When Brady Dempster gets a little older, he can ask his father about the bizarre happenings that surrounded the first week of his life.
It was a time when Cubs closer Ryan Dempster blew two saves, got booed at Wrigley Field, entered and exited mini-feuds with White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and radio host Mike North and finally posted a 1 1/3-inning save to end the team’s six-game losing streak.
And he also got to see his wife, Jenny, give birth to Brady.
“It has been a whirlwind,” Dempster said. “A little while there, as a team you’re struggling. And then as an individual, you’re struggling instead of just doing what I was doing. So I was trying so hard to finish games out, not relaxing or going out there and having fun. I felt like I was forcing every issue, trying to make the perfect pitch.
“You’re losing as a team, and then you get a chance to win a game, and I felt, `I have to get the save, I have to close it out,’ instead of just going out there and being aggressive.
“We all make mistakes like that. You learn from them and just don’t make ’em again. And then to turn around and have a baby the next day and getting my first save of more than an inning. . . . Yeah, it has been a whirlwind, but it has been fun. I’m trying to get my rest whenever I can.”
Despite converting a club-record 26 saves between last August and the start of May, Dempster was booed last Friday when he lost his control at Wrigley Field and blew a two-run, ninth-inning lead against Atlanta.
Despite leading the National League in saves-percentage last year in his first year as a closer, Dempster realizes he’s in the kind of position that tends to upset fans if the job isn’t done.
“The way we’ve been playing, it seems like when one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong,” he said. “I understand. Trust me. I’m a fan of the game and of other sports too. I can probably recall myself on occasion booing someone every once in a while. The [Vancouver] Canucks. I was a huge Canucks fans growing up.”
Pavel Bure?
“No, he was always scoring goals,” Dempster replied. “Probably [former Canucks goalie Richard] Brodeur.”
Dempster is back in his usual Friday spot on “The Mike North Morning Show,” and said his one-day war of words with North was not a distraction.
“Everything is good there,” he said. “We’re adults. We talked about it and we figured out where the miscommunications were.”
Not everyone in the Cubs organization is happy Dempster continues to appear on North’s show, but he said no one has asked him to stop doing it.
“It’s funny, some people might not like Mike, and some people do,” he said. “I’m one of those people who always has had a great relationship with him and have never had any problems.”
