Dempster’s healthy frame of mind
ATLANTA — This is a new season and a new beginning for Cubs’ pitcher Ryan Dempster.
Unlike last April, Dempster should be able to devote most of his mental energy to baseball, his mind unencumbered with conflicts of loyalty and priorities.
This April, his daughter Riley has entered her second year of life and Dempster can pitch Wednesday night against the Braves knowing she should have many more birthdays like the one just celebrated.
“She got her birthday cake down the other day, which is kind of cool,” Dempster said. “We kind of crossed our fingers and some of the people there couldn’t understand the significance of what she did — swallow some icing and some cake and not have it come out of her (tracheal tube) or not throwing up.”
Riley was born with DiGeorge Syndrome, and one of the symptoms is being unable to swallow. She faced months of procedures to help her live.
Dempster’s first pitching assignment last season was on April 7, six days after Riley was born. It was on the road and Dempster somehow held the Astros to two runs over six innings.
But for April, the intensely competitive Dempster put together a 1-2 record and 5.40 earned-run average, which would have been understandable if he had disclosed his daughter’s condition publicly.
Finally, as Riley appeared to be safe and the Dempster Family Foundation was announced, his life regained some normalcy. His public revelation of her illness, and her slow improvement, seemed to take a burden off his shoulders to the extent that he was 3-1 with 1.39 ERA in September.
To say he pitched the first part of last season with a heavy heart would be almost too cliché.
Being physically at the ballpark and mentally at home almost became too much.
“You’re a father and you have to take care of your wife and kids, especially someone who’s as sick as Riley was with what she was going through,” Dempster says now. “Some days I don’t know if I had the energy to give both ends. And you have to choose.
“Even if you’re not consciously (doing it), sometimes you spend a lot of energy mentally trying to figure things out. You got your work in so you were prepared physically, (but) maybe there were things I was missing (mentally).
“This year I feel I have the opportunity to just pitch. I know she’s doing so well and the family is doing so well.
“I worked really hard this offseason and worked hard in spring training. I want it to carry over into the season. I want to do what I feel I’m capable of doing and that’s (to) be an All-Star caliber player again.”
One veteran baseball analyst gave the unsolicited opinion during spring training that Dempster had a chance to be among the handful of the National League‘s best pitchers “because his mind is completely clear and he has that total dedication back.”
Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild agreed.
“The way he worked this winter and the way he’s throwing this spring, he has put himself in a good position (to succeed),” he said.
And when Dempster has succeeded — like his 2008 All-Star season of 17-6, 2.96 — he has been very, very good.
Whatever happens, Dempster is the team’s biggest cheerleader and its biggest cutup when his mind is uncluttered.
“We want to play well, play the game the right way, play hard and win as many games as possible,” he said. “And have a lot of fun.
“Sometimes we get lost in the fact that it’s supposed to be fun what we’re doing here. Have fun and be thankful for what we’re doing and what we have.”
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