Former MLB pitcher opens the Nat to kids
Gibsons native Dempster rents time at venerable stadium where he grew up
Ryan Dempster has special memories of Nat Bailey Stadium. He’s trying to give others the same.
A Gibsons native, Dempster pitched 16 years in the big leagues, debuting as a 21-year-old midway through the 1998 season with the Florida Marlins. One of his teammates then was a 36-year-old Donn Pall, another hurler.
Ten seasons earlier, Pall was based out of Nat Bailey, playing for the Vancouver Canadians, then the triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.
An ambitious, preteen Dempster made trips from the Sunshine Coast with his family to watch the C’s, and remembers one night getting a seat next to the Vancouver bullpen and just how obliging Pall and fellow reliever Wayne Edwards were in responding to his repeated queries about pitching.
Skip ahead to present times. The minor-league baseball season has been quashed due to the COVID -19 pandemic and the C’s, with all sorts of time and an empty ballpark on their hands, are renting out the Nat to local groups.
The C’s make a little money in this lost season, and folks get a chance they normally wouldn’t.
Dempster lives in Chicago but has family here. He has connections with the C’s, including team president Andy Dunn, who was running the Marlins’ spring training complex in Viera, Fla., when Dempster was coming through their ranks more than 20 years ago.
That’s all played into Dempster renting out multiple nights at the Nat, and with help from the C’s, donating those slots to various parties. One of them is the Sunshine Coast Baseball Association, which is based in Gibsons.
Association president Andrew Appleton says he has a bantam team (15 and under) playing a West Vancouver side at the Nat on Aug. 29, thanks to Dempster.
“I can still remember clear as day being down by the bullpen and Pall and Edwards letting me ask question after question,” said Dempster, 43, a father of four whose various gigs now include working for the Marquee Sports Network, the television home of the Chicago Cubs. “One of them finally said, ‘OK, kid, we have to get ready to pitch here.’
“I have such fond memories of that place. It’s an institution. I’m glad to help out, and the fact that it includes some kids from Gibsons is really awesome.”
Appleton added: “Our local boy Ryan Dempster hooked us up with a ‘big league day’ for our youth baseball players. I’m beyond excited for our kids.”
The game at the Nat will come almost a year to the day that one of the teams in the senior men’s league in Gibsons was short a player for a game at Ryan Dempster Field and Dempster, who was in town visiting family, agreed to be the fill-in. It was the first time he had pitched in a game since 2017, when he came out of retirement to play for Team Canada at the World Baseball Classic in Miami. His last big-league action came in the 2013 World Series, helping the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals in six games.
Appleton was tasked with locking up the field that night in Gibsons. He was there until well after dark, waiting it out as Dempster signed autographs and took photos for everyone who asked.
“He’s the same guy he’s always been,” Appleton said.
Dunn added: “Ryan Dempster is the epitome of what a professional athlete should be. He’s had success. It hasn’t changed him as a person one bit. All it’s done is allowed him to help more people.”
Youth baseball, like all amateur sports in the province, was shut down in March and began to resume in May, under baseline guidelines set forth by government agency viaSport.
It’s been just practices and skill development for most.
“Things were looking pretty bleak for a while,” Appleton said.
Things are looking uncertain for minor-league baseball moving forward, with the majors proposing a cost-cutting reshuffling as part of negotiations on a new affiliation agreement between the big leagues and the minors. The current deal is up in September.
There’s talk of 40 or so farm clubs being chopped from the system. The C’s don’t expect to be in jeopardy, but Dempster points out “there are places that are iconic that are going to be without teams.”
Baseball people are going to lose jobs, but it’s also going to affect people who work at the stadiums and fans, like the kid from Gibsons who was at the Nat all those years ago.
“He got a chance to talk to Donn Pall and hear that, if you work really hard, you could maybe make the majors one day — and then went on to become his teammate,” Dempster said. “You’re taking that chance for inspiration away.”
Dempster brought up the conversation in the bullpen at the Nat with Pall all those years later and “he was in disbelief” initially but then Pall “vaguely recalled the brief encounter.”
The C’s are renting out the Nat in two-hour time slots. Dunn won’t say how many Dempster has rented, but there are some still available. It’s $1,600 plus taxes. Visit canadiansbaseball.com.