OUR ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW WITH CAM CANNARELLA

Just before the season started, I requested a one-on-one interview with Cam Cannarella. It wasn't a slight to anyone else on the team, but for me personally, there was a goal. I consider myself a baseball purist. I analyze everything and put myself in the players’ shoes, whether they are at the plate or playing defense. I study everything down to the finest detail. It's just what I do. I have been doing it for over 20 years.

Throughout the last six years on CUTigers, you have seen me use the word “drive” as a ball was hit. It's just part of the baseball vernacular that I use when I am covering the Tigers. My interview with Cam takes us back to his beginnings, when his love for baseball was born. He reminds me in many ways of my son, who was an accomplished high school ball player. When you watch our interview, I want you to listen to the details and how he became the player he is today.

From the preparation to lacing up the spikes, to the frustrations and, more importantly, his attitude toward handling those frustrations. At the end of it, I decided to let him have a little bit of fun and ask me a question. After all, we get to ask all the questions and the players graciously answer them, win or lose. I figured I would give him a chance to put me in the hot seat.

Cam is the one guy that does everything right. Please don't mistake that for being perfect, but he is a coach’s dream. There are lots of players who can hit the baseball, but only a few know how to really drive the ball. I have seen Cam’s frustrations boil over when he makes contact with the baseball, and yet it continuously finds the defender’s glove. I will not sit here and say he doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve—because he is a competitor—but when it matters most, that is when he shines the brightest. Sometimes you have to feel sorry for the baseball when he takes those emotions and releases them.

The last three years have provided us moments that only prepping the right way makes those moments become legendary. Three years ago, it was the homerun against Tennessee that sent the game into extra innings before he was ejected for reasons that have yet to be explained. Two years ago, when Florida hit that ball to the wall in the Super Regional, it looked like it was season over for the Tigers. Out of nowhere, Cam made a Willie Mays catch that extended the game into extra innings. This season, there was the catch at Florida State that would have been a homerun if anyone else had been in center. Then there was his last at bat in a Clemson uniform, when we saw the human side of Cannarella, as tears streamed down his face. What more could you ask from a guy who was not one of the Tigers’ biggest recruits over the years but became the face of the program after a Freshman All-American season and stayed when others looked for greener pastures. He embodied Clemson and will leave a lasting legacy.

One thing that caught my attention, and you will see this in our interview, is the difference in the how NIL and the transfer portal impacted the college landscape from his recruitment to now. If you go back and listen to the interview with Coach Gilmore right before he retired, the state of college baseball before NIL and the state of college baseball now are completely different. Cam stayed the course, courtesy of what I would call great advice from his grandparents. As you will see in the interview, Cam states how happy he is that he stayed at Clemson. There was some doubt when Monte Lee was let go and went to South Carolina whether Cam would pack his bags and transfer to the Gamecocks.

There have been great baseball players to come through Clemson. Khalil Greene, Seth Beer, Jeff Baker, Kris Benson, Billy Koch, Matthew LeCroy, the list goes on and on. I have no problem telling you that, as far as I’m concerned, Cam Cannarella is at the top of the list. There were a lot of players before Cam and there will be a lot of players after him. As Magic Johnson once told Larry Bird, there will never, ever be another Larry Bird. In my opinion, there will never be another Cam Cannarella. Build the statue right now, and when you put his name on the wall, make sure it is directly in centerfield.