James McCann: 10 Years of Making a Difference?

It is one of those things that always seems to happen when he needs it the most. James McCann will be going through a slump on the field, or distracted by something off it, and will open a piece of fan mail or read a message on social media that brings him back to what is important. It’ll remind him of the impact he can have on people’s lives.

“It may be something as simple as, ‘Hey, I heard you speak at this event,’ or, ‘Hey, you visited me in the hospital and that made my day and changed my outlook,’” said McCann. “That’s what it is all about for me. If I can just impact one person’s life, then I’ve done my job.”

McCann recently celebrated 10 years of Major League service time, a feat only accomplished by roughly seven percent of players who make it to the big leagues. In those 10 years, McCann has built up quite the resume, including an All-Star nod in 2019, two Postseason appearances, and a Roberto Clemente Award nomination in 2022, but one lesson he came to realize over the last decade was something he always thought while growing up: Major League Baseball players are awesome.

Sometimes it gets lost in the day-to-day just how meaningful one encounter with a Major League Baseball player can be, but as someone whose childhood was spent looking up to MLB icons, McCann always tries to remember the impact a big leaguer like himself can leave on the community around him.

As a child, McCann could only dream about getting firsthand training from a professional baseball player, learning how to swing a bat or play the field from someone who he always watched on the television. When he was offered the opportunity to do just that – teach local students a P.E. lesson in baseball – McCann jumped at the opportunity to add “gym teacher” to his ever-growing resume.

“Getting to go to Harlem Park Elementary Middle School and play, teach, and just talk with some of those kids – that was pretty special to me,” said McCann.

This April, the Orioles announced their Adopt-A-School initiative with Harlem Park Elementary Middle School, a Baltimore City Public School serving more than 440 students and staff, grades pre-K through eight. Grounded in the belief that unwavering support and solid opportunities can play a pivotal role in accelerating student and school success, the Orioles have made it a point to bring Harlem Park into what they do, and no one has embraced that more than McCann.

This fall, he and his, wife Jessica, and their twin boys Christian and Kane, are taking it a step further by sponsoring a number of students at the school and providing them with new clothing, shoes, and backpacks

“We are going to get them some new drip to start the school year,” said McCann. “It’s just something to give them a little pep in their step with new gear and new clothes and make them feel really good about how they look going to school.”

From the outside, a new backpack or dressy outfit may appear to be a seemingly small thing to offer, but the McCann family knows how even the smallest of gestures can make a positive impact on a person’s life, because they’ve seen that impact themselves. Each year, the McCanns donate hundreds of shoes to a foster care program in Tennessee. For some of the children in the program, those donations become the first new pair of shoes they’ve ever owned.

“Giving a kid brand new Nike shoes, that really changes someone’s day,” said McCann. “Unfortunately, in society, the way you look is something that drives what people think of you, so being able to give a brand-new pair of shoes to a kid that’s never had that - that really hits home to me because that’s something I’ve thankfully never had to deal with. Being able to help someone who is dealing with that, that’s special.

As a self-proclaimed “shoe guy,” that is one of McCann’s favorite ways that he and his family give back. It also allows Christian and Kane to get involved; they help their parents pick out the shoes and personally drop off the donations for the children.

Since their twins were born in 2017, McCann and his wife have made it a priority to teach their sons the importance of giving back, especially because Christian and Kane are the inspiration for a lot of what they do. Born prematurely, the twins spent seven weeks in the NICU before being cleared to go home.

They know firsthand how scary and lonely those moments can be. That’s why they make it a point to be there for others. Often with Christian and Kane by their side, the McCanns return to the NICU to support the families who are in the same place they were years prior. They go room by room, taking families’ minds off what they are going through and giving them a little bit of hope.

Every once in a while, James and Jess will get an update on a family they met reminding them why they do what they do.

“There’s a family that we met in the NICU and things weren’t going great, but several months later we found out that their child survived and had gotten out of the NICU,” said McCann. “Obviously, our visit didn’t change things for their child, but giving the parents the hope and just a smile and then knowing that things turned out great, that’s a moment for me that I won’t forget.”

McCann has always known that Major League Baseball players are awesome. But after 10 years in the big leagues, it is the small moments - the fan mail and messages with updates about a family he visited in the NICU, seeing a child gain confidence from a new pair of shoes, their faces light up when they realize he is a Major League Baseball player - that remind McCann what is really important.

“The thing that I’m most proud of in my career is not changing who I am based on the success I’ve had or the longevity of my career,” said McCann. “I try and remember where I came from, and I try my best to always remember those who are less fortunate than me and give back to them. The fact that I have not allowed how far I’ve made it in my career to change who I am and forget where I came from, I think that’s something that I’m very proud of.”