Every player in the IU dugout is on his feet and pressed against the dugout railing.
Some are dancing, others are laughing, almost all are smiling. Some do all three. The fans cheer and the speakers blare throughout the stands of Bart Kaufman Stadium.
The mood is similar to what happens after a Hoosier home run or when an IU pitcher escapes a bases-loaded jam.
But none of these things have happened. The bases are empty, tie score and two outs in the second inning against Louisville.
The Scatman is coming to the plate.
***
Most nicknames are given based on someone’s life experience or habits. For example, former IU pitcher Joey DeNato was called “Joey Knees” by his teammates because of his propensity to throw fastballs at the knees.
For IU sophomore Austin Cangelosi, this is not the case. He knew what he wanted his alternate identity to be. He wanted to be “the ?Scatman.”
The nickname is derived from the 1994 song “The Scatman” by John Paul Larkin, better known by his stage name “Scatman John.”
“Everyone hates the song, so I played it to make people mad, and I just stuck with it,” Cangelosi said.
His teammates hated the song originally — and they still might — but it doesn’t show. Every time Cangelosi comes to the plate and the lyrics “I’m the Scatman” begin to play through the loudspeakers, every member of the IU bench is on his feet and cheering.
“I’m glad it’s finally catching on,” Cangelosi said. “Now I don’t have to take so much stuff from my ?teammates.”
***
Cangelosi grew up in a baseball household. His father, John, played 13 seasons of Major League Baseball with seven different teams. He won a World Series with the Florida Marlins in 1997.
John played alongside all-time home run leader Barry Bonds with the Pittsburgh Pirates and current MLB Network analyst Al Leiter during his time as a Marlin and maintains close relationships with both. Bonds, often characterized as frugal, bought John and his wife Colleen a motorcycle as a wedding present.
John retired after his 1999 season with the Colorado Rockies when Austin was four, meaning Austin didn’t spend much time hanging around major league ?locker rooms.
“I couldn’t really digest it,” Austin said. “But with him growing up with me and taking me through all my baseball in my early ages has impacted me greatly. Not everyone has a big leaguer as a dad.”
After John retired he began coaching and now runs a baseball clinic. He coached Austin when he was growing up and just starting to learn the game. Austin said his father’s influence helped him realize from a young age he wanted to play baseball.
“You just pick a few things up along the way,” Austin said. “I wish I was this age now with him playing, but back then just having a big league mind in the house, a World Series ring in the house pretty much projected me into the game.”
***
After spending much of last season on the bench, Cangelosi has become an everyday starter for IU Coach Chris Lemonis.
He has started at both first and third base this season after being recruited as a shortstop out of Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Ill., the same alma mater as former Hoosier Sam Travis.
In his freshman season, Cangelosi started just five games, three as a designated hitter and two in left field. This meant most of his 35 at bats last season came as a pinch hitter in late game situations.
In 2015, Cangelosi is hitting .333 with a team-high three home runs and 10 RBIs. He also has a slugging percentage of .606, the highest on the team.
Two of his three home runs this season have come in the eighth inning of one-run games. “There’s one big Cangelosi hit in every game it seems like,” Lemonis said. “That’s what you like when the situation arises. You get a guy who does a little bit more.”
But Cangelosi attributes his late inning success to doing a little bit less, not more. He said his experience last season as a pinch hitter helped him learn to relax in big situations and to not over-hype the situation.
“If you’re not relaxed, you’re not going to do too well,” he said. “That’s what the whole game ?basically.”
***
The most important thing a baseball player can do is remember he’s a baseball player, ?Cangelosi said.
A player needs to love the game, his teammates and coming to practice every day. The second a player’s love affair with baseball ends is when things start to go wrong, ?he said.
Baseball is a game, and when it becomes anything more, a player begins to struggle — especially ?in college.
“In this game, I feel like these four years are the best four years of your life when you play college baseball,” Cangelosi said. “So you might as well enjoy them and play them with some passion.”
Passion is key, Cangelosi said. Even when a player is struggling or in a slump, he can’t lose his passion for playing because it will affect his teammates. Baseball is a team sport — when one player begins to feel down, so will his teammates. The inverse is also true.
“If you show that you’re down other guys are going to get down, and if you show that you’re up other guys are going to be up and other guys are going to play well,” he said.
***
Cangelosi calls the true meaning behind the persona a mystery. No one knowing why he calls himself that is part of the allure, he said, and not something he is ready to divulge just yet.
When someone asks him why he chose “The Scatman” as his walk up song or why he insists people refer to him by that name, he responds simply.
“Because I’m the Scatman.”
But when Cangelosi defines what “the Scatman” is and what it might represent, it makes sense.
“It’s all about having fun, dancing like no one’s watching and not caring what anyone else thinks,” ?he said.
The Scatman is about relaxing and not over-hyping the situation. It’s about doing what you love and not caring how you do.
The Scatman is about playing baseball.
