ROYALTY AMONG US
ROYALS OUTFIELDER LORENZO CAIN HIDING, THRIVING IN PLAIN SIGHT IN NORMAN
NORMAN — Lorenzo Cain barely registers a second glance from folks passing through Oklahoma’s indoor football facility.
You’d think a World Series champ would draw more attention.
But as one of the best outfielders in baseball stretches and squats, sprints and sweats, he blends in. He wears a gray shirt and black shorts, black socks and gray shoes. He carries a bottle of water. He likes it this way. With pitchers and catchers reporting this week and spring training opening in earnest next week — Cain and the Kansas City Royals have their first full workout on Feb. 23 — he will soon end his workouts at OU and leave his home in Norman. Even the most ardent sports fans in Oklahoma might not know he was here for the past three months. He likes it that way, too. “I’m a very laid back guy,” Cain said as he sat on the artificial turf after a recent morning workout. “I like to be behind the scenes. I let all the other guys have the spotlight.
“Something that I enjoy is coming back here, living in Norman.”
Cain isn’t from Oklahoma. Didn’t go to OU either. That’s probably part of the reason he flies under the radar, too — no one is expecting to see a guy from Florida on campus or an outfielder who plays in Kansas City around town.
Why is he here anyway? Here in Oklahoma? Here at the Sooners’ indoor football facility?
His road to Oklahoma began in Florida.
*** Lorenzo Cain was raised in Florida, but after being drafted by Milwaukee in 2004, he bounced around the minors. Arizona. Montana. Hawaii. West Virginia.
In 2008, his baseball journey led him back to Florida. He started the season in Melbourne with the Brewers’ high-A minorleague team, the Brevard County Manatees.
Also on the roster: Ada High and OU product Chuckie Caufield.
Cain and Caufield had met a couple years earlier, but those months together cemented their friendship. Even though they grew up in completely different parts of the country, they had similar interests. At the top of the list was the Dallas Cowboys.
The outfielders spent only half the season together — Cain skyrocketed to triple-A by season’s end — but they stayed in touch. When the offseason came, Caufield invited Cain to visit Norman.
There would be numerous trips, and during one of them, Caufield introduced Cain to former OU gymnast Jenny Baker. Romance blossomed. So did Cain’s career. In 2010, he made his big-league debut with the Brewers, who then sent him the next offseason to the Royals as part of a multi-player trade involving Zack Greinke. One of the reasons Kansas City was willing to part with the talented pitcher was that it believed Cain could anchor its outfield for years to come. They loved his speed, his hitting and his skills, especially for a guy who’d only played baseball since he was 15.
But in his first two seasons in Kansas City, Cain spent more time on the disabled list than he did on the field.
Because of his late start in the sport, both the Brewers and the Royals had wanted him to play lots of ball in the offseason. Instructional leagues. Winter leagues. In order to be a baseball player, they thought, Cain needed to play more baseball.
But after continued hip and groin injuries limited Cain to only 61 games in 2012, he found himself at a turning point. He knew his salary would soon start to escalate and that the Royals weren’t likely to pay big bucks for an oft-injured outfielder.
He asked Royals trainer Nick Kenney for help.
What should he do during the offseason to get healthy?
Who could help him in Norman?
Cain and Baker were engaged and living there during the offseason. One of Kansas City’s team physicians knew Brock Schnebel, head physician for the OU football team, and when they talked, Schnabel suggested Tim Overman, the strength and conditioning coach for OU’s baseball team.
Overman agreed to work with Cain.
The mission: teach Cain how to run.
*** Lorenzo Cain became a big-league ball player in large part because of his speed. He could zoom around the bases. He could track down anything hit into his area code in the outfield. Learning how to run? That seemed crazy. But Cain embraced the idea from the start. The way he strode put too much stress on his hamstrings, so Overman set about altering how his foot struck the ground. Cain was reaching forward with his toes with each stride, which pulled his hip forward and left his hamstrings to absorb the force.
To remedy the problem, Cain needed the more stable muscles in his glutes and thighs to absorb the force.
His feet needed to stop clawing and start driving.
“It was definitely tough,” Cain said, “because I’ve been running this way all my life.”
Cain committed to the process, though, doing hundreds of drills and thousands of repetitions during the offseason. It was slow. It was tedious.
“But he was at the point where he was mature enough to do that,” Overman said. “A lot of younger kids don’t because they’ve gotten so far without doing it.”
The results became obvious the next season.
Cain played 115 games in 2013, then 133 the following season. Even though the Royals went all the way to the World Series that season, Cain returned last season as durable as ever and played a careerhigh 140 games.
As his health has improved, his production has skyrocketed. Cain had career highs in nearly every statistical category last season, a year in which he finished third in the American League MVP voting.
Overman tried to downplay his role in Cain’s success.
“It’s our job,” he said of strength and conditioning coaches. “It’s what we do every day.” C’mon, now ... “I didn’t make him fast. He was already fast. ... I probably did a lot to increase his longevity. We can help athletes, but we can’t make an average athlete great.”
But here’s how important Cain believes Overman has been — after Lorenzo and Jenny Cain married in 2013, they decided to make Norman their permanent offseason home. They could’ve settled in Florida near Cain’s mom. They could’ve picked somewhere scenic or majestic. They chose Norman because Jenny’s family was close and Lorenzo’s trainer was across town.
“The fit was so perfect,” said Cain, who also uses OU’s baseball facilities to hit, throw and practice. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to find any other place that’s going to allow me to train and do all the things I do.
“Everything is here that I want and that I need.”
*** Lorenzo Cain stood with his back to the cinder block wall, cradled a medicine ball marked with a 5 in his hands, then threw it over his shoulder against the wall.
“Those are kilos, by the way,” Overman said.
Again and again, Cain slung about 11 pounds over his left shoulder, let it smack the wall, then caught it across his body and flung it back against the wall.
After a little rest, the process repeated over his right shoulder.
Cain’s workouts with Overman have continued every offseason since that stride rebuild. While they still work on running, their focus has shifted in recent years. With Cain soon to turn 30, Overman works mainly on strengthening his core and lower body. And coming off back-toback World Series seasons, the intensity of their workouts remains high but the volume has decreased, too.
Overman’s even added pool work, which reduces impact.
“He’s never missed a workout in four years,” Overman said. “He knows the benefit of it. He gets it.”
Cain said, “I’ve just taken everything in stride that he’s tried to teach me.”
The strides that Cain has made in his, um, strides were never more evident than Game 6 of last year’s American League Championship Series against Toronto. In the bottom of the eighth inning with the score tied, Cain was on first base when Eric Hosmer sent a shot down the line and into the right-field corner. It stayed fair, and as Cain neared third, he saw third-base coach Mike Jirschele waving him home.
Right fielder Jose Bautista had spun and made a looping throw to second instead of firing to a cutoff man down the line. The throw held up Hosmer at first, but it gave Cain just enough time to score.
All the way home from first on a single.
It was the game-winning, series-clinching run, and it sent the Royals to the World Series where they beat the Mets for the franchise’s first title in 30 years.
“Every single game was intense,” Cain said. “Nothing was given to us. We had to earn everything.”
The same could be said of Lorenzo Cain. He rebuilt his stride, and in the process, he transformed his career. He has a new twoyear, $17.5 million deal to prove it, and soon, he will have a glitzy, blingy World Series ring, too.
No wonder the Cains bought their first home last spring in Norman. While they needed space for their growing family — they welcomed their second son just last month — buying a place was more about putting down roots in a place that has been good not only to them but also for them.
This is where they want to be.
This is where they hope to stay.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.