CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes baseball team is confident of making it back to the College World Series in Omaha for the first time in almost a decade.
A big reason why is their slugging third baseman who is one of the best players in the country and has one of the best nicknames to go with it.
Off the field, Daniel Cuvet is a humble South Florida kid playing close to home for the Canes, but on the field, he’s “Danny Dingers” — and he hits a whole lot of them.
“I think there’s like an alter ego to it, kind of like being a different person when you’re playing than when you’re off the field,” Cuvet said of his nickname.
Cuvet enters his sophomore year at Miami fresh off setting the freshman record for home runs with 24 last season, breaking the old mark of UM great Pat Burrell.
“Maybe that nickname, when I’m on the field is kind of like a different mindset. It’s like a different mentality that clicks when I’m competing,” he said. “It was exciting, of course, because obviously it’s not something that’s easy to do, but they don’t really stumble me or shock me, because that was kind of the expectations and goals I had.”
While Cuvet is proud of what he accomplished, he wants even more. He spent the summer in Cape Cod, making the Cape Cod League’s All-Star game. He was recently named the top third baseman in the country and a pre-season All-American.
“I mean, I honestly embrace it, like, I think that it’s cool that people think of me or have high expectations of me and I want to do just as good, regardless of if they have those expectations of me or not,” he said.
It helps to be close to home as he chases his baseball dreams. Born in Fort Lauderdale, his family is always around to support him.
“I think my dad came to every home game except for one last year,” Cuvet said. “I think I talk to them about everything. (I’m) very close to my parents.”
Eventually, “Danny Dingers” will take his show to the pros, but, for now, his focus remains on the Canes and try to take this program to its first College World Series since 2016.
“We make jokes, but they’re not really jokes, like, we give people nicknames about Omaha and stuff like that, but it’s not really a joke,” Cuvet said. “It’s kind of like something that we laugh about, but we say often, because it’s something we mean and something we constantly have in mind.”