Cameron Jeannie joined the Thunderbolts prior to the 2015 season. He became a fixture in their bullpen over the course of that year And he returns to Thunderbolts in 2016 taking on the role of the teams closer And I'm pleased that Cameron Jeannie joining me today in the press box and welcome. Thanks for having me great to be here I'm gonna ask you of course later on about your life with the Thunderbolts your career over the last season plus now But let's start way back at the beginning the first question I usually like to ask guys is why baseball what got you started? What got you interested in sport?
to be honest I started playing T ball and You know I loved it from there and continued to play littly a little league every year and it became travel ball in high school ball And it was really the sport that I just kind of connected with you were from Danville, Virginia, correct? Yes, tell us something about Danville. What's what's there next? It's a small town on the border of North Carolina, Virginia, and it's actually home to the rookie ball affiliate of the Atlanta Braves Did you become a Braves fan?
I actually I grew up a Braves fan. It's kind of the team of the South There's no real pro teams in our area besides there and Having the rookie ball team in my hometown help getting to see the young guys as they work their way up Did you get that chance as a kid going out to some iron games? Did you see anybody who you eventually saw in the big leagues and remembered from seeing in the minors? I did I got to see quite a few Andrew Jones came through Tommy Hanson Chris Medlin actually bat boyed for a year for the Braves And that was the year that Tommy Hanson Chris Medlin and Tyler Flowers all came through the big leagues Alright, I have to ask you about that and now how did you end up getting that job as a fan boy?
I Knew the general manager of the team here as a friend of my family and I applied for the job that summer And I was one of about four or five guys that kind of rotated in and out That's pretty cool. I mean like you said baseball's pretty much been always part of your life then Yeah, it was definitely a blast I was a great summer, you know I got the best seat in the house right by the on deck circle and you know I got to spend time in the clubhouse and really get to see what Pro Ball was like for the first time Let's go into high school. Do you went to hard-graved military Academy? Is that correct?
Yes, is that a real military school? Yes, it's a full-blown military school Chatham, Virginia It's actually one of the last few military schools in the country I believe and it was definitely a fun experience So how well trained are you should I just try to avoid ever making you mad? Is that generally the idea? No, there was no like combat training per se we learned, you know marching Information the military system of respect and chain of command But as far as like firing any weapons or anything like that That never went that far So I don't have to be worried about you're hurting me, but I do need to make sure that you're showing me respect Is that right?
That's right. That was a big thing, you know Definitely was taught from an early age and especially there to respect authority. Yes, sir No, sir that kind of thing so it was good. How long were you there?
Was that just high school or was that something you started with when you were younger? I was there for the last three years of high school. Okay, and was baseball big there? It was it was a big sport school actually it was an all-boy school and the President from him all the way down we're big and athletic so that was kind of a sense of pride with our school a lot of guys who End up as pitchers professionally or in college or down the line a lot of them started out playing another position Usually I mean I haven't played since little league But when I was in little league all the pitchers on the team were also the best hitters on the team were you an offensive player at all I was um I grew up idolizing chipper Jones So short stop and third base for my favorite spots when I was younger and I was lucky enough to get the place short stop and third base Mostly all throughout high school.
So then when did you start to commit to exclusively pitching? Um, I could have pursued hitting in college. I may I wasn't quite as as good of a hitter as a pitcher And when I went to school my freshman year, I was basically told that if I wanted to pitch a lot I needed to Or pitch a lot early that I needed to give up hitting so You ended up going to liberty for your freshman year of college. Yes.
What was the recruiting process like and why did you choose that school? Uh, it was actually a lot of fun. Um, it's a christian school in southern, virginia and It's a really big school. Um, you know, it's they've got all kinds of buildings going up left and right It's a definitely a growing school and I got to know the coaches during my junior year I went to some camps there played some games there and uh, it was it was a lot of fun I know I'm familiar with the school a little bit more for basketball than for baseball I've seen them in the NCAA tournament a few times.
Uh, what was it specifically? You think that attracted you there when you were leaving high school? Uh The baseball program seemed to be on the rise and just the environment on campus Um, you know, they were adding more into the enrollment every year Just kind of a sense of excitement with all the new buildings going up and uh, it just seemed like a really good place to be First year in college you split time between the starting rotation and the bullpen. How was that process like for you?
