KANSAS CITY – Noah Cameron was in the middle of his warmup pitches in the bullpen on Sunday night when he stopped for just a second to take a peek at the mound he was set to climb shortly for his start against the Tigers at Kauffman Stadium.
First, he had to watch his No. 1 fan do the honors.
Cameron’s mom, Diane Cameron, threw out the ceremonial first pitch, making Mother’s Day even more special for the mom of five kids, grandma of 11 (and soon to be 12) and one of the biggest Royals fans there is – who just so happens to get to watch her youngest son pitch for her hometown team.
Diane is a St. Joseph, Mo., native, and raised her family there together with her husband, Tracy Cameron. They’ve been Royals fans forever, so watching Noah get drafted by Kansas City, grow up in the system, debut last season and establish himself as a part of the Major League rotation has been surreal for the entire Cameron family.
While Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Tigers left a bitter taste in Noah’s mouth after he allowed three earned runs in four-plus innings, Diane’s first pitch was another special moment for him and his family.
“It is exciting,” Diane said. “He asked me to do it. I’m like, ‘Noah, do you know what you’re asking?’ And he said, ‘Oh, it’ll be good, Mom. It’ll be good.’ So I’m doing it for him. Anything for Noah.”
Diane mostly uses a wheelchair to get around because of stiff person syndrome, a rare autoimmune neurological disorder that commonly causes muscle stiffness and spasms. It doesn’t stop her and Tracy from being in the stands for every one of Noah’s starts at Kauffman Stadium and the road games that are drivable from St. Joseph. They’re tuned into the rest of the games on TV.
And it sure doesn’t stop her from making sure she gives Noah her thoughts on his starts, he said with a smile.
“Yeah, they like to let me know,” Noah said, laughing. “But they’ve been there through it all. My dad was the best dad ever growing up, and still is, and my mom especially was so involved in my childhood. Just wanted to be involved in everything, school stuff, sports stuff, everything. She was super protective, especially over me because I’m the baby, which all my older siblings let me know about constantly.
“She was just always there. She’s super strong.”
Diane and Tracy literally never miss a pitch from Noah’s starts, and they rewatch his starts two or three times in the following days. They have scorecards that they keep during his games going back to when he was 10 years old, Diane said.
Noah was a four-sport athlete in high school in St. Joseph, super athletic and always active. The Camerons were always a baseball family, though. Diane may have had the biggest influence on Noah becoming a left-handed pitcher. Her older brother, Steve Mapel, was a pitcher in the Twins' system in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. He never made it to the big leagues, and Diane noted that he was right-handed. She saw a different future for her son.
“I remember Noah being 18 months old, and I had him in the backyard playing catch,” Diane said. “He could throw equally as good left- and right-handed. And I go, ‘Put your right hand behind your back.’ And that’s history.”
It was Diane’s turn to take the ball Sunday, and the Royals welcomed her onto the field as Tracy wheeled her out to the infield. Noah’s sister, Courtney Burgess – who is about to welcome her fourth child – walked to home plate to catch the throw.
Noah and Courtney surprised Diane with Courtney’s involvement Sunday. When Courtney got in the car with Diane to come to the stadium, she had Tracy’s old glove with her. It was the glove he used years ago, when he and Noah played catch in the backyard.
“She’s laughing at me like, ‘Why did you bring that?’” Courtney said. “I said, ‘Do you know what’s going on?’ She said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Mom, I’m catching your first pitch tonight.’ She thought it was joke. … But this is pretty special because I get to be a part of it with my mom on Mother’s Day, too.”
And the mother-daughter battery nailed the first pitch, the ball going a little off line, but reeled in by Courtney right in front of the dish.
“It’s special that the Royals wanted her to do it,” Noah said. “I wanted to make sure she was cool with it, comfortable with it, and the biggest thing she said was that she just wanted to try and see what happens, so that’s pretty cool.”
While the Royals ended their homestand 4-3, Sunday’s finale was a bit of a letdown after back-to-back wins this weekend. Cameron will go back to the drawing board after a frustrating start in which he threw 95 pitches in his four-plus innings. The short start put the Royals’ bullpen in a tough spot in the middle innings; despite the offense coming back to tie it in the third and fourth innings, reliever Nick Mears gave up the go-ahead pinch-hit homer to Gage Workman in the sixth.
“Behind in counts, back to nibbling, lot of balls and a lot of pitches,” Cameron said. “Need to attack more. … Got to be better. Feel like I let the team down tonight.”