It’s tough to be the new kid. Having someone introduce you helps. Having someone introduce you to about half the Baltimore Orioles is another thing entirely.
In the summer of 1978, Rich Stanfill and his family moved to Cockeysville, Maryland, a small town whose claim to fame was a quarry that produced some of the marble used in the construction of the Washington Monument. In the late 1970s, it was also home to many of the Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Colts.
Rich’s father worked for Chemlawn and was charged with turning around struggling franchises. They bounced around a bit, spending time in Indianapolis and Cincinnati, and the latest stop brought them to Orioles country.
The family lived in an apartment building and it just so happened that Baltimore Colts wide receiver Roger Carr lived upstairs and Rich became friends with his son. Carr was a standout receiver in the 1970s. He was the favorite target of Colts QB Bert Jones and led the league in receiving yards in 1976 with 1,112 in a 14-game season. He also averaged an amazing 25.9 yards per catch and scored eleven touchdowns. If Fantasy Football existed in those days, Carr would have been a top pick.
As if star professional athletes living in relatively modest apartment complexes with “regular people” down the stairwell wasn’t unusual enough, it got even more surreal with the benefit of hindsight.
“The first time I met Roger, his wife was sewing his pants,” Rich told me. “He was a tall receiver (6’3″) and the Colts didn’t have pants that fit him so he was constantly ripping his pants. His wife would sew them back together in their apartment.”
Carr wasn’t the only athlete living in the complex. Orioles catcher Rick Dempsey lived in the building next door and Rich became friends with his son, John. In fact, many of the Colts and Orioles lived nearby. It was less than a 30-minute drive straight down route 83 to Memorial Stadium.
On one summer day, Rich was hanging out with his buddies when John Dempsey said, “Hey. Let’s go get autographs! I know where the players live.”
Rich was just six years old and a chance to hobnob with big leaguers sounded like a good plan so off they went. Of course, it made sense to get warmed up by nabbing the low hanging fruit, which in this case was Rick Dempsey. One down, lots more to go.
For the rest of the afternoon, the boys simply knocked on doors. They got signatures from a number of the Colts players and also tracked down a lot of Orioles, including Mark Belanger, Rich Dauer, Dennis Martinez, and Pat Kelly.
A few doors down, they met Lee May, who was one of baseball’s most feared sluggers. Entering the 1978 season, May had clubbed 226 homers and driven in nearly 800 runs. He was on his way to another 25 homer season in 1978. He was also quite a large man at 6’3″ and weighing in at about 200 pounds. To a six-year-old, he must have been a giant. He’s also one of the nicer guys you’ll ever meet and he was happy to sign for the kid who lived around the corner.
Behind another door, they found outfielder Al Bumbry. The 1973 Rookie of the Year, Bumbry was coming off a 1977 campaign in which he hit .317 with 19 stolen bases. Unfortunately for Bumbry, he had also suffered a gruesome ankle injury in May against the Texas Rangers. When the boys walked in, they found Bumbry sitting on the couch with his leg in a cast. Being six, Rich asked the normal question.
“Can I sign your cast?”
“Sure!” came the response.
The boys all signed Bumbry’s cast and he, in turn, signed for them as well.
For Rich, it was the beginning of his lifelong love of the game but he kinda did things backward. Most kids follow games in the hopes of meeting their heroes. Rich met some of the biggest stars in the game first. He quickly made the transition from not knowing “about” the players to actually knowing the players. What began as a slow summer day turned into cruising around and becoming buddies with a bunch of big leaguers.
“We knocked on some doors and no one answered. Looking back, who lived there? Eddie Murray? Jim Palmer? I’ll never know, but I had all my autographs before I bought my first pack of baseball cards.”
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Awesome!