Loons Feature: Cameron Gibbens

Loons Feature: Cameron Gibbens

Chris Jared

Prior to joining the Great Lakes Loons, righty reliever Cameron Gibbens was throwing promotion-worthy numbers in Low-A Rancho, with 23 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings on an 0.87 ERA. But even before that, a peculiar path to professional baseball began nearly 10,000 miles down under in Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. At one point for Gibbens, as well as for many of us, playing baseball was recreational enjoyment, and watching the sport was work.

The Australian Baseball League is the highest regarded league of professional baseball the country has to offer, both producing and featuring a large number of potential and past Major League Baseball talents. For Gibbens, his road to professional baseball began with his hometown Melbourne Aces of Victoria, but not initially as a player. While earning his Bachelor’s of Business Majoring in Marketing from Victoria University in Melbourne, Gibbens found a summer internship with the Aces as a graphic designer, focusing on marketing collateral and improving the team’s social media presence. Most nights away from Melbourne Ballpark, Cam and some nearby ballplayers would play in an organized, recreational league at the nearby diamond. In comparison to the other players, the 6’8 Gibbens raised attention quickly with his fastball, mixing in pitches well above the talent pool he played in. One man who was also paying close attention to Gibbens was John Deeble, current coach of the Aces at the time and former manager for Australia’s national team. Prior to managing the Aces in 2019, Deeble won the ABL’s Claxton Shield with the Melbourne Monarchs in their championship 1993 season. More importantly, however, Deeble served as the current Head Scout in the Pacific Rim/Oceania region for the Los Angeles Dodgers after holding the same role with the Boston Red Sox for 15 prior seasons.

“My whole life, I’ve been trying to be better… as I grew a little taller, threw a little harder in the summer day league, I got attention from people to try out for the Aces, which I did, but didn’t develop that consistency until 2019,” Gibbens said. “From there, it took off, and became more of a focus while still working full time with a digital marketing agency.” Gibbens joined Melbourne’s pitching staff for the 2019 season, where the Aces would win their first Claxton Shield since the team’s inaugural season of 2009. The average age of the 2019 Aces was 26.5 years, and falling in at 23, Gibbens was certainly one of the more untried members of the pitching staff. The right-hander Gibbens appeared in 13 games over the span of the 2019-20 seasons in the ABL, striking out 22 batters in 16 1/3 innings and only allowing four earned runs. On January 13, 2020, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Gibbens to a free agent contract. With the help of Gibbens, the Melbourne Aces repeated as ABL champions in 2020.

“The experience was amazing, because every day you get to talk to guys that have been there. There are a few guys that have been at the big-league level that had really good advice. That really helped me, in terms of experience and hear the ins and outs, get in a good rhythm and pitch well. Then everything took off.”