It’s been more than a decade since Ryan Dempster fired a pitch behind Alex Rodriguez’s knees at Fenway Park, and after two more pitches in on his hands, plunked the Yankee third baseman right in the elbow guard.
The former Red Sox righty told Evan and Tiki, in advance of A-Rod Day at the FAN, that the moment was actually months in the making, beginning in the backyard of his parents’ house during a family gathering for the holidays.
“To be honest, before anything came out about the allegations and suspensions, I was having a beer in the backyard with my brothers at my parents place around Christmas time when I signed with the Red Sox,” Dempster began. “My brother goes ‘Dude, you should hit A-Rod in your first time at Fenway.’”
Fast forward back to August of 2013, and Rodriguez, in the midst of appealing a 211-game suspension for steroid use, stared down Dempster with his hand on his hip as manager Joe Girardi poured out of the dugout and berated home plate umpire Brian O'Nora, nearly striking him in the face with a left hook gesture, which nearly hit O’Nora.
Both benches were issued a warning, and Rodriguez got the ultimate payback when he drilled a Dempster fastball over the fence in dead center for a home run that keyed a Yankees comeback win.
Still, Dempster didn’t regret plunking Rodriguez.
“It only took two. The other two, I figured - if I threw it down and away, like I did later in the game, he hits it out of the ballpark,” Dempster said. “We all make choices in life. Alex got a lot of money and he could afford beer for the rest of his life, I wanted to make sure I never had to pay for one in Boston. I think it worked out.
“I don’t regret a lot of things…at the end of the day, in the moment, I was making that decision on what I thought was the right thing to do.”
If there was any initial regret, especially after Rodriguez answered with a homer, Dempster quickly let it go after enjoying some time off as a result of his actions.
“I will argue I got the best paid five-day vacation ever,” Dempster said. “When we went to San Francisco afterwards, I walked in the office on a Tuesday and John Farrell said I was suspended. I said ‘For hitting a suspended guy? That’s weird.’ So I left. I said ‘I’m gonna throw a bullpen and leave so it can’t be turned into a bigger story,’ and it worked…it was great.”
