Last call: Rick Dempsey’s rain delay extravaganza

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Tonight’s rain delay in the World Series brings one name to the mind of most baseball fans: Rick Dempsey.

When I was a kid, ‘This Week in Baseball’ hosted by Mel Allen would occasionally show how Rick Dempsey entertained fans during rain delays during baseball games. Dempsey would wait until the tarp was nice and drenched, like a giant Slip-N-Slide. He would go from the clubhouse to the dugout, where he would take off his cleats, stuff a pillow under his jersey and head to the approximate area of home plate.

There, he would pantomime Babe Ruth hitting a home run, complete with called shot. He would even pantomime the pitching. He then did an exaggerated Ruth home-run trot around the bases, sliding into each base and falling when rounding third. Then, about halfway down the third-base line he would start his slide, which would hydroplane him down the tarp and across home plate, where he would call himself safe.

If you ever saw it, you’d never forget it. Fox ought to track down footage of it and show it during Game 5 on Tuesday, which is also expected to be rained out.

-- Houston Mitchell

P.S.-- Don’t forget, there’s still time to vote in the ’12 greatest L.A. Dodgers of all-time’ balloting, results of which will be revealed Friday night. Just e-mail your list of the 12 greatest L.A. Dodgers, ranked in order, to houston.mitchell@latimes.com