Ray Doit

Here’s the full story on Cam Booser I wanted to get to: Cam didn’t take a temporary job during an offseason. He genuinely believed his baseball career was over. After years of injuries, addiction and setbacks, he retired in 2017, came home to the Seattle area and eventually joined the carpenters union, working for the same company his dad had spent decades with. His father, Tim, essentially told him: You need something to do. You need to work. So, for roughly two and a half years, Cam installed acoustic ceilings, working on Amazon and Microsoft projects and high-rises throughout Seattle. There’s even a building right by T-Mobile Park that he helped construct. It stands today with a popular restaurant named 13 Coins at the bottom. And that’s where the story gets really good. Every day, Booser would drive into Seattle and pass the park. Sometimes he’d be working high above the city, looking down at T-Mobile Park while the Mariners were playing. Baseball was supposedly behind him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to be doing. Eventually, that itch became too much. Cam texted his dad in 2020 essentially saying: “Pops, I love you. Thank you. But I want to give baseball another shot. I think I can do it.” His response? “We love you. We’ll support you. Whatever you want to do.” That support helped give Cam the motivation to try again. He started throwing, realized his arm finally didn’t hurt, eventually got on a mound and saw 97–98 mph. He went to independent ball in 2021, worked his way all the way back to affiliated baseball and eventually the major leagues. And now the story has come completely full circle. The kid who used to sit in the nosebleeds at T-Mobile Park with his dad is finally getting to play here. Tim actually helped install ceilings in the ballpark. Cam later helped build the city around it. And during the years when he thought baseball was gone forever, he would literally look down at that field from construction sites and wonder if he’d ever get another chance. Tonight, he stood on it for the first time as a major leaguer. I think the most powerful part of what Cam told me is that he doesn’t wish those construction years away. He believes he needed them. They taught him patience, grace, how to forgive himself and, importantly, how to separate his identity from being a baseball player. “This is honestly a dream come true,” Booser told me pregame, being back at T-Mobile Park, but in a Rays uniform. “You reflect on all the dark days, all the bad times and all the moments you never thought this would become a reality. I think it makes this moment so much more sweet because of all the days that I had where I never thought I would reach this point.” 🥹🫶🏻

Happy birthday to this legend, mister DeWayne Staats! 🐐