{"id":601157,"date":"2026-04-13T12:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T12:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/601157\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T12:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T12:29:11","slug":"tales-of-ernie-clement-dogpiles-fake-ids-and-how-a-free-spirit-found-his-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/601157\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales of Ernie Clement: Dogpiles, fake IDs and how a free spirit found his way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone was looking around for Ernie Clement. On the first day of 2014 fall workouts, the University of Virginia baseball team filed into the weight room, one by one. The workout was one of those \u2018optional\u2019 lifts that everyone knew was actually mandatory \u2014 everyone except for Clement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole team was there,\u201d Virginia infielder Daniel Pinero said. \u201cAnd we were like \u2018Where\u2019s Ernie?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours later, Clement\u2019s teammates found out why he missed that first fall lift. He\u2019d made friends with his dormmates and joined their intramural flag football team. While his teammates were lifting weights, Clement was catching passes. He never missed a workout again.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I got in a lot of s\u2014,\u201d Clement said, \u201cfrom pretty much everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a tough first impression, but not the lasting one. Clement, 30, is now better known as a postseason hero for the Toronto Blue Jays and one of 2025\u2019s World Series stars.<\/p>\n

Maybe none of that would have happened without the horror of being an absent freshman on Day 1.<\/p>\n

That missed workout kick-started one of the most important years of the infielder\u2019s life. In his first season at UVA, Clement was screamed at in team meetings, punished for off-day escapades, tackled on the field and hailed as a national champion. It\u2019s the year, Clement said, he grew up. It\u2019s a year that still yields tales of Ernie Clement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look back, and it was so much fun,\u201d Clement said. \u201cI got to learn and grow up a lot in the game of baseball. If I hadn\u2019t done those things, I would not have been who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huddled around a table at a team reunion last year, Clement\u2019s college teammates recalled that workout and their missing freshman. It was a simple mistake, reliever Kevin Doherty joked. Who would think optional meant required?<\/p>\n

The 2015 Virginia team has many of those stories \u2014 Clement\u2019s accidental antics punctuated one of the best seasons in program history. They love Clement, his teammates say, but the stories are too good not to tell. They\u2019re endearing. They\u2019re Ernie.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody always thinks about trying to play the game like you\u2019re a kid,\u201d Doherty said. \u201cHe literally does that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Ernie Clement delivered a walk-off hit for Virginia in a 2015 Super Regional game. Said one teammate: \u2018We were going to Omaha, literally on Ernie\u2019s back.\u2019 (Tyler Brain \/ University of Virginia)<\/p>\n

Head coach Brian O\u2019Connor didn\u2019t understand Clement at first. A decade later, he readily admits as much. It took a few months for the epiphany to arrive, 38 games into the season and after a disastrous doubleheader at North Carolina State.<\/p>\n

As Virginia\u2019s coach walked out to make a pivotal pitching change in the final innings of the day\u2019s second game, Clement drifted over to the NC State base runner at second base. The Cavaliers were in danger of losing both contests, and Clement began chatting with the player who scored the Wolfpack\u2019s eventual winning run. The pair stood by second base, chuckling together as O\u2019Connor swapped pitchers. Storming back to the dugout, the coach fumed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYucking it up with the guy at second base, their base runner,\u201d O\u2019Connor recalled by phone. \u201cI gotta be honest, it pissed me off.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the game, a 5-3 Virginia loss, the coach unleashed. It was not the first time. Every so often, O\u2019Connor laid into the team after a bad week or sloppy practice. The players called them \u201ccome to Jesus meetings.\u201d As Clement\u2019s teammates sat silent in the locker room, it was the freshman\u2019s first time in the firing line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got to mean more to you,\u201d O\u2019Connor yelled. \u201cYou\u2019re talking to the other guy. You\u2019re not focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clement was mortified. His jaw dropped and his face stuck in a perplexed expression. At that moment, staring at a confounded Clement, it clicked for O\u2019Connor. The coach was confusing joy for apathy. Clement was focused, in his own way. He did care.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just loves to play and he loves to have fun,\u201d O\u2019Connor said recently. \u201cIt\u2019s not that he doesn\u2019t compete. It\u2019s not that he\u2019s not serious. But that\u2019s when I finally realized with him that I gotta just let him be who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day after the lambasting, O\u2019Connor approached Clement at practice. He had a dream that the freshman quit the team. He needed to ask if Clement was alright.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m good,\u201d Clement responded, \u201cLet\u2019s get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clement remained unwavering. He went right back to using the end of his bat for makeshift hockey games before practice, roping in teammates on the outfield grass and in the locker room. Joe McCarthy was his biggest competition, Matt Thaiss played goalie. Hours later, Clement was always ready for the real game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always me,\u201d Clement said. \u201cI never took the criticism personal. I think I never lost sight of the fact that I love baseball and I love being around my teammates and I could have fun, still be myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six weeks later, Clement\u2019s teammates mobbed him in the very same spot where he drew O\u2019Connor\u2019s ire for chatting with the opponent.<\/p>\n

