Riddoch goes out a champion

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The equation was missing something.

You take the fourth-best hitting team in the Northwest League and the sixth-best pitching team, add a rash of injuries and get the NWL champion Spokane Indians.

If you ask the players, they’ll tell you the missing variable is manager Greg Riddoch.

“If you mess up, you’re not going to get your (butt) ripped by Skip,” Indians outfielder Joe Kemp said. “He understands a lot of the kids are young and just developing, and I wouldn’t want to play for anyone else in my first year of pro ball.”

It’s Riddoch’s first and last season as manager of the Indians, and his last managing anyone professionally.

But he did some things you wouldn’t expect from someone who spent parts of three years managing the San Diego Padres.

Before a late-season game after the Indians had struck out 19 times in an extra-inning loss to Yakima, instead of ordering focused batting practice, the team played a version of “Home Run Derby.”

Before another late-August game, during the team’s scheduled batting practice time at Avista Stadium, the pitchers played against each other.

“I give a lot of this to (Riddoch),” reliever Nate Fogle said. “He’s a real inspiration in the dugout and I think he has a presence, and he puts out that presence and it sets the tone when you do that.”

Riddoch was exhausted as the end of the season approached, and he said that with all the long bus rides in the minors, this was a job for a 20- or 30-year-old, not a 60-year-old.

He’d like to keep coaching, but more as a roving instructor who gets to go home once in a while.

There were also the late-season injuries to league MVP Steve Murphy and All-Stars Lizahio Baez and German Duran.

That left Riddoch an easy job making out the lineup card for a series against Tri-City – he only had nine or 10 players to choose from – but then those nine guys went out and swept the Dust Devils.

As he walked off the field Monday afternoon with his third NWL championship, he had a smile like he just won the World Series.

“It’s just a great way for me to end my managerial career,” said Riddoch, who previously won NWL titles with Eugene in 1975 and ‘80. “All I kept saying all year long was, ‘Let’s just go out and have some fun and play ball. Every day is a new day and don’t worry about it.’

“What a great way to go.”