Did you want to be a starter? Did you want to be a reliever and what was the relationship like with the coach that uh, that led you to kind of flip roles every now and then? Uh, honestly, you know going in as a freshman, I was excited and I just wanted any chance to be on the field and pitch Um, and it kind of just turned into wherever they needed me. Um, you know, I had experiences at starter in high school obviously The bullpen was a newer thing to me, but I tried to learn quickly as best I could and Really we just kind of rode the hot hand that year.
So if you were throwing well, you might get a start Uh, continue to throw well. They'd need you on the weekend series for a conference game So it just kind of turned into that I always like to ask guys when they're playing high school Because so many people play high school baseball and the vast majority of them do not go on to play collegately for you What was the moment where you realized this is something I can continue to do? It's something I want to continue to do and I'm good enough to play not just in college, but at a high level in college Uh, I want to say it was between maybe my sophomore and junior year Uh, up to that point, you know, I just wanted to make the varsity team and have a good high high school career and After my sophomore year, which was my first year playing varsity I went to a couple camps that summer And threw the ball well and started to get some interest from Some college coaches and that kind of started to creep into the picture So you ended up at Liberty for one year you left Liberty after your freshman year and went on to play junior college ball in Texas, is that correct? Yes, so take us through that process.
Uh, when I finished my first year at Liberty, um, you know, I got a chance to play a lot and Some things have happened and I just kind of decided that maybe that wasn't the place that was the best for my future Um, and I was looking for another opportunity and I wanted a chance to play right away and not have to sit out if I transferred to another division One school and I was lucky enough to get connected with sandjack and You kind of took off from there. You said that uh, you are from Virginia. We knew that you were from Virginia You went to uh college initially that was not far from home Suddenly you're in Texas now When was the first time that you really traveled away from home? Was that it or had you been away for a significant period of time before?
That was my first time away from home for a while I had been able to travel a bit for baseball in high school, but it was just a weak thing or a weekend This was definitely the first time I was truly away from home. How was that experience for you? Did you like it? I love Texas.
Uh, the weather was great down there. It's hot all the time And Texas was just so different from my hometown. Uh, I really enjoyed the experience. It was tough being away from my family Um, you know, I got to go home for holidays and they came down to visit some too, so that was not too bad But it was definitely a different experience.
So you spent the one year at Liberty the one year at San Jacinto in Texas How was that year when you think back on your sophomore year of college? What are the memories that really come to mind? Uh, well, unfortunately I wasn't able to play that season in the spring. I had Tommy John surgery a week before the season But I was able to participate fully in the fall and really had a great time down there.
It's a great place to play baseball and Got to experience it at least someone in the fall through our fall schedule Obviously as far as Tommy John surgery is concerned a lot of guys have it Uh, these days it's becoming more and more common at really all levels of baseball And I'm sure you could see especially at the major league level guys who have that surgery and come back in our as good as ever But when you first got hurt, what was it like for you? What was going through your mind and at what point did you think? Um, start thinking specifically about getting back on the field again Uh, honestly, it was really a shock when it happened. I'd had a great season with san Jacx so far Uh, was really excited to start our season there and you know, it was tough.
I had grown up playing Basically year round You know from the high school season all the way through to late fall So being being forced to you know step back from throwing and playing for such a long period of time was definitely Uh, tough pill to swallow at first. You weren't out for too long. You ended up transferring back to a division one school You went to southern Mississippi, but before we get to specifics of your last couple of years of college Talk about your recovery from Tommy john's surgery. What was it like how many people did you have helping you work through that?
Uh, certainly if it happens to you at a professional level You're going to have trainers and teams of guys who are really trying to help you through it and rehab with you when you're in college I would imagine it's a little bit different and especially probably at a junior college You're not necessarily going to have the same resources. How was the recovery from the surgery? It was actually very very amazing. Uh, the coaches at san Jacinto gave me every resource I could have possibly asked for Uh, with the with the surgery and the recovery actually was able to have dr.
