The Oregon State University baseball team held a preseason meeting in the fall of 2003 to talk about team goals.
Mitch Canham, then a 19-year-old freshman, sat and listened to his older, more experienced teammates. He didn’t like what he heard.
“They were talking about trying to get to regionals, trying to get fourth place in the league,” said Canham, a Lake Stevens High School graduate.
“I stood up and asked why we were setting our goals to finish fourth? I was always taught to set your goals to win the dang thing. One guy said they were just trying to be realistic and I said ‘Are you kidding me?’ I don’t see why it isn’t realistic for us to win the College World Series.”
The Beavers ended up going 31-22 in 2004 (9-12 in the Pacific-10 Conference). But the foundation had been set, both for OSU’s rise as a program and Canham’s rise as a player.
Now Oregon State (44-9) stands as the No. 2-ranked team in the nation, the Pac-10 champion and is on the brink of making its first College World Series appearance since 1952. The Beavers host No. 18 USC (40-20) in a best-of-three Super Regional today through Monday in Corvallis. The winner advances to the College World Series.
And Canham, a sophomore, is a big reason for the Beavers’ success.
“His development has been unbelievable,” Oregon State associate head coach Dan Spencer said. “He’s not the same player he was a year ago. But he’s becoming the player we thought he could be when we recruited him.”
For most of his baseball career, Canham was a utility player, playing first base one day, left field the next, third base the next. This year, though, coaches decided that Canham would be a full-time catcher. He certainly had the toughness, having been a football player and wrestler at Lake Stevens. He had the arm strength and the athleticism to block balls and pounce on bunts. The only thing was, Canham’s catching experience amounted to one inning in high school.
“The first time I saw him, the summer between his junior and senior year of high school, I saw that he would make a good catcher,” said Spencer, who works with catchers and pitchers for OSU. “He had the perfect makeup for it. We didn’t want to do it his first year, but I always thought he would do it this year. And he’s obviously taken to it.”
While handling a pitching staff full of power arms, learning about footwork, situations, technique, Canham has displayed a powerful left-handed bat. He finished 10th in the Pac-10 in batting (.345), drove in 36 runs and, in a lineup that includes several players picked on the first day of this week’s major league draft, leads the team with seven home runs. Behind the plate, he has a .990 fielding percentage.
At last week’s regional, Canham was named the Most Outstanding Player. He was 8-for-13 at the plate with six RBI and six runs in OSU’s three wins.
“It was tough at first,” Canham said. “I always want to do really good at anything right away. So I would take mistakes I made on defense with me to the plate, or mistakes I made hitting I’d carry on defense. I’ve learned to leave things behind.”
“I am surprised at well he’s swung the bat,” Spencer said. “Catching is such a demanding position both physically and mentally. And he went through a rough period in the middle of the season. But we stuck with him, and he stuck with it.”
Maybe that’s because Canham’s college career started as low as one can start. Canham had suffered from a sore wrist since his senior year of high school, and doctors were unable to figure out what was wrong. Finally, it was discovered that Canham’s ulnar bone (between his elbow and wrist) was too long and was grinding on his wrist. Doctors shaved off three millimeters of the bone, relieving the pain.
It wasn’t so simple to relieve the other pain Canham felt that year.
On his first day of classes at OSU, Canham’s mother, Kim, passed away. Canham didn’t want to be specific about his mom’s death, but admitted that though Kim lived in Spokane and they didn’t see each other often, her death affected him deeply.
“She always wanted to watch me play ball and didn’t have a chance,” said Canham, who keeps a picture of his mom in his locker. “But it’s helped me, and it’s helped others. I’ve talked at middle schools, I’ve helped a lot of my friends with some social problems. It just helped me see things in a different way. But as soon as the funeral was over, all I wanted to do was get back and play ball. Being on the field, I can forget about other things.”
Canham played in just six games as a freshman, getting six at-bats, striking out in four of them. This year, though, he came back with a healthy wrist and a set position.
“Switching to catcher is something I’d thought about,” Canham said. “When they approached me about it, I said ‘Let’s do it.’ You’re involved with every play. I’m still learning, but everyone’s shown a lot of confidence in me.”
“He has great athleticism and polish,” Spencer added. “He runs better than most catchers, he’s got a lot of power, plenty of arm strength. We have some guys who are hard to catch but his improvement has been a big factor for us.”
Now Canham will try to help lead his team to the biggest stage any of them have ever played on. And across the diamond, he’ll get a look at what he hopes is his future. Like Canham, USC catcher Jeff Clement is a left-handed hitting power hitter with developing defensive skills. Earlier this week, Clement was the third pick in the entire draft, by the Mariners.
Maybe one day, Canham, who is also a District 8 Academic All-American (3.47 grade point average in business administration) can find himself in a similar situation.
“I see guys like him, and it drives me to be better than all of them,” Canham said. “I saw the draft on the Internet and saw all those catchers go, and I feel like I can be better than all of them. I’m excited about this weekend and I’m excited about the future for me and this team. It’s been a really exciting year.”
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