Cunningham credits EvCC with developing him into major-league prospect

As a freshman baseball player at Everett Community College in the fall of 2004, Aaron Cunningham had no idea what the game had in store for him.

It turned out to be more than he ever could have imagined.

Cunningham arrived at Everett CC as a promising but still raw player out of Port Orchard’s South Kitsap High School, and in less than a year he was one of the top prospects in the country. After an outstanding freshman season for the Trojans, Cunningham was selected in the sixth round of the 2005 major league draft by the Chicago White Sox and he went on to have a 10-year professional career, including parts of five seasons in the major leagues.

On Thursday Cunningham will be one of five individuals inducted into the Everett CC Athletic Hall of Fame. The others are Jay Easterwood (golf, 1963), Shirley Hauter (softball, field hockey, basketball and tennis, 1967-69), Jerry Parrish (football, 1954) and Dick Skinner (football, track and field, 1946-47).

Also being inducted are the 1947, 1948 and 1949 state championship men’s track and field teams, the 1951 state championship baseball team, and the 1963 state championship men’s golf team.

When Cunningham arrived at Everett CC as an unheralded freshman, “I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he said, speaking by telephone from his home in Avon, Ohio. “Obviously when I was playing I wanted to get drafted and I wanted to get to the big leagues, but I wasn’t really thinking about all that stuff. I was just playing baseball and trying to learn. I wasn’t really thinking about the future at all.”

But with the help of Trojans head coach Levi Lacy and his staff of assistants, Cunningham blossomed into one of the best all-around players in program history. As a freshman he led the 27-team Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges in batting average (.465), hits (67) and home runs (10). He also had the second-best RBI total (54) and was third in runs (46).

“From high school to college, the development part for me was what got me (to the big leagues),” said the 30-year-old Cunningham. “When I got to college and started working out with all those coaches, I went from being an OK baseball player to someone who improved a ton. I got faster, I got bigger, I got stronger, I got more power and I got a better arm. They helped with everything.”

Weeks after wrapping up the 2005 season at Everett CC, Cunningham was drafted by the White Sox and signed his first pro contract. He spent three full seasons in the minor leagues before finally reaching the majors with Oakland in 2008, and his debut was memorable — he had a single and double in four at-bats and drove in two runs.

He would spend parts of the next four seasons in the big leagues with Oakland, San Diego and Cleveland, and then two more seasons in the minors in 2013 and 2014. He signed a minor-league contract with Arizona in the fall of 2014, but was released before the season began.

Cunningham and his wife, Samantha, ended up settling in Avon, Ohio, near to Cleveland, where he had played part of the 2012 season. Today he owns a business, 3 Barn Doors, that designs and makes custom furniture, including beds, coffee tables, dining room tables, end tables, wood walls and “basically everything for the house,” he said.

Though his love of baseball and the thought of playing again will probably never go away — “You always have those dreams,” he said — his new career “is wonderful.”

The opportunity to develop a new business and see it prosper “saved my life,” he went on. “When baseball was over I didn’t know what I was going to do. It was really a weird feeling. I’ve always been a really mellow person, and I thought I’d be able to walk away and be just fine. But within a couple of minutes it was tough.

But these days, he said, “it’s a whole new venture for me and I have all new goals.”

Though Cunningham is unable to attend Thursday night’s induction banquet, this honor “means a lot,” he said. As a younger player “I always felt like I was doubted. I was always the underdog and I was always just trying to get through, just trying to get to the next level. I never really felt like there was full appreciation from others for what I’ve done.

“So to be recognized for something is pretty rewarding. It’s nice to have somebody, and especially somebody from back home, recognize me for that.”