With Virginia down a run in the bottom of the ninth, and two Cavaliers on base, the 19-year-old turned on a pitch in Virginia\u2019s Super Regional game against Maryland. Clement connected for a liner, over the infielder\u2019s head and bouncing along the outfield grass. It\u2019s the sort of hit Clement has since replicated often with the Jays, but at the time it was the biggest liner of his life. The infielder rounded first and slowed to a jog, watching as his hit drove in two runs and sent Virginia to the College World Series.<\/p>\n

\"Ernie<\/p>\n

\n Clement recognized he had some growing up to do while at Virginia and responded well to some tough love. (University of Virginia)<\/p>\n

Piling out of the dugout, Doherty was the first teammate to arrive at Clement near second base. Unable to stop his momentum, Doherty\u2019s hug turned into a tackle, slamming Clement\u2019s head on the infield dirt. The rest of Virginia\u2019s roster piled on. When the mass of bodies finally peeled off Clement, the infielder had a streak of blood across his face. Clement got up and smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a bloody forehead,\u201d Doherty said. \u201cBut we were going to Omaha, literally on Ernie\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Clement\u2019s postseason heroism was born. A decade before he posted a record-setting October for Toronto, notching more hits in a single postseason than any player in MLB history, Clement lifted an injury-plagued Virginia squad all the way to the College World Series.<\/p>\n

That hit was, at the time, the pinnacle of Clement\u2019s freshman season. But there were still more memorable moments to come.<\/p>\n

Virginia had a few days off at the College World Series tournament in Omaha. Practice was supposed to be light. Thanks to Clement and a couple of his teammates, it was anything but.<\/p>\n

That morning, as Clement and his teammates dug into scrambled eggs, assistant coach Matt Kirby stormed into breakfast at the team\u2019s hotel. He pointed at a handful of players, including Clement, and they immediately knew they were screwed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFake IDs in my room now,\u201d Kirby screamed.<\/p>\n

Clement, Pinero and a few other teammates had snuck across from the hotel the night before to have a few drinks at an Omaha bar. They thought they\u2019d gotten away with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe showed up back at the hotel after staying out all night,\u201d Clement said, \u201cgot to our rooms and everything was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this day, the players don\u2019t know how they got caught. They paid for it.<\/p>\n

It was well over 30 degrees Celsius that morning. When they\u00a0arrived at practice, they started to sweat. The pair of pitchers who were caught out the night before were tasked with running the entire two-hour practice. They ran until O\u2019Connor said stop. Clement and Pinero, the team\u2019s middle infielders, were told to stand at their positions.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor began ripping groundballs, over and over. It wasn\u2019t infield practice. The grounders weren\u2019t meant to be caught. They were relentless bullets. O\u2019Connor yelled the entire time, getting louder for every botched grounder. The hits, Clement said, didn\u2019t seem to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually a great lesson I learned,\u201d Clement said. \u201cIf I go out hanging out with my buddies till two in the morning, I\u2019ve got to show up and do my job the next day, no matter what. I\u2019ve carried that with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the rest of the tournament, curfews were enforced. They couldn\u2019t even go out for a late dinner. Clement\u2019s Virginia teammates, for a few days, were not pleased. But then the games began again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Don\u2019t be fooled: Ernie Clement\u2019s sense of humor masks a ferociously competitive side once the game begins. (University of Virginia)<\/p>\n

Clement hit .292 in seven College World Series games. He scored the clinching run in the semifinal against Florida and drove in the winning run in Game 2 of the final. After Virginia toppled Vanderbilt to win it all, Clement jumped on his piling teammates as they huddled around the national champion trophy. Clement was named to the all-tournament team.<\/p>\n

That is what made Clement great, Doherty said. When you show up big, nobody can stay mad at you.<\/p>\n

That year, few players showed up more than Clement. So now his teammates \u2014 forever national champions \u2014 can laugh, sitting around a table at a 10-year reunion. They can joke about the missing freshman, the NC State blow-up and the sweaty Omaha practice. They can take turns recalling the tales of Ernie Clement.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I\u2019m an idiot,\u201d Clement said. \u201cI helped the team, so I\u2019m their idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone was looking around for Ernie Clement. On the first day of 2014 fall workouts, the University of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82,507],"class_list":{"0":"post-601157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}