Cameron Moving On After 39 Years at Moeller

By Dave Krider
MaxPreps.com

Mike Cameron retired this spring as the winningest baseball coach in Ohio history following a brilliant 39-year career at Cincinnati Moeller. He tutored such future major league stars as Ken Griffey, Jr., Barry Larkin and Buddy Bell while compiling a 767-303 record and winning four Division I state championships - each in a different decade.

He sent 130 players to college, 30 were either drafted or signed, and nine made it to the big leagues for at least a cup of coffee. He hated to cut kids and carried such a large roster (25 players) that when the Crusaders were on the road opponents would exclaim, "My gosh, you're bringing the French Foreign Legion!"

The Moeller baseball alumni have become a close-knit fraternity and just a few years ago raised $200,000 to build the state-of-art Mike Cameron Hitting Facility. At state tournament time, many take their vacations or at least send an e-mail to let the current players and coaching staff know they are backing them all the way.

As a freshman and sophomore at Cincinnati Purcell High School, Cameron worked in the visiting clubhouse at Crosley Field for the Cincinnati Reds. "That's where I got my love for baseball," he pointed out. "One player I always thought was a head above was Stan Musial (St. Louis Cardinals). He was very polite, very much a gentleman."

Not coincidentally, during that same stage of his life, Cameron decided to become a coach. "I loved the name `coach,''' he admitted. "Next to my father, a coach was a second father to me. They had respect. I had great admiration for it. I was influenced by many coaches that I had as far as effect on my philosophy of coaching."

Cameron calls former Moeller football coach Gerry Faust his mentor. He was Faust's assistant for 14 years and originally had wanted to be a head football coach. However, he was at Moeller only one year when he was named head baseball coach at age 24 and the rest is history.

"He taught me a lot about organization," Cameron said of Faust, who later became head coach at Notre Dame. "I always was amazed at how hard Gerry worked. One of my philosophies has been that I might get out-strategized but nobody was going to out-work me. I always thought Gerry understood the psychology of players - what motivated players and parents. He was fun to coach with."

Faust recalls first meeting Cameron, who then was a senior defensive halfback for the University of Cincinnati. He asked to interview for a coaching position at Moeller, where Faust also was the athletic director. Faust said he granted the interview to give the aspiring coach the "experience, but I wasn't going to hire him." After a one-hour interview, Faust was so impressed that he, indeed, did hire Cameron as an assistant in football and baseball.

"I was impressed with him as a person and where his priorities were," Faust related. "He was faith-based - and that always was very important to me - a competitor and I thought that he would be a perfect fit for Moeller. He is a tremendous individual, great with kids and he is one of my best friends. I am very proud of him."

The Moeller legend also found out that his young coach was a pretty fair innovator, too. The school had been losing athletes in spring sports during their senior year and didn't have an answer. One day Cameron suggested that any senior athlete who played a fall, winter and spring sport would receive a special trophy upon graduation. It worked like a charm, Faust said proudly.

Cameron is one of 10 children and has been a "sports junkie" all of his life. At Purcell High he played football and baseball. As a senior defensive halfback, the 5-10, 170-pounder returned four interceptions for touchdowns. He graduated in 1963 and received a football scholarship to the University of Cincinnati.

During his three varsity campaigns at UC, he rode the bench. He decided to quit football as a senior because he was going to marry his high school sweetheart in December. His father told him he would support him, but warned, "You want to go into coaching and no matter what you say, you're quitting."

Cameron recalled, "That's what got me. Looking back on that now, I am very proud that I didn't quit. When a kid wanted to quit I had something from my own experience to tell him."

During his first year as head baseball coach, Cameron was nicknamed "Mad Dog" because of his fiery demeanor. He was fortunate to inherit Buddy Bell, a senior, who now is the manager of the Kansas City Royals. "Buddy taught me more things than I taught him," Cameron claims. "He would say, `Coach, you've got to relax. This is baseball, not football.' I thought I was hot stuff - invented the game - but Buddy taught me more things (especially about the mental part of the game) than I taught him."

The Bell family connection runs deep in Cameron's life, all the way back to his high school days when he worked for the Reds and Buddy's father, Gus, was one of the team's top sluggers. "Gus would always say `hi' to me," Cameron noted. "Ten years later we became good friends. I had three of his kids and three of Buddy's kids.

"Gus told me, `They're all yours. I had my day in the sunshine. I want the game to belong to the kids.' He would sit as far down the right field line or left field line as he could get. That's the way Buddy was (with his boys), too. When Gus died, Buddy and two or three of his brothers asked me to read the eulogy. I was really taken aback by that because I had so much respect for Gus."

