Ryan Dempster

Ryan Scott Dempster (born May 3, 1977 in Gibsons, British Columbia) is a Canadian baseball player. As of 2013, he is a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball.

Career
Dempster was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 3rd round of the 1995 MLB Draft. On August 8, 1996, the Rangers traded him along with Rick Helling to the Marlins for John Burkett. He made his MLB debut for the Florida Marlins on May 23, 1998. He would play for the Marlins from 1998 to 2002. 

On July 11, 2002, Dempster was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for Juan Encarnacion, Wilton Guerrero and Ryan Snare. He played for the Reds from 2002 to 2003. In August 2003, he underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and missed the rest of the season.

He was then released by the Reds and was signed by the Chicago Cubs as a free agent on January 21, 2004. He played for the Cubs from 2004 to 2012 and was then traded to the team that drafted him, the Texas Rangers. 

He only played a year with the Rangers however and signed a two-year contract worth $26.5 million with the Boston Red Sox after the 2012 season.

Personal
In early June 2009, he released a statement in which he explained the his daughter, Riley Dempster, had DiGeorge syndrome. He released the statement because he wanted to help raise awareness of the genetic disease. When he was asked if his daughter would be able to lead a normal life, he replied, "Yeah, she will. There can be (problems), but so far all the signs are good. There’s a lot of work to do. They say there are 186 symptoms you can have. You just check off ones as you go along". His daughter was able to go home in early June after 2 months in the hospital.

References

Other websites
Ryan Dempster's MLB player profile

Category:Boston Red Sox players
Category:Canadian baseball players
Category:Chicago Cubs players
Category:Cincinnati Reds players
Category:Florida Marlins players
Category:Sportspeople from British Columbia
Category:Texas Rangers players
Category:1977 births
Category:Living people