The jersey still hangs in Cam Schlittler’s mind and on the wall of his childhood bedroom.
It’s a white Boston Bruins top with yellow and black sleeves, a “B” in the middle and an “A” on the chest. On the back, it says Neely, for Cam Neely, the Hall of Fame power forward his parents, John and Christine, named him after, before raising him in Walpole, Mass., a small suburb about 35 minutes southwest of Fenway Park.
“It doesn’t fit me anymore,” the 6-foot-6 Cam Schlittler said.
A New York Yankees jersey has fit Schlittler well since he debuted last season, and he’s been one of the top pitchers in baseball this year, his 1.89 ERA third-best in the majors over 13 starts. He’ll start against his hometown team, the Boston Red Sox, on Sunday at Yankee Stadium.
His dominance has caught the attention of the man who inspired his name.
“I’m going to be following with interest his career,” Cam Neely, the Bruins’ team president since 2010, said in a phone interview earlier in the week.
Schlittler, 25, and Neely, who turns 61 on Saturday, have never met. But each hopes it happens soon.
Neely isn’t a stranger to people in the Boston area naming their children after him.
It happens when you spend a decade crushing bones and scoring goals for the Bruins. From 1986-87 to 1995-96, Neely was a hero for his physical play, his willingness to drop the gloves and for being a prolific scorer, recording three 50-goal seasons. He made four Prince of Wales Conference All-Star teams and, in 1994, won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for overcoming a knee injury and returning to his star status. A degenerative hip condition forced him to retire at age 30.
Neely called it “humbling” that people name their kids after him. He said he learned of his connection to Schlittler when Bruins vice president of communications and content Adam Rogowin mentioned it to him last year when Schlittler was starring in the minors at Double A. Then, over Memorial Day weekend, a family friend who’s also a big Yankees fan gushed to Neely about how well Schlittler has pitched this season.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God,’” he said. “I had heard about it, and I had kind of forgotten.”
It thrilled John Schlittler to know that his son was on Neely’s radar. The 55-year-old is the Needham, Mass., police chief. In the 1990s, Neely’s style of play captivated people in the area, including Schlittler and his friends.
“We were middle-class, blue-collar working people and he kind of epitomized that label,” the dad said. “He went out every day. He played hurt. He played hard.”
John’s friends started to tell him that he and his wife should name their first son after Neely.
“It was kind of a joke at first,” John said. “We loved him, obviously, as a player. And it was like, ‘Well, you should name your kid after him.’ Stuff like that. I always stayed a fan. I think when Cam was born, it was a name that I liked anyways. It got legs from there. That’s where it started. My wife liked the name. I guess that’s all that mattered.”
Cam Schlittler (right) and Yankees teammates, including Ben Rice (left) and Jasson Domínguez, took in the NHL Stadium Series game between the Bruins and Lightning on Feb. 1. (Josh Lavallee / NHLI via Getty Images)
For Cam, it’s always been a “cool honor.” He grew up going to Bruins and some Boston Celtics games with his parents; brother, Conor; and sister, Carly. The family has New England Patriots season tickets, so they have always leaned a little more toward football. When Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady shouted out Schlittler on social media in late March, his friends and family went crazy.
“People were amazed by that more than anything else that’s happened,” John said, alluding to his son’s sudden stardom.
But Cam Schlittler is well aware of Neely’s legacy.
“There’s a reason they named me after him,” the pitcher said. “All of Boston loves him. Obviously, he was a great player.”
Except not all of Boston has shown Schlittler love.
The online hate Schlittler received from Red Sox fans “crossed a line,” he said, and fueled him to throw eight shutout innings against them to clinch the American League Wild Card Series for the Yankees last year. Schlittler said the vitriol continued throughout the offseason and that he thought he would get booed in April, when he pitched at Fenway for the first time. Instead, Fenway’s reaction was mostly lukewarm, but he dominated the Red Sox again in an eight-inning outing.
John Schlittler said it’s been “amazing” for the whole family to see what his son has accomplished — even if it’s been in a Yankees uniform. They were actually excited when the Yankees drafted him in 2022 because of the club’s reputation for developing pitchers. The Yankees transformed Schlittler from a pitcher whose fastball lived in the mid-90s at Northeastern to hitting triple digits in the majors.
In fact, Schlittler’s bully style on the mound — constantly challenging hitters with heaters in the zone — is similar to the no-nonsense style that made Neely a Boston legend.
“I hate to lose more than I love to win,” said Neely, who grew up playing youth baseball in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, with Colorado Rockies Hall of Famer Larry Walker.
John Schlittler said his son has always been “super competitive. … You don’t see it like you do in hockey — the fights and the checking. But he’ll go at you that way.”
The father was reminded of that one day recently. He walked into Cam’s bedroom, planning to organize his closet. Then he looked over at the wall with the Neely jersey.
“It’s still there,” he said.
