Ryan Dempster had a great MLB career. He played for 16 seasons, including eight and a half with the Cubs. He won a World Series in his final season with the 2013 Boston Red Sox.
But Dempster told NBC Sports Chicago’s David Kaplan that he actually grew up wanting to be a hockey player.
“I always had this aspiration of thinking I could be Wayne Gretzky, or for me Mario Lemieux,” Dempster said. “That was the guy I admired the most. But reality was, it wasn’t in my cards.
“I was a much better baseball player, I kinda skated like Happy Gilmore. So it was not really something I was going to do growing up.”
Beyond not being a great skater, his family also didn’t have the resources or time to support hockey along with all the other sports he and his brothers played.
“As a kid growing up, the hockey rink was about 30 minutes from our house. With two younger brothers, when my parents could finally afford for us to be playing some hockey-- gear was expensive, all of those kinds of things-- we were on three different teams and my mom’s ripping one of us out at 5:30 a.m. and then coming back and taking another one out.
“Finally after that season she’s like, ‘Alright boys, listen, you boys can play hockey and no other sports, or every sport and no hockey.’ We loved every other sport so it was kinda easy, but I missed it.”
NHL
What do you think, could you imagine Dempster donning the Indian Head sweater instead of the Cubbies’ pinstripes?
RELATED: Why Jonathan Toews compared Patrick Kane's game preparation to Michael Jordan's
Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Blackhawks easily on your device.