Andrews perform my surgery and was able to rehab Through the Houston Astros doctor team while I finished my spring semester there and then from that point I Transferred to southern and started some classes that summer and was able to continue my rehab there with their training team and so it was a As smooth as I could have asked for of a process We talked about your initial recruiting process when you went from high school to liberty Now you're kind of going through it again. You're leaving a junior college. You want to go back to a four-year university to continue playing baseball Why southern Mississippi? Coach kai was a recruiting coordinator at southern miss and he saw me at some point during the fall Called me a few days later so that they wanted to bring me in for an official visit Um, it was cool because I kind of been through the process once and I had a better idea of what to look for And I got to fly into Hattiesburg for a weekend see a football game All that cool stuff get to see the facilities the campus meet the guys and it was a really good time You're at southern Mississippi 2012 through 2014 Uh kind of up and down pitching out of the bullpen for the first couple of years and then your senior year You had a really impressive start or impressive run of starts So it's been a whole season as a starting pitcher So I asked you before when you were a freshman about the difference between starting and relieving well Now you're a little bit older.
You're at maybe a slightly bigger program and you're exclusively a reliever Switching your senior to exclusively a starter whose idea was that um? It was kind of a mixture, uh, you know my first two years. I was like you said a primary reliever Uh my first year was especially tough just coming back from tommy john kind of trying to figure out, you know What type of picture I was again after that process of being out and going into my senior year We had lost some guys in our rotation and I knew that I had the capability of starting I Approached the coaches at the end of the season and I was like, hey, you know, I would like to be a starter next year And I was going to play summer ball in the north woods league So he basically said, okay, well, you know go prove it to us this summer You know show us that you can do it in the north woods league and you know, maybe that's bottle be yours Got your north woods league numbers right here 5 and 2 275 e r a You struck out 55 walked only 16 and 50 to 130 So obviously you proved yourself you came back to southern this as a starter your senior year Like I said before had a really good year as a starter at southern this so then of course the next step is professional baseball the Draft comes out very shortly after your senior and southern miss what what did you feel at the time? What did you heard about your possibility of getting drafted?
Uh to be honest the draft is such a confusing process and it seems like the more you expect it less you really know I was hoping you have a chance as a quote unquote senior sign Um, you know looking just to get that shot to keep playing at the next level And I finished my year pretty strongly and I hope that I had done enough and The draft kind of came and went and didn't happen for me and at that point it was kind of a scramble to be like, okay What's the next best option? Yeah, there's some other points in your life where you really have to consider that and we talked about it High school how do you know that you can play at the next level and then in college? What makes you think that you can play at the next level? Well, you played at a pretty high profile program in college you put up some good numbers So obviously you must have felt at that point that you were ready to take the next step and move on to the next level But after you weren't drafted was there ever a consideration that maybe you were done playing baseball?
No, no, not at all. I you know Through my career in college I'd played against and with a lot of guys that were able to go to that next level through the draft and I thought that personally I had the skill set to match up with some of those guys and Once the draft kind of came and went and was like, okay, well that didn't happen So what's the next quickest way for me to get to that level? You ended up in Traverse City, Michigan But your first stop as a professional playing for the beach bombs a frontier league team arrival of the Thunderbolts But coming from the southeast I would imagine you didn't have too much of a connection with the frontier league in midwest league So was it you putting your name out there or was it simply getting a call from Traverse City and saying we're looking for a pitcher? Uh to be honest, I'm not totally positive how it happened.
I did email quite a few of the frontier league teams And obviously I've had a good senior year so that may have put me on the radar But I think it was around the end of June and I got a call from Their team that they're starting a homestand on Tuesday I think it was a sunday night and that they'd like me to be there for that opener. So I got up there Like I said, you're from Virginia. There's no frontier league teams anywhere around there are some east coast independent leagues Although I don't think there are any really that that stretched down south to Virginia But who were you sending emails to you said a lot of frontier league teams? Were you looking for independent teams everywhere?
Did you just kind of blanket the independent ranks? I did um, I kind of you know, just you know team websites trying to find an email address to Kind of send it out to and kind of put together a little resume in my career and who I was and you know Hopefully that was enough to to garner some interest with the team And of course it did with the Traverse City Beach one So you make it up there you're there for the start of the homestand and I believe the thunderbolts were part of that homestand One of your first career games was against windy city. I remember correctly back in july of 2014. What was it like adjusting to life in Traverse City?
It was definitely a big change You know in college baseball everything's kind of planned out for you. You know, you have your workouts You have study hall you have class you have practice and That was the biggest adjustment getting to professional baseball is everything becomes How you make it and you really have to? Dedicate your day really to the game. I think that in some ways that's a struggle when you don't have somebody watching out for you All the time making sure you're staying focused, but in other ways I'm sure it's got to be very liberating for you that if you want to do say an interview at 11 o'clock on a saturday morning You just come on down to the press box and you get to talk to me Whereas in college you might have a more strict schedule where you don't have that flexibility to go out and do what you want during the day and show The ballpark ready to pitch at night.
