Swampscott pitcher Cassidy drawing interest at Cushing

About a month ago, Cushing Academy pitcher Tim Cassidy Jr. walked into his house in Swampscott after working out at the Paradise gym. He found several letters on his table. One was from the New York Yankees. The other was from the Chicago White Sox.”I thought, ‘This can’t be very special – tickets from one of my friends,'” Cassidy said of his initial impression. “Then it was, ‘Oh, my God.’ It was crazy.”Those letters contained news that justified Cassidy’s excitement. The White Sox requested his schedule so they could come up to Cushing and see a few games, while the Yankees invited him to the Area Code tryout in June.Cassidy has not talked with the White Sox since then, but the excitement of that moment seems to linger in his mind in his junior season at the Ashburnham prep school.”It was them letting me know I was on their radar,” he said. And when he was asked if he wanted to pitch in the majors someday, he replied, “I would love to someday. It’s my biggest dream. It’s what I’m working for.”For those who might be unfamiliar with Cushing, it is a coed boarding school (grades 9-12 and post-graduate) founded in 1865 and located 62 miles from Boston. Its alumni include Bette Davis (Class of ’26) and its students represent 28 states. It also has a strong athletic tradition, especially in hockey, but its baseball teams have done well, too. One of the Penguins’ more recent baseball standouts is Bay Stater and major-league veteran Sean DePaula (known in these parts for pitching with the Cleveland Indians against the Boston Red Sox in the 1999 ALDS). Cassidy, a 17-year-old who stands 6-1 and weighs 180 pounds, sounds hopeful of adding to that tradition.”It scares me in a way,” he said about the prospect of someday pitching for the Yankees. “I love the feeling. I didn’t show my emotion but I know how much harder I need to work. You know you have to work harder. It’s just nerve-wracking and awesome at the same time. I just can’t stop.”To continue his progress, his coach, Wayne Hancock, said he needs to expand his repertoire.”He throws the ball hard,” Hancock said, “but he’s got to work on a second pitch. He’s still mastering his curveball.”The coach sounded optimistic for Cassidy’s development “once he fills out,” he said.”He’s got a slow curve,” Hancock said. “He’s got to work on a quicker breaking ball right around the plate that will force guys to put the ball in play.”Two weeks ago Cassidy struck out 10 to pitch the Penguins past Andover, 5-1, ending a four-year losing streak. On Wednesday, Cassidy performed well in a 3-1 Penguins loss to Tabor Academy on Cape Cod. (He also plays first base and occasionally third, and Hancock has praised his hitting.) Cassidy, the team’s No. 2 starter, pitched a complete game, and Tabor led just 2-1 before adding an insurance run on a squeeze play in the sixth. His personal record is now 2-1.Regardless of what the future might hold with a major-league organization, it seems like college is the next step for Cassidy after Cushing.”My mom (Brenda) said that college comes first,” Cassidy said. “If they offer me a lot of money, college is first, take things slowly.”His college choices include St. John’s, Bryant and UConn.”He’s just starting the process,” Hancock said. “At the end of his junior year, we’ll sit and talk before he goes home for the summer.”As for St. John’s, he said, “It’s a Division 1 school. We’ll wait and see.”He added, “His dream is to pitch Division 1. He’s got to keep improving if he’s going to get there.”Cassidy has played baseball since he was three years old, beginning in his basement, hitting off a popup tee and taking cuts into a net, with his father, Tim Sr., a Swampscott police officer who played ball for Hancock as a post-graduate, serving as a mentor and coach in both Little League and AAU.His Little League teammates included another Swampscott star, Hunter Gordon, who is now playing for BC. In AAU he continued to impress.”Each year he was in the upper echelon of players i