Ryan Dempster has been waiting all winter for the 2013 season to begin and with good reason.
For the 35-year-old starting pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, the necessity to win now could not be emphasized enough in his off-season preparation.
Dempster has already started out this season in fine form, although he is still in limbo awaiting his first win in four starts.
For Dempster, travel has become a new way of life as the Gibsons native spent months living out of a suitcase and then relocating once again for the 2013 season.
Dempster pitched for nine seasons with the Chicago Cubs, but found himself on the move to the Texas Rangers prior to the 2012 trade deadline.
"I'm a pretty smart guy and understand baseball and the politics of it," he said in an interview during the Rex Sox April 5 to 7 visit to Toronto. "It's not something that I was terribly excited to do. Obviously when you play somewhere that long, you have the thought in your mind that you are gonna play there the rest of your career. But at the same time, with the direction the team was going, I wanted to help them get some players back."
Going to Texas also meant "it was exciting to get to go to a team that was contending for a playoff spot. It was a mixed bag of emotions as I played there [Chicago] for nine years, but it all worked out."
As the 2012 campaign ended, it would have made sense for Dempster to stay put in Texas, but that also had a strange turn as to which uniform he would ultimately don for this season.
"Texas was awesome - amazingly first-class organization, especially the way they treat players and their families. Guys there were all about winning, as they had been to the World Series the past couple of years. I understood that I was a short-term rental," he said.
The choice to go from a team such as the Rangers to the cellar dwellers of the American League East seems as if it should have been an easy decision.
"Of all the teams interested in me, I felt that it was the best chance to go out and compete for a World Series. It was my number one driving goal," he said. "At this point in my career I want to try to get the ring, and I looked at the players they were adding, and everything, and I was quite excited about it.
"Going to the playoffs is our goal. It has never changed and we all talk about it a lot. It's like anything, the more you talk about things, the more you believe them and see them."
Much of the veteran presence that has always been a strength on Boston has now disappeared. With Dempster in the lineup, some of that much-needed veteran leadership has been buoyed.
"I'm a pretty loose guy and enjoy making people laugh," Dempster said. "As a player you go about your work, try to set an example as you go about things. As a personality you try to keep things loose. When you play in a big market, in a tough division, you have to keep things light and loose otherwise life will just grind on you. You have to realize that we are just playing a game and have fun doing it."
The excitement of playing and contributing to a team on a daily basis is evident from Dempster's rapid response to the question that people often ask him about: "What are you going to do when you're done baseball?"
"I haven't even stopped playing ball. I'm still living my dream," he said. "Growing up I never thought that I would make this kind of money. It is really incredible and I feel lucky and blessed - the security for my family, parents and the stuff I can do in the community with that kind of resources. As a little kid taking the ferry over to play for the North Shore Twins to being in my 16th year in the majors seems surreal, sometimes unbelievable. If you put your mind to something and stay determined, you can pretty much do anything you want."