How did you weigh the positives and the negatives of that? It was definitely a learning process. You know as a young guy being there for my rookie year You know, I kind of tried to latch on with some of the more successful experienced guys and kind of mimic their routines as best I could and just tried to Learn something new or make myself better some way every day Take us to the pitchers mom back in july of 2014 your first career game you just arrived coming in from Virginia You'd play baseball that previous spring at suddenness and here you are now as a professional baseball player for the first time What was going through your head? I was pretty exciting.
I Honestly was not expecting to go in that first day myself and another guy had both been signed that day and we had kind of thrown bullpen to show the Coaches, you know what we had give them an idea and I said you're probably not gonna go in today Tomorrow will be your first day really being live and it turned into one of those kind of slugfest games and I think it was the fifth or sixth inning. I got the call down there Hey, we need you to go in tonight start getting ready As a one of the veteran guys now when you see a new pitcher come in and you're the coach is telling you're probably not gonna pitch Nice. You ever kind of smirked yourself thinking. I don't know about that Yeah, it's it definitely can run through my mind You know it kind of brings back those memories and it makes you want to look out for those guys So take us through that first season in Traverse City The overall numbers weren't great, but obviously good enough at times to get noticed and you stuck around Traverse City for a while So many guys come in struggle at the beginning and you never see him again You struggle a little bit but you hung around so coaches obviously saw something in you in Traverse City But your overall impressions of your first season as a pro Ah, you know, it was a lot of fun Getting used to the travel all the new towns kind of getting to learn the league and and try to figure out You know the best way to have success.
I now definitely had some ups and downs But I kind of tried to just stick to the process and keep my head down and just not give the coaches any reason to let me go Over the off season after that first year in Traverse City You pitched in the california winter league and if i'm not mistaken, that's where you first got in touch with rondiga So talk about that process going to california Obviously, that's got to be a different experience for you as well and then ended up getting signed with thunderbolts Yeah, that was a that was a great time going into that off season. I kind of said, okay, you know, I didn't have the year that I wanted I'm gonna you know rededicate myself to getting in my best possible condition getting stronger Hopefully getting better on the mound And I was released by Traverse so I was looking for another option and I actually went to the frontier website to look and see what dates their trial was And happened to see at the bottom the link for the california winter league I started to read a little more about it and decided that was something that I wanted to do So you go out to california, how was that it's got to be nice going to california to play baseball in the winter I would imagine how was that experience for you? It was amazing, you know, I left the cold of the winter in Virginia and I show up in palm springs and it's you know Beautiful every day and I rubbed you for just a second you're speaking to a guy who lives in chicago during the winter So I don't want to hear about the cold of the Virginia winter Well at that point I had not experienced any colder of a winter so at that point for me that was cold But you know the weather was amazing And the league itself was was great. There's a lot of great coaches out there And you know obviously they're looking to sign guys but at the same time it was a A chance for me to really develop for a moment So how did your relationship develop with run viga to the point where he decided to give you a contract?
I was uh fortunate enough to be on his team out there And we had a small pitching staff so every pitcher on our team really had a big role And I you know started to have some success there got to know him a little bit more and you know It was great playing for him. We were fortunate enough to win the league that season and Towards the latter half of the the time out there he came to me and said you know, I'm gonna You're gonna have to offer your contract with us and you know, I was ecstatic that was exactly what I was looking for And you ended up having a great season with the thunderbolts in 2015 You had a yarae under two as a reliever you went in and started a few games late in the year as well Going into last offseason. You had varying degrees of success as a starter. You had a great season as a reliever What was your goal going into last offseason?
Were you planning on coming back to the thunderbolts? Obviously you did but were you planning on it? And if so, what did you think your role might be this year? You know, I'd never crossed my mind go anywhere else Obviously if a chance with an organization had come around but beyond that, you know, I knew that I was coming back here And I Expected to kind of be back into the bullpen role You ended up playing the job as the closer You're pitching the ninth innings for the thunderbolts right now When did you first get where that you were going to be the guy at the back end of the bullpen?
