Dempsey, Cunningham have starry night
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Former Wild Things slugger Jacob Dempsey, left, is welcomed into the Frontier League Hall of Fame before the start of the all-star game Wednesday night at Wild Things Park.
Frontier League Hall of Fame Inductee Perry Cunningham is given a congratulatory hug by his 10-year-old son, Cooper, after the ceremony at the start of the All-Star game at Wild Things Park on July 20.
Mark Marietta / for the Observer-Reporter
On the baseball field, Jacob Dempsey and Perry Cunningham could not have been more different.
Dempsey was a bombs away hitter, sending rockets over the fence with such regularity that he left professional baseball as the Washington Wild Things home run leader with 57.
Cunningham mowed down hitter after hitter with a nasty cutter he learned from standout Chillicothe pitcher John Martinez. So effective was his pitch that he won 37 games over four seasons in the Frontier League.
On the baseball field Wednesday night, the two former Frontier League players stood as brothers to a very rare fraternity: the Frontier League Hall of Fame.
Dempsey and Cunningham were two of five former players who was inducted prior to the all-star game at Wild Things Park. The others include former Normal CornBelters teammates Patrick McKenna and Aaron Dudley, and Tom Crowley, who was a standout in the early days of the league with the Zanesville Greys.
“A couple months ago, I got a Facebook message from (Wild Things vice president) Chris Blaine. She said she was trying to get a hold of me and I missed two phone calls,” Dempsey said. “Generally, I don’t answer the phone if I don’t recognize the area code. I called them back and they said you’re being inducted into the (Frontier League) Hall of Fame. I said there’s a hall of fame for the Frontier League? That’s awesome. I had no clue.”
Like many athletes, Demspey had to deal with an injury, a torn labrum. But he healed enough to clobber 31 home runs in a season, still the single-season record for Washington. He also led the team in runs (81), doubles (31), RBI (95) and games played (96) twice.
“Throughout most of my career, I was mostly a gap hitter,” said the 38-year-old Dempsey, who has spent the past 11 years as a police officer in Chesapeake, Va. “That’s the way I grew up and the way I was coached hitting. Sometimes, the difference between a double and a home run is just a few inches. My first year, I hit 31 doubles and a decent amount of home runs. The next year, I hit 31 home runs and a decent amount of doubles. I used to kid by saying the only difference was that some of those doubles turned out to be home runs.”
Dempsey graduated from Greenbrier Christian Academy High School and Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.
Cunningham graduated from Stuebenville, Ohio, High School and played at Davis & Elkins College.
Cunningham opened his career with Allentown of the Northeast League, then jumped to the Chillicothe Paints for the next four seasons, compiling a 37-21 record. Cunningham was nothing if not consistent, posting a 3.98 ERA in three of his four seasons with Chillicothe.
“I think probably the most satisfying games came in 2005 in the championship series against Kalamazoo,” said Cunningham. “We were down two games to one in a best-of-5 series. I started the game but I didn’t have the greatest stuff that day. But we won the game.”
Cunningham’s coaching career began in 2004 as a volunteer assistant at D&E. The following season, he coached at Liberty High School in Bealeton, Va., before coming to Waynesburg University for the 2008 season.
The 41-year-old Cunningham just completed his first season as the Yellow Jackets’ head baseball coach. He is heading into his 16th season with the program, having spent 14 years as an assistant with the Jackets prior to being named head coach before the 2021-22 school year.
“I think over the last month, there have been a lot of memories flooding back over me,” said Cunningham. “It’s really easy to store those memories away until days like today happen.”