Dennis Bridges

#99 - DH (profile)

When Jim Chakulski and Scott Deslaurier decided to form a new softball team within DRS, Dennis Bridges was the very first to sign up - so you might say he was Team inDRStructible’s #1 overall draft pick. And since Dennis worked out of the stock room, he was of tremendous help spreading word of the new team in his daily travels throughout the agency. It was he who informed Peggy Jiantonio of the creation of the new team and talked her into joining the roster.

Dennis was never interested in playing a defensive position, and chose to be the first (and to date, the last) pure designated hitter in the DRS line-up. (In fact, he didn’t even own a glove.) However, when the taxmen were in a pinch, Dennis had no problem borrowing a mitt and trying his hand in the field, once playing right field, and another time serving as the team’s catcher.

Dennis played 13 games over three years, though it was the taxmen’s inaugural season in 1996 that he made his biggest impact. DRS finished with a 9-8 record, not bad for an expansion club. In a seven-game stretch that saw DRS win five games, Dennis was one of the team’s hottest hitters, raking at a .545 clip. And in the two losses during that same span, no blame could be put on Dennis, who led the team in RBIs in each of the defeats. He also had a six-game streak in which he had at least two base hits, the second longest such streak on the team that season.

One of his most memorable moments came in a 1996 win over E Coli Happens at DMV. Dennis blasted an extra-base hit far and deep over the heads of the opposing outfielders. But Dennis, who was always plagued with bad ankles, could do no better than pulling into second base with a long double. He later joked that he was too tired to run further, and was confident another of the DRS players would knock him in with a base hit.

Sadly, Dennis became ill and passed away all too suddenly on August 18, 2004.