Continuing the Leiter Legacy

By Aaron Arnstein / NJ College Baseball Nation

When sports fans hear the last name Leiter, they think baseball. But before MLB Draft prospect Cam Leiter made his name in baseball, he made waves on Canada’s hockey scene.

“I knew I was good enough to make it in hockey,” the Vancouver-raised Leiter said. “I’m playing against the top competition in Canada and I was pretty dominant.”

Leiter was a self-described “late bloomer” in baseball. It wasn’t until his eighth grade season that he started to stand out among his Canadian counterparts. But ever since he could remember, the goal was always to go pro.

“Ever since I was five, my dad’s been preaching ‘you’re going to be a pro,’ ‘we’re going to practice like a pro, we’re going to train like a pro,’” the right-hander said. “It was never to be a good high school player, it was never to be a good college player, it was to be a big leaguer. That’s been the goal since I was very young.”

With the MLB Draft just days away on July 17, Leiter has put himself in a position to potentially hear his name called in Los Angeles. Leiter dominated both on the mound and at the plate during his senior year at Central Regional High School in Bayville, N.J. He tied the school’s single-season record with 45 hits, hit eight homers, drove in 34 runs, hit .489 and reached base at a .575 clip.

On the mound, the righty recorded a 0.89 ERA and added 88 strikeouts over 47 innings. He finished the season top 10 in the conference in 11 different categories, with eight of them coming on offense and three on the pitching side.

The University of Central Florida (UCF) commit has always excelled at the plate. Leiter said there are discussions of him two-waying at UCF. In fact, he was thought of more as a hitter than a pitcher before he moved from Canada to New Jersey in the summer of 2019.

“Obviously, being a Leiter, especially that I happen to be a pretty good pitcher, hitting is kind of written off,” he said. “The whole time in Canada, I was always a hitter over a pitcher, I just had a good arm.”

Leiter’s path to stardom is a unique one. His dad, Kurt, reached Double-A in the Orioles system. His uncle, Al, enjoyed a 19-year career in the MLB that included two All-Star appearances. Another uncle, Mark, pitched 11 years in the big leagues. Cam’s cousin Mark Jr. is on the Cubs’ pitching staff while another cousin, Jack, was the second overall pick of last year’s draft. All five Leiters made the pros as pitchers.

Cam takes advantage of coming from a family with such deep baseball ties. He frequently talks pitching with them and turns to them for advice.

“I don’t just have to ask one big leaguer, or two big leaguers or three pros, I got five guys I can talk to,” the righty said. “All the knowledge, stories and idiosyncrasies they know about the game helps me in every way of getting better as a baseball player and as a human being.”

Take his COVID experience, for example. While most athletes were confined to their homemade gyms, Leiter worked out with players ranging from Division 1 baseball commits to current MLB’ers (his cousin, Mark Jr. and Todd Frazier, now retired) to MLB’s top prospects (his cousin, Jack) as his uncle Al and various MLB agents looked on at Central Regional’s baseball field.

“We did live ABs [at-bats] on the Central field. I got to face Todd Frazier in two at-bats so it was a real cool experience, just to face Todd and those guys during COVID when there were some other kids sitting in their house throwing to a net,” Leiter said. It was a pretty cool experience and I still think about it today.”

While the rising freshman at UCF talks pitching with his cousins and uncles, when it comes to baseball there is no one he is closer to than his dad. “That’s what we bond on, that’s all we do, that’s all we talk about is baseball. That’s both of our entire lives,” Leiter said.

Kurt, a graduate of Central Regional, was Cam’s high school pitching coach. But Kurt began to coach his son long before Cam’s high school days.

“My dad’s coached me since I was five, he’s always been on the field with me,” the right-hander said. “We talk about the game all the time and the knowledge I get from him is unbelievable. He’s the main reason I am where I am today.”

Having his dad as pitching coach made his time at Central Regional even more special, Leiter said. “Having him in a Central Regional jersey and being able to be there for me and look over in those big moments and my dad’s coaching me…it was just special having him there,” he said. “Having him back in a Central Regional jersey after he did it 30-something years ago, was very cool.”

As for the upcoming draft, Leiter isn’t worried about the future. He knows he has two great options regardless of what happens in the week ahead.

“Whether it’s going to play professional baseball as an 18-year-old or going to play at an awesome school in Central Florida, I’m just excited to see what the future has in store for me,” he said.

No matter Leiter’s draft outcome this summer, the righty is well aware of the high expectations that come with being a Leiter in baseball. “As a Leiter playing baseball, it may sound crazy but in a sense it’s expected,” he said.

“That’s what we do, everyone that's played has made it [played professional baseball] so once you do it obviously it’s a great accomplishment. But if you’re playing baseball and you’re pitching as a Leiter, the goal isn’t just to be a good player, it’s to be a professional baseball player and a big leaguer.”  

Despite all that the previous five Leiters have accomplished in baseball, he wants to be the best to don the Leiter jersey. “I want to outduel those guys, have more success than them,” he said. “It’s almost a family competition.”

Cam wants to create his own Leiter legacy. Although they share the same last name, he wants people to remember that their first names are different.

“I’m not Jack, I’m not Mark, I’m not Mark Jr., I’m Cam Leiter,” he said.

“I just want to create my own path.”