Honestly, it was basically that first day uh throughout spring training and talking with with ron and with will our pitching coach You know, obviously we have lemah back there and he's a great late innings guy and and zak waserman was still with us And he basically came up and said, you know, you three are gonna be our late inning guys We're gonna kind of base off match ups at least early on So let's move beyond baseball for a few minutes. We don't have a whole lot of time left here But I want to talk to you about Cameron genie the person a little bit aside from Cameron genie the baseball player We've talked about you adjusting to different places that you've lived over the course of your life Virginia, Texas, California, Michigan You're in the chicago area now you've been here for a little while so you probably have a pretty good idea of some of the things that are around here I'll say you get an off day in the middle of the week. Where do you most like to spend your off day? Um Yeah, I mean really the options are kind of endless I try to get into the gym, but beyond that, you know, I love to play golf and there's a lot of great courses around When it's nice outside the the beaches on the lakefront are good and You know usually I like to try to spend a little time with my fiance as well.
Do you enjoy living near a big city like this? I do. I love it. You know all the sports teams in the area and just you know the options of things you can do are limitless with how big of a city This is I have to ask you what comes next after baseball Obviously at some point your career is gonna end whether it's 10 days from now or 10 years from now At some point you're gonna move on to something else.
Do you have any plans for once the career ends? I would like to stay in the game in some capacity I've always kind of felt a pull towards the pitching side of the game So maybe as a pitching coach or an instructor or even Something more for an office related like scouting or player development And one of the things that's that's great about talking to you about this is that it's very clear and speaking to you that You've never had any doubts. This is this is the life for you being a baseball player being a baseball guy Whereas sometimes at this level you just you never know that they know that they're trying to catch on an affiliated organization But that it might not happen and if not you've got to look for something else where's you from the time and I've asked you a lot of times already During the course of this interview was there a time that you thought maybe it's time to move on and it seems like that's never the case for you It's been all about baseball. It really has you know, it's it's been such a huge part of my life And it's it's given me so much and you know at this point I'd love to go to the highest level I possibly can but at the same time I realized that every year I continue to play in a league like this Even is just really a resume builder for going forward as a coach or a scout or anything baseball related So then I have to ask you how you balance that with Everything else that you have to do you mentioned you have a fiance so you've got a wedding coming up and here you are pretty much Devoting all of your time to baseball.
That's got to be a difficult balance It isn't it isn't um, you know my family and my fiance and everybody's great about you know They realize how much I love the game and you know, it's a big part of my life but at the same time I have times where I like to get away from the game a little bit and You know enjoy some of the other things I like to do so how was the last offseason for you because really that was the first one As a professional like it's doing your second offseason as a professional overall But it's the first one where you knew you had a job coming back here waiting for you What was that like going from October through April getting ready for the season and doing anything else that you might have been doing? It was actually really great. Um, you know, I I knew that I had a spot to go back to like you said and It gave me a lot of clarity as to how to prepare for the season You know, I was able to really set a time frame because I knew when we would have went out and have to be ready and really just kind of Scheduled it all out from there. How different is it from college?
We mentioned in college you've got people kind of watching over you all the time your schedule is pretty much set in stone whereas here Certainly it's different during the season where you're all kind of on your own but during the odd season especially You might go once without even talking to your coaches who you'll be seeing again at the start of the next season So what is it like preparing a plan for yourself and understanding that if your life is 100 baseball from made through? September at least you need to find other things to do during the offseason. Sure. Yeah, I uh You know, I actually take a much longer break now than in college because in college, you know that whole fall is working on development and practicing and And really this offseason I I didn't throw baseball until about the holidays.
Um, you know, I was able to work a job this offseason Help pay the bills and really kind of, you know Developed more of a life away from the game at least for the offseason All right, I'm gonna close it out with this question It's gonna be a tough question because this is one where really asking you to find yourself in some way Uh, if there's one interesting fact about Cameron Jeannie that you would like anybody listening to know what would that one interesting fact be? Whoo, wow, but we honest right? It's not easy is it? Everybody I guess it's I don't know if I I don't know how I would answer this question Everybody's got to have something interesting about them.
There's one one thing that you'd like people to know about you. What would it be? Oh, man, let's see Five interesting things whatever you can think of honestly, I'm a really competitive guy and I You know, I take everything as a as a challenge to win everything that I do I guess all right So Cameron Jeannie the competitor professional baseball player closer for the Windy City Thunderbolts I want to thank you so much for agreeing to spend this time with me today and good luck the rest of the season. Thank you Thanks for having me