‘I’d say he’s like my non-related father;’ A host family relationship like no other

How Cam Smith and Dan Johnson created a bond stronger than they ever could’ve imagined

Hyannis Harbor Hawks Team President Dan Johnson (left) and Florida State third baseman Cam Smith (right)

By: Mike Maynard

Before playing a single college baseball game, Cam Smith knew he was coming to play in the Cape Cod Baseball League. The only question: Where he would stay with his hometown of Palm Beach, Fla., being roughly 1500 miles away.

Like most Cape Cod Baseball League players, Smith needed a host family to take him in.

The news of which family he’d be placed with didn’t come until just a few days before his move to Cape Cod. His placement? With the Hyannis Harbor Hawks Team President: Dan Johnson.

Johnson was busy working with his landscaping company prior to the baseball season, patiently awaiting which players he would be assigned.

Johnson’s a pro when it comes to hosting players for Hyannis, he’s taken roughly 30 players into his home over the last 12 years.

“We connected really quickly,” Smith said. “As soon as he made that first phone call to me, we connected right away. He even called me ‘brother’ which meant a lot.”

In the past, Johnson could select which players he hosts, but he enjoys just seeing who gets assigned to him. He believes picking players is “bad karma.”

Smith let excitement overshadow any feeling of intimidation and recalls being pleasantly surprised by Johnson’s sense of humor. Smith’s grandfather Bill made the trip out with him and made sure to ask Johnson a litany of questions to learn about the new environment that he’d be living in.

Johnson’s daughter took Smith into his new room for the summer and showed him around the rest of the house while Johnson continued to be peppered with “100 questions”. By the end of the questioning, Johnson passed the test, and Bill was assured that Smith was in a good and safe place.

“There was no awkward getting-to-know-each-other stage,” Johnson said. “[Smith] went from me never knowing him, to within a day it was like he lived with me for a month. He felt right at home.”

Smith presumed that as the team’s president, Johnson would be a very serious, closed-off person. He is quite the opposite.

“[Johnson’s] a man of the people,” Smith said. “He’ll talk to anybody. He doesn’t act like he’s the president; not in a bad way but he’s a man of the people like I said. He’s a great person.”

“Man of the people” might be an understatement in this sense. Johnson takes Smith out around to different ice cream shops on Cape two to four times a week, just out of the kindness of his heart.

While he’s busy most days, Johnson still tries to make sure to cut out at least one hour to spend with Smith. The two have a routine at this point, hopping in the car and going to “Steve and Sue’s Par-Tee Freeze” in Hyannis and following that up with a beach ride to two or three different beaches in the area.

The conversations on these rides almost never involve baseball either. Johnson wants to get to know Smith as a person, as much as he can in the 10 weeks they’ll be together.

“I think it’s just good for a kid not to worry about baseball or what he’s going to do that night,” Johnson said. “I just try to show him a little bit of the Cape and get his mind off of the pressure of being down here.”

At the beginning of the summer, it was hard for Johnson to convince Smith to go. Smith tried to cap it at two times a week, telling Johnson, “You can’t eat ice cream every day!”

Johnson didn’t care. He kept bringing it up and with just a few weeks left in the summer, Smith will now occasionally text Johnson while at work asking if they're getting ice cream that day.

“If I could get [Smith] to eat ice cream seven days a week, I would do it,” Johnson said. “He’s 6-foot-4-inches and he gets a small every time. My daughter gets a small!”

On one of the trips, Johnson had his ice cream cone explode on him. The chocolate dip that he splurged on had crumbled and there was ice cream, chocolate, toppings and cone pieces all down his legs, his car and anything else within a small vicinity.

Smith found Johnson’s misfortune hilarious and began crying with laughter. Even though he and his car were covered from head to toe with cold ice cream, Johnson began laughing himself because of Smith’s contagious humor. The two sat there laughing hysterically for minutes with Smith completely clean and Johnson looking more like his former cone than his usual self.

“We have the same sense of humor,” Johnson said. “We have a very light-hearted way of looking at life and we just feed off each other.”

Aside from the baseball that he’s playing, their trips to get ice cream are Smith’s favorite thing happening this summer.

Before coming to Cape Cod for the summer, Smith wasn’t a big ice cream eater. The experience of just driving around and exploring the Cape has been the main draw for him.

Johnson hopes to leave a positive lasting impact on his players and hopes that these experiences that he has with Cam can do that.

“I bet that when [Smith] goes back to Florida, he’s going to find an ice cream spot down there,” Johnson said. “I guarantee it.”

Host families aren’t required to put in this level of effort and there is no agreement to hang out with their players on a regular basis, but for Johnson, it's just what he wants to do. Smith feels he’s gone above and beyond in trying to make the transition to a new environment easier for him.

Baseball is the main job for every Cape Cod Baseball League player each summer but with minimal free time, it’s important to maximize opportunities away from the field. Johnson’s main goal has always been to form a great bond that can carry on after the season is over. Reflected through wedding invitations and communication with past players over the course of the last 12 years, it’s clear that Johnson can accomplish his goals each summer.

But Johnson doesn’t just stop at ice cream either.

Before almost every game, he makes Smith and teammate Darin Horn a lunch to bring to the field. He makes sure to make something the players will like, and every now and then, if he’s on a time crunch, he’ll run over to Subway for them.

This lunch has one caveat, however, and Johnson made sure to tell Smith before his arrival. As one of the very few host parents that feeds his players, Johnson only asks that in return, he gets some type of “swag” from the school that his player attends.

Smith did not disappoint, bringing Johnson a custom-made “Cam’s Crew” Florida State shirt that his family members wear to his games.

Other players on the Harbor Hawks noticed Smith coming to the field with a meal every day, persuading him to share. Teammate Trey Lipsey was even caught snacking on some of Smith’s pretzels.

