Cody Cain

• Throws Right

• School Lewis & Clark College

• Born June 25, 1968 in Denver, CO USA

Biographical Information

Cody Cain was a top star in Britain.

Cain was on the Lewis & Clark team that made the 1990 NAIA College World Series. After college, he got a job with Taiwan's Asian Sources Media Group and played softball in Taiwan. When the company opened an office in Britain, Cain was part of the group sent over. He had a read a story about the London Warriors and decided to make contact with the British team.

In his first season in Britain, he was 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 35 2/3 IP, with only 3 hits to 13 walks and 65 strikeouts. He also hit over .300. His temper earned him the nickname "Volatile American". His streak of not allowing an earned run ended with his first inning of 1994; called on to save a 9-6 lead in the opener, he gave up four runs to take the loss. He also spent part of the year with Germany's Cologne Cardinals, joining them on weekends London was off. He had a 7.27 ERA and a save in 8 2/3 IP in the Bundesliga-1 (10 H, 5 BB, 10 K; 2 for 7 at the plate). He had a 1.99 ERA for London that year.

For the 1995 Warriors, he had a 10-0, 1.38 record and hit .506/?/.740. He led the league in wins, ERA and RBI (38) and threw a no-hitter against the Enfield Spartans. London fell in the finals to the Menwith Hill Pirates, a team made up of US Air Force players and thus not limited in terms of foreign players the way London was; Cain argued with officials over the rule.

Cain then worked in the US in 1996 and in Shanghai, China, where he worked for Nike and started a softball team. In 1998, he went to Hong Kong and played softball, winning three home run titles there. He returned to Britain in 2003 and rejoined the Warriors. He set a modern British record with 18 whiffs against the Bracknell Blazers in 2004. He hit .423 and slugged .826 in 2005. The Warriors folded at the end of 2005 and Cain moved to the Richmond Flames.

Richmond won the title in 2006. From 2006-2008, he played for the British national team in minor competitions; not holding a British passport, he could not play for them in major events. In 2008, Cain became the British league's first commissioner, a role he held for a year. He lost the national championship game that year but was honored as the top fielder at 3B. The 41-year-old tossed 21 consecutive shutout innings to end the 2009 regular season and was named the Most Valuable Pitcher and the top two-way player. He then won the national title game in 2010 against Bracknell, striking out 12 and allowing one run and four hits.

Cain injured a tendon in his throwing arm during a mountain biking crash in the 2010-2011 off-season. He decided to try to keep playing, though. In 2012, Richmond withdrew and Cain retired. He remained active with British baseball as an umpire.

He finished his career 33-11 with a 2.83 ERA in sanctioned play in Britain while hitting .383 and slugging .585. He led the post-reintegration era with 409 strikeouts (a record later broken by Matt Gilbert) and 12.7 K/9. Only Simon Pole had a better ERA.

In 2014, he was inducted into the British Baseball Hall of Fame in a class with contemporaries Josh Chetwynd and Alan Smith.

Sources

• Project Cobb
• Bundesliga stats
• British Hall of Fame