SAN FRANCISCO–It’s been more than 10 years since Los Angeles Dodgers’ outfielder O’Koyea Dickson homered in a Major League stadium, yet his career is just getting started.
It’s a wonderful paradox, but it’s also a revealing anecdote that helps illustrate the backstory behind Dickson’s unlikely climb to baseball’s highest level.
The 27-year-old rookie has just five at-bats to his name since earning a September call-up with the National League West leaders, and he’s still searching for his first professional base hit. Yet if and when Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts rewards Dickson with an at-bat in Wednesday’s series finale against the San Francisco Giants, Dickson will enter a familiar realm where he earned a piece of the city’s sporting history: The AT&T Park batter’s box.
In 2005, Dickson was a high school sophomore competing in the Academic Athletic Association (AAA) championship game at AT&T Park. His Washington Eagles were squaring off against their rival, the Lowell Cardinals, and looking to atone for back-to-back title-game losses. In a display of sheer power and jaw-dropping athletic ability, Dickson sent a pitch over the left field wall at the Giants’ six-year old stadium, becoming the first high school player to ever hit a ball out at AT&T Park in a game.
“When he (Dickson) hit that ball, I instantly knew the game was over,” retired Washington coach and San Francisco police officer Rob Fung said. “Once it left his bat, the first thing in my mind was the game was over. Then he followed up with one off the center field wall and it was just, hey, that’s for real. He’s a good player, and now everyone knows that he’s a really good player. It was actually his coming out.”
Every year, AT&T Park hosts the AAA championship game and the Bruce Mahoney rivalry contest between St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral. In the 17 years the ballpark has been open, Dickson remains the only high schooler to hit one out during a game.
Dickson’s smash created an instant piece of history, but with the bleacher seats at AT&T Park shielded off from the game’s fans, no one was permitted to retrieve the ball. Former San Francisco police officer Tom Lovrin was working the game, and he understood the significance of the moment.
“He (Dickson) hit it out over the Toyota sign and the Giants wouldn’t let anybody go get the baseball,” Lovrin said. “So I said, I’m in uniform, I’ll just go get the baseball so I walked out and got it for him. I figured, what better momento could you have than a baseball? The first home run hit by a public school, high school kid. So I went and got it for him and gave it to him.”
Lovrin presented Fung with the baseball in the middle of the game, and after Washington cruised to a 16-4 victory, Fung gave it to Dickson. Twelve years later, Dickson is back at AT&T Park in a Dodgers’ uniform, and when he sat down to talk about his path to the Major Leagues on Monday, the memory of that day came rushing back.
“Definitely had a lot of special moments here, fortunate enough to hit a home run here and a ground rule double here as well and I’m just fortunate enough to have a chance to play here and have the teammates and coaches that I had to help along the way here,” Dickson said. “Definitely a lot of memories here, these flags are blowing as usual. The windy city, like I said when we landed last night, it was pretty special to know that I was back home and finally getting a chance to play here is going to be pretty sweet professionally.”
A San Francisco story
The Bay Area is a hotbed for baseball talent, featuring a large population cluster that routinely churns out Major League players. Giants’ shortstop Brandon Crawford hails from Mountain View, Dodgers’ outfielder Joc Pederson is a Palo Alto native, while Milwaukee Brewers’ power hitter Eric Thames calls Santa Clara home. Don’t forget the greatest home run hitter in the game’s history, Barry Bonds, grew up in San Mateo.
There are dozens of athletes from around Northern California playing in the Major Leagues, but right now, there is only one who went to high school in San Francisco. That’s Dickson.
While the region as a whole has the infrastructure in place for Little Leaguers to realize their big league dreams, the city of San Francisco does not. The finely manicured fields you’ll find in the South Bay and Marin are a staple of powerhouse youth leagues. Drive within city limits, though, and you’ll find that the maintenance on the city’s public fields isn’t up to par. Neither is the competition.
“A lot of guys weren’t really playing baseball in the area so it was really hard to get a better game for him,” Dickson’s father, Richard, said. “He (O’Koyea) had to go out of San Francisco to get better games.”
A native of San Francisco’s Hunters Point neighborhood, Dickson didn’t grow up with the luxury of playing on travel teams. Instead, while attending Marina Middle School, Dickson played for a team called SOMA in the San Francisco Youth Baseball League, and got extra work in after school with his dad.
“Oh my goodness, man, my arm is still hurting today from throwing the baseball with him,” Richard, a member of Local 38, said. “I was just telling all of them that my arm is hurting from reaching for plumbing, but more from throwing the baseball to him. You have to have rhythm when you throw back, you’ve got to make a guy feel good. It was interesting. I had to run with him, throw with him when I came home from work. It was a lot of hard work.”
