By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph's Commerce Bank branch, along with the Kansas City Royals, is supporting youth baseball and softball with an equipment collection drive.
To help kick off the drive, Royals pitcher and St. Joseph native Noah Cameron made an appearance to help collect equipment and meet fans.
Cameron says it means everything to get to come back to St. Joseph for an event like this
"It's super important to me, super special, to be able to come back home," Cameron tells reporters during the event at Commerce Bank. "I say I'm obviously from close to Kansas City, so people kind of know that I'm a hometown guy but they don't necessarily know I'm from here, so it's definitely super special to be able to represent this drive and what we're doing here."
The equipment collected by the St. Joseph branch will be donated to Pony Express baseball. Cameron says it's special to help with because of his connection to the organization.
"I wouldn't be here without them, I played for the Pony Express a long time ago, so it's kind of my roots I guess where kind of started playing ball," Cameron explains. "Over at Eagles Field was kind of where I grew up playing, so it's definitely really cool to impact that."
It's been quite the year for the St. Joseph Central alum since he's joined the Kansas City starting rotation.
Cameron has started 17 games and boasts a 2.47 ERA with a 7-5 record. He currently ranks fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting.
Cameron says to keep the success going, it’s just about getting better every day.
"Obviously we're game planning well, everything's going pretty well so far, so we've just got to continue doing what we're doing," Cameron says. "There's a lot of season left, we're not where we want to be right now as a team, so just got to continue fighting every day, just showing up and getting better."
Equipment being collected during the drive includes baseballs, bats, gloves, hats, helmets, and socks among other items.
The equipment drive runs through September 30th.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.