.A. Dodgers and San Francisco from 1987-95, was originally hired by the Reds to be the hitting coach for the Class A Midwest League Dragons. However, early last week, Jamie Dismuke, who was supposed to manage the Dragons next season, accepted a job as hitting coach for the Class AAA team of the Atlanta Braves.

"We had a pool of 3-4 names," said Reds director of development Terry Reynolds, "and Todd was on top of that list.

"I've had dealings with him in the past and had him to spring training as a guest instructor. He has a great personality to teach and instruct."

Reynolds also promoted hitting instructor Tony Jaramillo from rookie Billings to be the hitting coach at Dayton. Rigo Beltran remains the Dayton pitching coach.

Reynolds said he has yet to fill the Billings hitting position.

Dismuke had been with the Reds organization nine years, the last five with Class AA Chattanooga. He was asked to replace Donnie Scott as manager of the Dragons after Scott was not retained following 19 years in the organization.

Scott completed two terms as manager of the Dragons, covering five years.

Freddie Benavides, Alonzo Powell and Billy Gardner also managed the Dragons.

Benzinger, who also coaches the girls basketball team at Lakota East High School, was born in Dayton, Ky., and will be 46 in February. He was a fourth-round draft pick by the Red Sox in 1981, making it to Boston during the 1987 season.

[15fan]

Without looking, can anyone remember who went to Boston to bring Benzinger to Cincinnati?

The bonus question is who went to New York in exchange for Hal Morris?

[RollyInRaleigh]

Nick Esasky and Rob Murphy on Benzinger. I'm not sure on Morris but was thinking that Tim Leary may have been a part of that deal.

[Joseph]

I thought Esasky was a free agent who went to Boston. Going on memory so it could be entirely wrong.

The Leary/Morris swap sounds accurate though.

[westofyou]

I thought Esasky was a free agent who went to Boston. Going on memory so it could be entirely wrong.

The Leary/Morris swap sounds accurate though.

December 13, 1988: Traded by the Cincinnati Reds with Rob Murphy to the Boston Red Sox for a player to be named later, Todd Benzinger, and Jeff Sellers. The Boston Red Sox sent Luis Vasquez (minors) (January 12, 1989) to the Cincinnati Reds to complete the trade

[camisadelgolf]

I thought Esasky was a free agent who went to Boston. Going on memory so it could be entirely wrong.

I thought the same thing, too, but Esasky was signed as a free agent by the Braves. It was a huge contract at the time (three years, $5.6 million), but he had to retire as a result of vertigo, which stemmed from an ear infection. According to wikipedia, insurance covered the rest of his contract.

[mth123]

Baseball Cube has all this stuff now.

Todd Benzinger, Luis Vazquez and Jeff Sellers to Cincy for Nick Esasky and Rob Murphy .

Hal Morris and Rodney Imes to the Reds for Van Snider and Tim Leary.

[camisadelgolf]

Before the Columbus Clippers' last stadium was torn down, they had big banners of a few of their ex-players, and iIrc, Hal Morris' banner was next to Derek Jeter's. It was certainly interesting to see those have some sort of bond.

[Joseph]

Hey, I was going by the 'without looking' rule.

[mth123]

Hey, I was going by the 'without looking' rule.

Sorry. I'm too old to remember stuff like that anymore.

[Joseph]

Sorry. I'm too old to remember stuff like that anymore.

Apparently so am I.

[MrCinatit]

I thought the same thing, too, but Esasky was signed as a free agent by the Braves. It was a huge contract at the time (three years, $5.6 million), but he had to retire as a result of vertigo, which stemmed from an ear infection. According to wikipedia, insurance covered the rest of his contract.

At the time, everybody in the world knew it.
Or, so it seemed.
I was working in a baseball card shop at the time. A couple of brothers the previous year had bought a bunch of Esasky cards from the owner, for very cheap. Of course, with his success in Boston, those cards went up in value.
After the injury, here came the brothers, Esasky cards in hand. Tony (the owner) gobbled them up happily, trading away a few Griffey Jr. Upper Deck rookies and some brand new black and white Bo Jackson cards made by Score that year. Tony did not like me being involved in the transactions, so I kept my mouth shut.
After the brothers left, Tony was about to have a party.
"I whacked those guys! I whacked them good!" (Meaning he had ripped them off...or so he thought).
"Tony," I said. "Surely you heard the news about Esasky."
"Uh...yeah. He's in Atlanta now. Gonna have a great year."
"Tony, Nick Esasky has vertigo. His career is pretty much over." I shrugged.
Tony's face about turned white, and he vowed to never deal with those brothers again (until later in the year, when he bought back those black and white Bo's for an inflated price, not being yet away that Score had just mass produced them).

[George Anderson]

I bet his Girls HS basketball coach gig will be easier than managing the Dragons.

[Caveat Emperor]

Fun Todd Benzinger fact: Todd Benzinger was, for most of his tenure in Cincinnati, the top video-rental customer (in both dollars spent and movies rented) from the Blockbuster Video on Beechmont Ave.

His VORP (Videos Over Replacement Patron) was really quite amazing those years.

[Big Klu]

Former light hitting first sacker follows the Francona method, stink as a player and try to be a skipper.

He had a lot more stick than Terry Francona. Benzinger was second on the Reds in HR's and RBI's in 1989 with 17 and 76, respectively (behind Eric Davis' 34 and 101). He also led the club in doubles, with 28. Of course, that team wasn't very good.

I bet his Girls HS basketball coach gig will be easier than managing the Dragons.

Evidently, you have never coached high-school girls.