Goodbye to Dick Tidrow
The call was a normal one, a colleague with the Giants since my first day, was buzzing my phone on a weekday while I was in Arizona. I answered expecting a few work questions but was instead hit with a ton of bricks - "Dick Tidrow had unexpectedly passed away."
Dick Tidrow was a special man who deserves as much credit as anybody for the Giants three World Championships. He was an intimidating presence with his one in a kind mustache, gumby length legs and constant black and white wardrobe. I heard from some players that they got more nervous when Dick was watching their pen than pitching in front of a sold out crowd. Despite the intimidating presence, once you got to know him, he was a kind, gentle soul who genuinely cared about you and your family.
Dick did it all when I first started with the Giants - Farm Director, Scouting Director, Pro Scout, Pitching coach. If a player was joining the Giants, Dick was involved. If a player in the minors was being transferred or needed a development tweak, Dick was involved. He was the first scouting director who had area scouts hit the road with video recorders. He wanted to make sure he had seen the player on tape before drafting them. I honestly couldn't tell you one job title that Dick held, but it didn't really matter, he was right alongside Sabean in the hierarchy of the Giants Baseball Operations department and he was incredible at his job. For as incredible as he was in those roles, he was a better mentor/friend.
Players nicknamed Dick "the ninja" because they never knew where he would pop up. He would be in the dugout one inning, then in the bullpen the next and then appear in the stands a few minutes later. His appearances in SF were also of ninja quality, but you always knew he would be in the office during the draft meetings and the trade deadline. These were the times he and I had time to connect.
The running conversation we always had involved him turning in his expenses. He was perpetually late in turning them in (late as in 8-14 months after he incurred the expense). However, every time we interacted he would tell me "they are on the way." Sure enough, once a year (usually in the off-season) I would receive a thick envelope containing all of his expenses for over a year. The amazing part - Dick was so organized, not a single receipt was missing and everything was in perfect order. A task that could have taken me a few days to organize, took me 20 minutes. Those expenses always encapsulated how he was able to wear so many different hats, his brain was able to keep everything organized in one-of-a-kind fashion. I always told him how easy he made it on me, but he still felt it was an overwhelming task and would always gift me a bottle of Justin Wine Isosceles "for my troubles." His selfless attitude was a breath of fresh air.
Death sucks. There is no other way to put it. The sudden nature of it smacks you in the face and leaves you with thoughts of "I never got to say goodbye. I never thanked that person for how much they meant to me." I don't even remember the last time I spoke with Dick - the pandemic robbed us of being in person for two years before he passed. I went to check my last text exchanges with Dick to see what we last discussed. The last message from him "expenses are on the way..." As Sabean told me, the man upstairs got a great one. I hope they are enjoying a bottle of red.