Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a profile of new Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry this morning, discussing Petry’s decision to pick playing hockey over playing baseball:
How do you tell your dad, a World Series-winning MLB hurler, that his sport wasn’t going to be your sport? That was the dilemma facing Jeff as he readied to broach the subject with his dad, former Detroit Tigers pitcher Dan Petry.
“It just came to a point where I guess I had to man up and go home and tell my dad I wanted to focus on my hockey career,” Jeff recalled.
He stressed over breaking his father’s heart. As things turned out, there was no cause for concern. Dan’s response was that Jeff should be pursuing his passion.
“He was great,” Jeff remembered of his dad’s response. “I should have done it a couple of years earlier. He never wanted to force us into anything.
As Jeff was working his way up the hockey prospect ladder, all Dan could offer was encouragement.
“I don’t know anything (about hockey), so there was no pressure on him,” Dan said. “I didn’t know what to tell him other than to go out and play hard.”
Continued; counting Austin Czarnik toward the total, the Wings have 5 Michigan natives on their roster for the upcoming season, and, in Andrew Copp, another two-sport star (Copp was a quarterback for Ann Arbor Skyline in high school).