Because it was in the neighborhood, Dickson said the father-son duo spent most of their afternoons practicing at Silver Terrace playground on Thornton and Bayshore. But because he played for SOMA and later at Washington, there isn’t a field in the city that Dickson wouldn’t recognize.
“Obviously West Sunset, Big Rec, Jackson, Moscone, shoot, any San Francisco park, even over there by Phillip Burton, Silver Terrace,” Dickson. “Honestly me and my dad did a lot of working out there in the offseason. We would play catch together, take groundballs there at Silver Terrace since it’s so close to my house. Any park that you can think of in San Francisco, I probably played at.”
Passed up, overlooked, but undeterred
When Dickson first met Fung in the spring of 2004, the Eagles’ head coach said he knew right away that Dickson belonged on the Varsity squad.
Though Dickson hit just .227 during his freshman season, Fung predicted it wouldn’t take long for Dickson to begin terrorizing his league’s pitching. By his sophomore season, the year he hit the tape measure home run, Dickson upped his average to .455, and in his junior season, he finished with a .564 average and 54 RBIs in just 24 games.
“When I saw him as a ninth grader and he took his first swings for us, the ball sounded different,” Fung said. “I knew right away that he was going to be a Varsity guy. That was the first thing I noticed, the sound of the ball off the bat.”
Dickson’s championship-game home run made him a celebrity in the San Francisco high school baseball circle, but that’s still a relatively small sphere. Despite hitting .581 with 24 extra base hits as a senior, Dickson didn’t draw much interest from colleges. That’s when Fung connected him with Doug Williams, the head coach at College of San Mateo.
“My high school coach Rob Fung had a pretty good connection there with Doug Williams, the head coach who is still there now. Just fortunate enough for them to be talking and I’m very grateful that College of San Mateo gave me a chance to play there,” Dickson said. “So after my time at George Washington, I was fortunate enough to go to San Mateo, spend two years there and become a better man and become a better teammate.”
At San Mateo, Dickson teamed up with his old high school rival, Max Newman, who played shortstop for Lowell during the same era.
Newman was on the field at AT&T Park ahead of Monday’s game at the invitation of Dickson, and he said he still remembers how Dickson out-performed more highly touted players from the South Bay when he arrived in junior college.
“Athletes in San Francisco just totally get overlooked and I just think it speaks to his work ethic and the talent that he has to get to where he is today,” Newman said. “We played together freshman year of college as well and he was a standout guy with all of these guys from the Peninsula and all of these highly touted players and he just always rose to the top and just proving himself and I think that speaks volumes being out here today.”
After two seasons with College of San Mateo, Dickson still found it challenging to track down more prestigious opportunities. Instead of taking the D-I route, Dickson continued his career at Sonoma State, a member of the D-II California Collegiate Athletic Association. With the Seawolves, an 11-home run, 52-RBI campaign helped him earn All-America honors, and helped his team earn a trip to the D-II College World Series.
It was that season that Dodgers scout Orsino Hill discovered Dickson, and it was that year, 2011, that the Dodgers selected Dickson in the 12th round of the Major League Baseball Draft. Dickson said he’d heard from other teams, and his father Richard said he was surprised it was Los Angeles who made the selection, but the same area scout who found Pederson in Palo Alto convinced the Dodgers to take a chance.
“I was chilling at my auntie’s house in Antioch, California and all of a sudden my name got called in the 12th round,” Dickson said. “And honestly, the laptop froze, it was crazy how the laptop froze and all of sudden, all we see was Miami Marlins but my name wasn’t next to the team. All of a sudden once the computer refreshed, it said the Los Angeles Dodgers. We were all pretty excited, all pretty grateful to have my name get called and we never thought it would be the Dodgers, but God knew what he was doing, he wanted me here for a reason.”
For a grateful Dickson, the opportunity to pursue his professional dreams once again proved that he’d been overlooked all along. With scholarship offers lacking and no D-I background, his road was as rocky as the old infield at Silver Terrace. But finally, he earned a shot in the pros.
“We don’t play in the best league,” Fung said. “So I think that has a lot to do with it, but that’s okay, because that’s also a good route for kids to go through. The junior college route is a great route. O’Koyea is a model of that right now. Sure, he should have had a few more people interested in him. But you know, it’s different playing in the city. We don’t play in the WCAL. We tried to have a nice, competitive schedule, but you know now, people don’t come out to games. You go to showcases. And at that time, he wasn’t seen enough.”
Seven long years
Dickson’s career in the Dodgers’ farm system began in 2011 when he was 21 years old, and nearly came to an end after an injury wiped out the final month of his 2016 season. After six years in the Minor Leagues –including a 2016 campaign in which he hit .328 with 18 home runs– Dickson became a free agent.