Johnson witnessed this, finding humor in the situation but also remaining true to his dad energy. He offered to bring Lipsey lunch, and now has supplied the outfielder with food on occasion.

Johnson’s players are also given food outside of their daily lunch. Every week by Sunday at 5 a.m. grocery lists are due. Johnson will go to the store once a week and pick up anything that the players ask for.

The grocery list is just another thing that Johnson does to attempt to make the lives of his players easier. The only rule: if the list isn’t ready by the 5 a.m. deadline, Johnson’s getting whatever he wants that day.

“We learned the hard way, when you ask kids what they like, their initial response is always ‘I like everything!’,” Johnson said. “Then you find out they don’t … [The grocery list] is just easier. I’d rather have food in the house that the kids enjoy eating.”

The house itself has a welcoming environment as Smith has his own space with his roommate Horn downstairs in the basement. When he feels inclined, he can always go up to the main floor to watch some TV with Johnson and talk about their days.

“[Smith’s] just a joy to have around the house,” Johnson said. “When he leaves, my house will just seem empty for a while.”

Smith made himself right at home, and sometimes even questions Johnson’s methods of how he lives his life. Johnson was asked “Why do you keep shoes on your bed?” and “When’s the last time you sprayed Lysol on all of your door handles?”

Johnson’s own children are fond of Smith as well. Johnson’s daughter Jordynn even joins in on the ice cream trips frequently. Involving Smith with the rest of the family has been helpful with this very new experience.

“[Johnson] really treats me like I’m back at home,” Smith said. “So, the transition [to Cape Cod] wasn’t really tough at all.”

At the beginning of the season, Johnson projected what he thought Smith’s final statistics would be at the end of the summer. Part of the prediction came with a wager; if Smith hit more than four home runs, Johnson would buy him a lobster roll.

The pair forgot about the wager for most of the season, even after Smith hit his fourth homer exactly one month into the season on July 10. After hitting his fifth of the summer, Jordynn reminded her father of the agreement, making Johnson responsible for completing his part of the wager.

Just four days into Smith’s stay on the Cape, Jordynn had a graduation party with around 60 family members in attendance. Smith made sure to talk and connect to as many people as possible.

“[Smith] fit in seamlessly, he was talking to people that he’d never met,” Johnson said. “That’s the beauty of [Smith]. You just feel like you’ve known him a lot longer than you have.”

Johnson’s other daughter Camerynn isn’t a huge fan of baseball and the Harbor Hawks because it takes up her whole summer. Smith noticed that she made it out to one of the games and was ecstatic.

After returning home after the game that night, Smith searched the house for Camerynn, making sure to give her a fist bump and saying, “Let’s go Harbor Hawks!” because he knew she attended the game begrudgingly.

“[Smith’s] really good with my kids,” Johnson said. “They’re going to miss him just like I will.”

Having this family aspect made Cape Cod more similar to Smith’s home of Palm Beach, with the beach being so close and the weather being similar, but some aspects of his temporary home have been quite different.

Being in a smaller town with fewer people and less land around has been a little bit jarring, but the main difference is of course, the distance from his family back home. Smith talks with his family every day and has already filled them in on how much he is enjoying his living situation.

“I can’t wait for [my family] to meet [Johnson],” Smith said. “He’s such a great guy. He’ll bond with my family pretty well.”

Smith was confident that the baseball aspects of this summer would go smoothly but there was a little bit of uncertainty as to how well things would go off the field.

Throughout his life to this point, Smith has leaned heavily on the advice and influence of his elders. His grandmother got him into the game of baseball, and his mother took him to all kinds of games and practices over the years.

Johnson became one of those role models for Smith this summer, being able to ask for help and advice at a moment's notice.

“I’d say he’s like my non-related father,” Smith said. “He takes care of me like I’m his son.”

Having a father figure available to him even being so far from home has obviously paid off. Smith was made an all-star starter of the Cape Cod Baseball League and has undoubtedly been the Harbor Hawks' best player of 2023.

The comfort of having such a friendly and welcoming host family has helped to make this summer great for Smith. Being able to have fun and not stress about anything off the field has made everything on the field easier.

“I’m having the best time of any player [on Cape],” Smith said. “I’ve got to be having the best time because I’ve got the best host and I’ve got the best teammates. I’m in the best situation possible.”

This is the one goal that Johnson holds for the players he hosts, for them to have the best summer possible. He knows how intimidating it can be for players and their parents for them to be far from home living in a stranger's home.

“I always think of if I were to send my daughters across the country to live with a stranger, I would hope that they would do for my daughters, what I'm going to do for these kids,” Johnson said. “It's just how I would want it done for somebody in my family.”

Johnson and his family keep a list of all the players that they’ve hosted, and they know who their favorites are. Even though the summer still isn’t over, Johnson knows that Smith will be right towards the top of their list of favorite players hosted.

Smith has enjoyed himself so much this summer, that he’s already thinking about the possibility of coming back in 2024. It’s safe to say that the team would welcome him back with open arms, and Johnson would be waiting eagerly with a place for him to stay.

“I wouldn’t want anybody else if I came [to Cape Cod] again,” Smith said. “I feel like [Johnson] is the best host. If I do come back, I pray that I get him again. I’ll need to make some phone calls to make it happen.”

The two have formed an unbelievably strong bond over the course of the summer and even though there is still some time left, Johnson knows that the end is coming soon.

“The first year I hosted, I cried my eyes out when the kids left,” Johnson said. “I haven’t done that again since that first year. When [Smith] leaves at the end of this Summer, I’m really going to struggle.”

Mike Maynard can be reached at mikemay62@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @mikecmaynard