David Bell, a 12-year major leaguer who played for Moeller from 1988-90, says, "I have nothing but great memories of my whole experience. Coach Cameron has such a passion for kids. It shows in his success not only on the field but in the difference he's made in players' lives off the field."

Cameron says that he still is the closest to members of his first team (1969), which posted a 20-7 record and gave Moeller its first-ever league baseball title. Looking at his four state champions (1972, 1989, 1993 and 2004), he noted, "You're always bonded together. And my last team will always be close."

Referring to his record number of victories, the humble coach says, "I'm proud of it, but behind all those victories are the players and (assistant) coaches. I'm very honored, very excited and it really tops off your career."

Cameron and his wife, Nancy, have been married for 40 years. They have three children and six grand children. "She's been with me every step," he says proudly. "She's a fan. I was able to coach my son, Joe. Fifteen years later we both think it was a great deal."

The 62-year-old Cameron has been on somewhat of an odyssey since his retirement. In late June Sycamore Township held a "Mike Cameron Day." A week later the Reds had him throw out the first ball - caught by Ken Griffey Jr. - prior to a game against the defending World Series-champion St. Louis Cardinals. He also threw out the first ball in 2004 and 2000.

Moeller officials, alumni and parents are going to honor him on Oct. 20 during a football game against Lakewood St. Edward. This same group is going to send him and his wife to spring training next year in Clearwater, Fla. In 1993 the Camerons were given a Caribbean cruise. "I feel very humbled and honored," Cameron says.

Cameron is a member of St. Margaret of York Catholic Church in Loveland where one of his former assistant coaches, Father Tom Kriedler, is the pastor. "I've always gone to church," he says. "You need a spiritual base because it helps give you a peace when things don't go the way you'd like."

He definitely will have to summon up some extra "peace" next spring when baseball season rolls around without him on the coaching sidelines. "I've enjoyed the relationships the most," he says. "Without a doubt, I'm going to go through withdrawal when our state clinic comes along."

Helping him ease into retirement will be his best friend, Paul Smith, who retired four years ago after 29 years as Cameron's assistant coach. "Mike and I always had talked about going out together and when he finally decided to retire, I was happy," Smith said.

Nicknamed "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" by an opposing coach, Cameron and Smith didn't always agree, but that "made both of us stronger," according to Smith, who turned down several head-coaching jobs over the years. "He always tried to shift the limelight to me. There was no ego with Mike. I had no desire to leave because he let me do my own thing."

Smith says the thing he "admired the most about Mike was how he was able to get the most out of kids. He pushed really gifted kids just as much as those with less ability. He was one of the fairest guys I ever met. He taught more than baseball. He was a "lunch-pail" type of coach.

"My buddy's back," he laughed.

Baseball Notes

* Iowa, which plays summer - instead of spring - baseball, is producing some great hitting feats. Junior Alex McCarty hit two grand-slams and a solo homer while driving in a state-record 14 runs as Corning crushed Afton East Union, 37-1. The national RBI record is 17.

* Mason City Newman sophomore Jordan Adams, who has been playing varsity baseball since eighth grade, hammered the fifth grand-slam of his career to establish another Iowa state record.

* Tony Scardino is leaving a very successful career as head coach at Bishop Kelley (Tulsa, Okla.) to be an assistant at Blue Valley West (Overland Park, Kan.). Scardino, who led the Comets to a pair of Class 5A state titles and one runner-up finish in the last four years, will be assisting his former prep coach, Bill McDonald, who won the Kansas Class 6A crown this spring.

Football Notes

* Notre Dame Prep (Scottsdale, Ariz.) quarterback Sean Renfree announced that he will attend Georgia Tech. As a junior the 6-3, 205-pounder passed for 2,500 yards and 25 touchdowns. He threw just five interceptions.

* Darryl Stonum, a wide receiver from Dulles (Sugar Land, Texas), has made a commitment to the University of Michigan. The 6-2, 180-pounder made 47 catches as a junior for 1,029 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Potpourri

* One of the nation's premier hockey players, Andy Iles, is transferring from New York state champion Ithaca to Salisbury, Conn., School. Iles had a spectacular season as a freshman goalie, recording 36 saves in the state-championship contest. For the year he had a 0.95 goals-against average and a .958 save percentage while being named Section 3's Most Outstanding Player.

* UCLA landed a major prize when Jrue Holiday made a recent commitment. The 6-4 standout averaged 23.1 points, 9.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists as a junior for Campbell Hall (North Hollywood, Calif.).