The Dodgers wound up offering Dickson a spot in big league camp as a non-roster invitee this offseason, and after playing in 28 games, he was assigned to AAA Oklahoma City for the third straight season. While Dickson’s average took a dip this year, his father Richard said Dickson attempted to change up his swing to produce more home runs and more RBIs. The change worked.
By September 1, Dickson had launched a career-high 24 home runs, and though his average was down to .246, his on-base percentage hovered at a respectable .328. It was enough to earn his first Major League call-up.
“He (O’Koyea) worked really hard to be where he is now and he never gave up,” Richard said. “That’s the thing about him. He’s a fighter. If somebody thinks he can’t do it, he’ll try to prove them wrong. That’s just his mentality.”
Around the same time he learned he’d fly to meet the Dodgers, Dickson also learned that he’d welcome his son, O’Koyea, Jr. into the world. In the span of a few days, the 27-year-old whose perseverance knows no bounds was rewarded with two incredible gifts, and on Monday evening, he was living out a dream.
Before the Dodgers took batting practice, Dickson gathered around with his family, held his son and watched as his father embraced his manager. Twelve years after Dickson became a part of AT&T Park history, he’s ready to dig into the Major League batter’s box that feels most familiar.
“It was magical, man,” Dickson said. “Honestly, just the last seven years and the last three years with Oklahoma City, sometimes, the doubt might have crept in. Will it ever happen? But I was fortunate enough to allow things to happen the way they were supposed to and God definitely had a plan was fortunate enough to be here with the big league team and to finally get that call, it was a special day. I’m truly grateful for everything and how everything played out.”
Los Angeles on his chest, San Francisco in his heart
There are moments in time that transcend rivalries, and should Dickson receive an at-bat on Wednesday night, it would certainly qualify.
Though few people in attendance at AT&T Park will know Dickson’s story, those that do are almost certainly Giants fans. Save for Dickson’s close family, who was decked out in Dodger blue this week, Dickson’s supporters know no colors other than orange and black. But if Dickson steps in the batter’s box, those that know their San Francisco baseball history and understand how easily overlooked Dickson was throughout his career should stand and cheer. Even if they can’t fathom the thought of clapping for a Dodgers’ player.
“Obviously growing up a Giants fan, seeing a lot of games here at AT&T Park, even getting a chance to play here, it’s been an amazing journey just to see how everything is coming full circle,” Dickson said. “Being able to put on a professional uniform out here, like I said, it’s pretty sweet.”
Fung, who led the Washington Eagles’ baseball team for 21 seasons before stepping down in 2015, can best contextualize how difficult it is for a public school student from Hunters Point to make it to the Major Leagues.
“Probably harder than anything else you could do,” Fung said. “There’s a few guys from the city that made it. Kevin Jordan, Harvey Pulliam, Micah Franklin, Jerry White before O’Koyea. Juan Eichelberger, Mike Norris. O’Koyea didn’t know guys like Juan Eichelberger, Mike Norris and Micah Franklin. Those guys were ahead of his time. It’s difficult. It’s rare and it’s a special moment for him to be here. This whole week is a special week for him and all of us and anyone who put on a baseball uniform and played in San Francisco. Even for the Catholic school kids. Hey, someone from the city made it. It’s difficult.”
As Fung points out, it’s been done before. Dickson isn’t the first San Francisco native to make it to the show, and he won’t be the last. But the six San Franciscans Fung mentioned above all have one trait in common. They’re all at least 15 years old than Dickson.
On Monday, I spoke with Dickson about his earliest memories of baseball in the city, and what he recalls of Candlestick Park, the old Giants and 49ers’ stadium that shut its doors over in Hunters Point. Dickson was just 10 years old when AT&T Park opened and said all he remembers is going to football games. His memories of cheering on the Giants all come at China Basin.
And perhaps that’s where this story should end. The six players Fung mentioned were all old enough to play games at Candlestick Park. Dickson can’t even remember the days when the Giants called that stadium home. It’s fitting, too, for a player whose 2005 home run in the AAA Championship still represents a remarkable piece of history at AT&T Park.
When he takes the field, Dickson represents an entire generation of San Franciscans. It’s an honor he holds with the highest regard.
“I get chills just when you said that,” Dickson said. “It means everything. Everybody who has helped me to get to this point in my career, this is for everybody in the city that helped me throughout those 27 years of my life. So when I get a chance to step in the batter’s box or get out on the field, whatever day it’s going to be, today, tomorrow or the next day, I’m just going to take a moment to take it all in and tell God thank you for each and every person that helped me.”