DAVE CONCEPCION

Like Chico Carresquel and Luis Aparicio, he hails from Venezuela, and like Looie he is one of the greats. Eventually, he will probably enter Cooperstown. Concepcion was a brilliant fielder and developed into a good hitter. Five times in the '70s, he, along with Sparky Anderson's other greats: Perez, Rose, Bench, George Foster, Joe Morgan, and Griffey Sr., made the playoffs and four times the World Series. Concepcion was the first million-dollar shortstop. His work ethic was so strong that even after he was well established as the premier SS in the league, he continued to take 80 grounders before every game, sharp and hard ones, deep ones, toppers, bunts. As Sparky said, "He's one of the few shortstops that when the ball is hit to him with two out, I've seen pitchers heading for the dugout without looking back." So good was he defensively that they decided to keep him despite two sub .210 years early in his career. He applied the same determination he had in the field to the bat, took extra batting practice, got tips from the good hitters, and from '73 to '81 he hit over .271 every year, topping off at .309 in '78, .306 in '81, and 16 homers with 84 rbi in '79. In 1979, Pee Wee Reese was asked to compare the best shortstops of the day-‹and there were some fine ones, Belanger, Bowa, Russell, Burelson. Pee Wee said, "No one does everything as well as Davey Concepcion."

As flashy as he was graceful, enemy dugouts were known to explode with barking sounds when he was on the field, underscoring his hot dog tendencies. He loved it. Yet he was shy when he first came up. Some sagacious traveling secretary roomed him with Hot Dog #1, "Doggie" Perez, who promptly turned him out. As well as the chestyness and goofiness, they helped each other deal with the transition to a new culture. Later, Concepcion was well known in the Hispanic community for helping other recent arrivals cope with being strangers in a strange land. Concepcion was a little strange, anyway. Fearlessly disregarding a cardinal baseball superstition, he wore #13, yet had superstitions aplenty. During slumps he was known to shower in his uniform to wash out the gremlins. One time he walked from his hotel wearing a shirt, tie, suit jacket, baseball pants and spikes to counter a slump.