Cubs class clown Ryan Dempster had them in stitches during Saturday’s game when he did his infamous impression of Harry Caray with an added twist of giving up eight hits and walking six in a 4-3 loss to the Yankees at Wrigley Field.
“Holy cow! Can you believe that?” Dempster asked in his Harry Caray voice after walking Alex Rodriguez to load the bases in the first. “Imagine if I threw that last pitch on the moon. Maybe it wouldn’t have been a foot and a half out of the strike zone.”
Dempster’s Harry Caray impression normally lasts just a few minutes, but Saturday he took it into the sixth after batting for himself in the fifth, despite having thrown 110 pitches to that point. Manager Mike Quade said he normally would have pinch-hit for Dempster, but wanted the comedian pitcher to have an encore.
“Yeah I would have pulled most pitchers by that point, especially with the game tied at two,” said Quade, “but I wanted to see if Demp could keep the laughs coming for another few batters.”
Sure enough, Dempster’s hilarity continued when he worked himself into a one-out jam with runners at the corners. Quade finally pulled Dempster for James Russell who promptly gave up a sacrifice fly to Curtis Granderson, breaking the 2-2 tie. The Yankees never relinquished their lead.
Watching Russell give up the sac fly, Dempster couldn’t resist breaking into the Caray impression one more time.
“Aww, who’d have thunk it?” asked Dempster. “Maybe next time Tim Russert will get Curtis Grand Piano to ground into a double play. That would be just great.”
