Ryan Dempster Hits 2,000 Career Strikeouts

Photo Courtesy of NESN

Ryan Dempster today hit 2,000 career strikeouts, which makes him only the 5th active player to accomplish that feat. The other 4 active players are Andy Petite (2,368), CC Sabathia (2,294), Roy Halliday (2,201), and AJ Burnett (2,070) according to NESN. I'm sure if you ask him, he won't worry about that, but this puts him in an elite category among active players. As I mentioned, there are only 4 others who are active to hit that milestone.

Per Red Sox Life's own Jan-Christian Sorenson, Dempster is only the second Canadian player to hit 2,000 punch outs, the other being, Ferguson "Fergie" Jenkins. A quick background check on Baseball Reference shows that Jenkins pitched for 18 years (1965 - 1983) and pitched for 4 different clubs, including a 2 year stint with the Red Sox. He had a total of 3,192 according to his Baseball Reference page. He was also inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991.

Getting to 2,000 strikeouts doesn't come easy. It takes a lot of hard work to get to that point, but if you can get there, I'm sure it's a great feeling, despite whatever a player might say about being focused on one game at a time, etc. Currently, Dempster is also on pace to break his personal single season record of 209, according to NESN. That may or may not happen, though. The important thing is that he keeps pitching like he has.

But congratulations, Ryan. Enjoy it, and keep it up.

Twitter - @ConorJF1016
Conor Frederick
Contributing Writer