Dickerson: "It's a big responsibility, but I'm ready for it"

Bobby Dickerson served as a player-coach for the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings back in 1993, beginning a journey that finally carried him to the majors this afternoon, when the Orioles announced his hiring as their new third base coach. Dickerson beat out a list of candidates that included a few guys who had major league experience in the third base box. "I watched it unfold just by reading the papers and everything," he said today during a conference call with reporters. "Like a lot of guys in the minor leagues, I paid my dues. I coached third base for a lot of years. "It's an honor to be considered, first, to be in a group of people being considered. To be chosen is a nice gesture. Now I know you have to go out and win. It's a big responsibility, but I'm ready for it." Dickerson, who served as the Orioles' minor league infield coordinator for the past three seasons, found out about his promotion in an unusual manner. "I don't know if Buck (Showalter) would want me to say this, but he talked to my wife about it to make sure my family was OK with it," Dickerson said. "He wanted my family to be there when I was told. It was very special." Showalter felt it was important to give strong consideration to his in-hour candidates before making a decision. "We had a lot of good candidates and good people who wanted to join us," Showalter said. "You always look within before you look somewhere else. It shows a lot about the organization when you're able to produce not just players, but coaches and instructors and trainers who can come in and help. "I don't know what else you could ask for on a resume than what Bobby has. We wanted someone who would make it be seamless in transition. All the players know Bobby and think the world of him. The work he did with Manny Machado, for example. He's been with us in spring training, he's coached third base about as much as any of the candidates we talked to. He just brought all the criteria and we kept coming back to Bobby. We felt like it was a good fit for all things. "He's going to follow some tough footsteps. DeMarlo (Hale) was and is a good third base coach. I'm kind of glad he's not coaching third base in Toronto. But I felt Bobby was capable of doing the job and was deserving. And you can't underestimate what message it sends to the organization when you have an opening like that and you have people deserving of it and you go in that direction. We feel good about it. I think Bobby's up for the task. He's a tough guy. And I've known him a long time."