Cam Stewart wasn't even a football fan.

Growing up in California, the rapidly growing kid was strictly baseball-basketball. Reaching well beyond 6-feet before arriving at San Jose's Valley Christian, Stewart became a force on the mound. An unheard-of no-hitter in the sectional championship was certainly a factor when the San Diego Padres selected him in the 20th round of the 2012 draft.

Imagine a 6-foot-9 pitcher throwing heat.

Big league dreams can die fast especially when arm injuries became an issue.

That led to Stewart's second act -- one that took this long-armed baseball player to a far-away land playing a sport he'd never even considered.

Yet there he was last August, long blonde hair flowing out of his new headgear. Back home, Stewart's old high school baseball assistant coach was floored the former pitcher's dad was texting videos of Alabama's new tight end.

Meet Cam Stewart, perhaps the most unlikely Alabama football player in recent memory.

From the Arizona rookie ball league to a deep-south state he'd never visited, Stewart's story is frankly wild.

On top of that, he's by far the tallest player in the Nick Saban era, a full two inches closer to the sun than 6-foot-7 teammate Raekwon Davis. The roster lists him at 251 pounds.

"I mean, when he came in," former Alabama tight ends coach Mario Cristobal said, "it was like watching a ginormous giraffe trying to put on a helmet and come off the ball and strike somebody."

His name isn't well known since there were no scholarship papers involved in the unconventional courting process. Stewart spent last fall as a 22-year old freshman walk-on learning the sport at its epicenter. Playing time wasn't part of the plan Year 1 and would appear to be a longshot for 2017.

Still, there's something different about a conversation with this well-traveled newcomer. After signing a pro baseball contract at 17, he's in no rush in his second lap.

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Ryan Realini is now the athletics director at Stewart's high school alma mater. Back in Stewart's time, he was the lead assistant baseball coach who witnessed Stewart's rise on the diamond.

Stewart's athleticism always stuck out. Though huge for baseball, the pitcher always moved well. That showed on the basketball floor where he returned for his senior season after focusing on baseball as a junior.

His old coach wasn't stunned when he heard football would be the next challenge two years after throwing the last minor league baseball pitch.

"But then when I heard it was Alabama," Realini said, "my jaw kinda dropped. Oh, OK."

Sometimes, who you know can make a big difference.

Stewart actually went to high school with the son of Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre, so he called Boulder. That ultimately didn't work out.

Stewart also had friends who knew Garrett Cox, an analyst in Alabama's vast football coaching operation. After expressing an interest in giving football a shot, the mutual friends reached out to Cox. An invitation followed for a visit in Tuscaloosa.

This was about a year after being released by the Padres in March 2015. In three minor league seasons playing in the Rookie League, Stewart had a 5-9 record with a 5.42 ERA. He started 16 games total. His last outing on Aug. 12, 2014 lasted just an inning. The first batter was hit by a pitch, then a triple, single, wild pitch. Three earned runs in the first inning and Stewart was replaced in the second.

Torn elbow ligaments can be a ticket to a new career for a pro pitcher. Dreams end quietly that way. There were no headlines when the Padres waived the minor league pitcher.

And there were no recruiting sites tracking Stewart's visit to Alabama's football complex the following year. That trip happened to fall on a junior day at Alabama's football complex. Stewart did a tryout of sorts with kids six years younger.

"So, everyone was looking "is this guy in high school?" a chuckling Stewart said.

It was good enough to earn a walk-on spot.

This was really happening.

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John Diatte, Stewart's head baseball coach at Valley Christian, saw his former star last summer when he was home for a friend's wedding. Work ethic was never an issue on the ballfield, Diatte just wanted to see how it all translated to a wildly different sport.

Answers came while watching a workout in a field.

"Well I wonder if he can even catch," Diatte said. "And he can. It looked like, to me, he was a decent route runner. The tough thing will be the physical thing. Football is just ... the ability to take a hit and give a hit are the things that are yet to be seen."

Right, the contact.

Stewart was 60 feet, six inches from the opposition in the past life. Now he's having to ram his large frame into the other guys all afternoon.

The first week of preseason camp in August was ... about how you'd expect.

"It was pretty intense, man," Stewart said. "The culture of football is just a lot different from any sport I've played. So, just getting used to that and how everything is run down here with the program."

Stewart told Diattle those August practices were "the toughest thing I ever had to endure."

This was still wild for the crew back at Valley Christian. Byron Marshall, a 1,000-yard back at Oregon, shared the hallways with Stewart. There were a few others who went on to play big-time college football.

"But never something like Alabama," Realini said, "and especially a guy like Cam who didn't play football. Just the fact he's a true athlete, OK, this guy can learn. He's a very, very smart kid. Learning how to play football isn't going to be a problem for him."

It took work.

And patience.

He had to learn how a practice worked before actually strapping up to participate. The structure of Alabama's carefully choreographed workouts takes time to learn even for the five-stars.

Fellow tight end Hale Hentges was part of that intro to football course.

"It's interesting, because he's an old guy. He's older than us," Hentges said during Stewart's first preseason last August. "But he's a freshman, too. So, it's nice to have him for that experience but also teach him a few things."

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The first season of football came and went without a sniff of playing time. It was a year of learning everything from scratch in the midst of a College Football Playoff championship run.

Stewart was there for all of it. The full roster is allowed to take the bowl trips, so he got to see the playoff run first hand. Somehow, he squeezed into a performance go-cart at a team outing before the Peach Bowl.

He turns 23 in September as a redshirt freshman. Bobby Williams, Alabama's long-time tight ends coach who transitioned to an off-field position last year, still got a good look at his old group last season. He likes the mature approach Stewart took to stepping well outside any known comfort zone.

"If he decides to stick with it ... he definitely has a lot of athletic ability," Williams said. "He has really good hands, most baseball players do."

Stewart, far from the braggy type, noted his ability to snag one-handed catches in practice.

"At 6-9 like this," he said, "there are some balls that only I can get to."

His age also likely helps deal with the intense coaching that comes with playing for Saban. Being a beginner wasn't excluding him from the famously vigorous coaching doled out by the five-time national champion.

"No, not at all," Stewart said. "He has a certain level of expectation and he's going to do everything to achieve that. It doesn't really matter who you are, which is something I admire about him. Personally, I'm a very driven guy and I like to be around other driven people."

This fall will bring changes. Cristobal is now at Oregon, offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin's at FAU and star tight end O.J. Howard is a Tampa Bay Buc. New offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has a background coaching tight ends and it looks like the position will have more involvement in the passing game.

The plan is to play four years at Alabama. Should he exhaust all four years of remaining eligibility, that would take him straight into being a 27-year old.

That's fine. Stewart isn't the type to get antsy over playing time. Besides, it's an opportunity to get an education he bypassed when leaving baseball scholarships on the table to go pro at 17. Improving his blocking is the top priority, he said.

"He'd never gotten in a three-point stance and blocked before so that was a tremendous adjustment for him," Cristobal said. "You see he's committed to development, which is awesome."

Stewart can smile looking back at the moment he told a few friends he was going to play football, and at Alabama of all places. A few of confused looks were among the responses.

A 6-foot-9 former minor league pitcher playing football for the first time in a far-off place for the program on top of the sport?

"I don't know," Stewart said, "it was a leap of faith, honestly."