Dan Petry has spent considerable time in Central Florida.
A former major-league pitcher who won a World Series with Detroit in 1984, and now a television analyst for the Tigers, Petry has made “countless baseball trips” to the Sunshine State.
Now he’s hoping for at least one more hockey-related trip.
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Petry’s son, Jeff, is a defenseman for the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens recently staved off elimination and forced a Game 5 in Tampa with a 3-2 overtime victory in Game 4. Dan knows that Game 5 can mean finality — he started Game 5 of the 1984 World Series when the Tigers closed out the San Diego Padres — but he’ll be at his son’s Game 5 hoping for a Game 7. He’s hopeful that the Canadiens can do what the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs did to the Detroit Red Wings when they erased a 3-0 series deficit to win the Stanley Cup.
The Petrys were, expectedly, a baseball family. But while growing up in Southeastern Michigan, Jeff and his brother, Matt, took up hockey “because it was Hockeytown,” according to Dan. Dan says he always wanted the kids to play multiple sports, but he realized his family might be a hockey one once USHL scouts starting look at Jeff as a high schooler.
“I had no idea really how any of this worked. It’s different than baseball. In baseball you don’t get asked to leave high school when you are 16 or 17 and go somewhere else,” Dan said. “So when he had this opportunity it was like, “Whoa, he really has a chance to do something with this sport.'”
When Jeff went to Michigan State, Dan reached out to former Detroit Red Wings assistant GM Jim Nill, who is now the general manager of the Dallas Stars, for advice on the hockey world.
“He was a bigger deal to me than I was to him,” Nill said. “I followed baseball, this is Dan Petry, he won a World Series as a starting pitcher … if anyone was asking for anyone’s autograph it was me bothering him.”
Dan Petry won 119 games with the Tigers. (AP Photo)
While Nill jokes about his meeting with Dan, the elder Petry continues to be extremely thankful for the advice. He’s also been reflective of an unexpected hockey path while watching Jeff in the Stanley Cup Final.
“I was trying to think about that, as I was watching the game last night and it was, you just sat there and just went ‘Oh my gosh,'” Dan said. “You know, this is the World Series of hockey, you know, and he’s right in the center of it. That’s such a cool thing, we would have never thought about that when we first signed him up just to play another sport.”
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Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Petry family’s ability to celebrate this run to the Stanley Cup Final has been limited. Dan and his wife, Christine, haven’t been able to get into Canada to watch games, and when traveling to Vegas or Tampa for games in the final two rounds they’ve only seen Jeff in passing, “from a distance, both with masks on,” to make sure no protocols are broken.
While the pandemic has been tough for both father and son, it has made Dan treasure some other memories a bit more. In March 2020, soon before the world started to shutter, the Canadiens had an off day in Tampa and Jeff organized a trip to the Tigers spring training site where Dan was able to throw batting practice to Jeff and his teammates, including Carey Price, Shea Weber, Brendan Gallagher and Artturi Lehkonen.
Dan said all of the hockey players translated well to baseball. Weber had the most power at the plate, “you could tell this guy had played before,” while Price surprised everyone with his first swing of the bat.
“It was the first or second pitch I threw and he hit one onto the berm in left field and it went out,” Dan said. “It was a big thrill, I was kind of thinking about that (watching Game 1). I was throwing BP to this guy, and here he is, and I’m watching him in the Stanley Cup Final with Jeff. As a dad, it was a really great way to connect.”
One player that truly surprised Jeff with his ability to hit was Lehkonen.
“I had met his dad a few months prior and he had taught me about baseball, it’s a different version in Finland, Pesäpallo,” Dan said. “It’s wild, and it’s the national sport over there. I had just assumed it was hockey only over there, so he swung the bat really well, he was more advanced than some others.”
Dan is hopeful he’ll be able to throw batting practice to Jeff and his teammates again, perhaps later in the 2021-22 season. For now, he’s just hoping for a reason to book another trip to Florida for Game 7.
(Top photo of Jeff Petry: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
