Remarkable Ram: Will Cunnane

Will Cunnane: Class of 1992

Will Cunnane was born on April 24th, 1974 in Suffern, New York. He grew up in Rockland, and attended Clarkstown North. During his time at North, he was the pitcher for the varsity baseball team and ran cross country. Immediately after graduating high school in 1992, he was signed as an undrafted free agent to the Florida Marlins He notably finished third in strikeouts (64) in the Gulf Coast League in 1993. In 1994, he led all minor league starters with a 1.43 ERA (earned run average), which also set a Marlins organizational record. On December 9th, 1996, Cunnane was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the Rule 5 Draft. His major league debut was against the New York Mets on April 3rd, 1997. On December 20th, 2000, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers by the Padres in exchange for Santiago Perez and Chad Green. He played one season with the Brewers, where he had over 52.0 innings pitching. After electing free agency, Cunnane soon signed with the Chicago Cubs and pitched over 16 games with them. He also played for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs team, but was released in 2003. Months later, he signed with the Atlanta Braves, pitching over 20 games for them with an ERA of 2.70 and appearing in the 2003 MLB playoffs. His final major league record is 13-12 with 234 strikeouts in 274 innings pitched. He continued to play baseball for minor league teams until 2011. 

Interview Questions:

1. What is your best memory from the CHSN varsity baseball team?

“I thought about many, but I guess if I had to pick out one that is my favorite is the comradery. When I was a sophomore we had all these older guys and you learn from those guys. As I got older, I became one of those guys that the younger guys, like the freshmen and sophomores, look up to and it’s kinda funny how it was like a role reversal. But it just goes to show maturity coming in as a freshman as opposed to when you’re leaving as a senior, you kinda take up a different role each year.”

2. What is the proudest moment from your baseball career?

“Well, I had one goal as a little kid. Baseball was my number one priority and all my friends knew that that was what I was going to do, and I was going to do whatever I could to get there. I believe it was March 31st, 1997 was when I made the Padres team out of spring training, the first time I’m ever in the big leagues and that’s all I ever wanted to do. I just wanted one day in the big leagues - I got about eight years but that one day was super special to me because I worked so hard to get to that point.”

3. If you could give any advice to any aspiring athletes at North, what would it be?

“To set out to reach your goals and do not let anybody get in the way of that. Meaning, don’t let people discourage you from doing what you wanna do and what you wanna attain because many people were naysayers when I was making my way through high school and even going forward. They said I couldn’t do it, I’m too small, too this, too that, and I just took that and I used it as basic fire. It gave me fuel to keep going because I was the type of person that loved to prove people wrong. If you called me out on something, I’m gonna prove you wrong at it.”