After the conclusion of his sophomore baseball season at the U, dual-sport star Phil Cullen was ready to hang up his mitt. The right-handed pitcher underwent surgery, and he wondered if he should continue to pursue the sport he grew up with.
“I was ready to give up. In a sense, I had given up in my mind,” said the 6-foot-9 forward for the Utah basketball team.
And then, a call. A call that would change his summer plans, if not his life for the next couple years. He had been chosen in the 32nd round of the Major League Baseball draft by an organization in his home state, the Seattle Mariners. Cullen signed a contract with the Mariners organization in August 2000, and after his junior season running with the Utah basketball team, Cullen was getting paid to play baseball.
“It was more than I expected,” Cullen said. He started in Arizona in March for spring ball. Cullen and teammates woke at 5 a.m. and were running at 6 a.m.
When he joined his minor league team in Everett, Wash., Cullen was required to work out three times a week at a local YMCA. One day, while passing by the gymnasium at the YMCA, Cullen couldn’t hold back his urge to pick up a basketball and play.
He paid for it, literally.
Cullen was fined $15 by the team for engaging himself in his winter love.
Still, Cullen held his own tossing balls and strikes versus launching 22-footers.
During the summer of 2001, Cullen played for the single-A Everett (Wash.) Aquasox. He went 1-4 in starting 14 games, hurling 56.2 innings. Cullen struck out 64 hitters on his way to a 5.08 earned run average.
“I did better and progressed more than I thought,” said Cullen, who played with Mariners slugger Jay Buhner. Cullen turned some heads with the change in the speed of his fastball. Coming into the minors, he threw 87-88 MPH. By the end of the summer, Cullen was throwing 90-93 MPH.
Cullen’s repertoire of pitches included a fastball, curve, slider and change, but he aspires to throw a splitter a la Roger Clemens or Curt Schilling.
His drafting both help and hurt the basketball program which brought him to Utah. The Seattle Mariners’ organization would pay for Cullen’s schooling, meaning one more scholarship was at the disposal of Utah coach Rick Majerus. Majerus went out and signed 6-foot-11 Cameron Koford, a former Weber State center coming off an LDS mission.
But the move to baseball’s minor leagues stunted Cullen’s budding growth at forward for the Utes. While in the minors, Cullen missed out on a European trip the basketball team took over the summer. The Utes played club teams in the Canary Islands, Spain and France while Cullen was busy laboring for the Aquasox in the Northwest League.
Last year, Cullen averaged 9.1 points a game, third best on the Utes. He netted a career high 21 points on 6-8 shooting (5-6 from beyond the arc) in contributing to an 87-63 win over Washington State.
Cullen’s adventures in the minors weren’t even finished when school started. “The first two weekends in September [the Mariners] would fly me up,” said the 6-foot-9 senior forward.
Cullen arrived in Salt Lake City the night before the basketball team held its first practice. He was out-of-shape, thanks to a lot of down time as a pitcher, and he had to re-adjust to running at such high altitudes.
His opportunity and decision to play baseball has changed his role for the 2001-02 basketball season. Because of the baseball hiatus, the senior must provide leadership off the bench instead of as a starter. Last year, Cullen started 26 games, second most on the team behind freshman Nick Jacobson’s 27.
Now, his role will be “to come off the bench, provide leadership and try to control everybody on the floor,” he said.
His coach, Rick Majerus, has echoed those sentiments. “We couldn’t play Phil a lot if we wanted to,” he said. “Baseball is one game where you can be out of shape to play.”
But Cullen isn’t bitter about his new role. “I’ll take any minute I can get,” he said. “I wouldn’t have come back if I didn’t want to play ball. I love being here, and I love playing ball here,” he said. “I wish I could bottle up this [Huntsman Center] crowd.”
Majerus said he might get the chance to play more, but with time. “Hopefully, by second semester, he can get more minutes.”
Through four games this year, Cullen seems to have taken a baseball mentality into his play hit and miss. On a team lacking leadership, Cullen’s young senior campaign has looked like he spent time on the diamond.
In his first two games, Cullen displayed experience off the bench. Against St. Francis (Ill.), Cullen scored 8 points, snared 8 rebounds and had two steals in 25 minutes in a win. Against Boise State, Cullen put in 18 quality minutes, with 4 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds.
However, in Utah’s two losses, Cullen has struggled with the rest of the team. He scored 2 points and had 2 turnovers in 11 minutes versus Utah State. In Alabama against the Crimson Tide, Cullen had 5 turnovers and 2 fouls in eight minutes. Cullen is averaging 15.8 minutes a game (7th on the team), 3.0 rebounds (3rd) and 3.5 points (7th). He’s shooting 33 percent from the field (4-12), but is sixth on Utah’s all-time list for 3 pointers made and attempted.
His shot hasn’t clicked yet, but Cullen said with so many offensive threats on the team, his main focus will be grabbing rebounds. “Day in and day out, it’s one thing I have to do,” Cullen said. “Every day coach will be on me [about crashing the boards].”
Majerus agreed.
“His commitment to the glass and his willingness to get down and dirty inside are the question marks,” the coach said.
So what will Cullen do after his final season on the hardwood on the crimson and white? He’s back to the minor league, and he’ll eventually graduate in civil engineering, which he estimates will take a year or a little more.
But the deeply religious Cullen knows that anything is possible in the future.
“I’ll do whatever God wants me to do. It’s not up to me. Whatever happens happens.”
Just like that phone call.