A slice of Baltimore sports heaven is found, for now, in the climate-controlled basement of 216 Emory Street in Ridgley’s Delight. Two blocks from Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and two floors below where Babe Ruth was born almost 130 years ago, neatly arranged on shelves below UV-filtered light are dozens of artifacts fit for a spectacular episode of Antiques Roadshow. Or their own museum, in addition to the one already upstairs.

“This is Johnny Unitas’ first contract—$7,000, 1956,” says Michael Gibbons, director emeritus of the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum, before pulling another file: hand-written lyrics to “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” penciled in cursive by John Denver’s fiddle player, John Sommers, on yellow legal paper. Inevitably, there’s also one of Ruth’s 714 home-run balls sitting in a box on a table.

“Many of these things have stories,” says Gibbons, pictured right, above, and he’d like you to know them.

The origin story of Ruth—the Great Bambino, one-time Oriole who became a Yankees legend, Hall-of-Famer, and American cultural icon in the early 20th century—is exhibited above ground here, as it has been for 50 years.

Since this “national shrine” opened in 1974, thanks to a campaign to save the building and those around it from demolition, hundreds of thousands of visitors have seen the centerpiece second-floor bedroom, where, on Feb. 6, 1895, Katherine Ruth delivered baby George Herman, later known as “Babe.” The living museum also includes pictures of the Ruth family, rare Ruth baseball cards, and items from his childhood, like a bat he likely used as a teenager.

But a skinny three-story brick rowhouse is only large enough to showcase so much, especially when the independent nonprofit that operates it has grown over the decades to include duties as the Orioles’ official museum, the Colts’ archives, and essentially a repository of all Maryland sports that was, until 2015, largely displayed in the Ruth Birthplace Foundation’s Sports Legends Museum next to Camden Yards. When that closed, renovations expanded the shrine’s original footprint to accommodate myriad artifacts.

“A LITTLE WOULD GO A LONG WAY TO BRING BALTIMORE SPORTS GLORY INTO THE DAYLIGHT.”

You can find the hymnal that Ruth scribbled in as a pro-claimed “incorrigible” boy at St. Mary’s Industrial School. “George H. Ruth, world’s worst singer—world’s best pitcher,” reads his first known autograph. The Colts’ Super Bowl V and the Orioles’ 1983 World Series trophies are also featured. But plenty of other priceless items are in storage, like Maryland men’s basketball coach Gary Williams’ NCAA title-game suit, and an orange Cal Ripken Sr. jersey with pockets sewn in the chest to hold packs of cigarettes.

“Our mission is to get this collection on display,” says Gibbons.

He and current executive director Shawn Herne, who helped launch the Legends Museum in 2005, consider this golden milestone as an opportunity to spread the word.

“Babe Ruth’s birthplace will be here,” says Herne, pictured left, but they’re seeking additional physical space to share the history, all while attracting at least 25,000 visitors annually at $15 per adult and $7 a child—their primary revenue source.

As part of the museum’s anniversary celebrations, Emory Street was just dubbed “Babe Ruth Way.” Of course, an Orioles team winning more games helps draw in bigger crowds. In the years ahead, so could part of the $1.2 billion in state funding allocated to redevelop the nearby stadiums.

In late July, Orioles owner David Rubenstein, a noted history buff, toured Ruth’s birthplace—basement included. “We’re hopeful that as he develops a plan, he thinks of us,” says Gibbons. “Maybe we can help a little bit.”

And a little would go a long way to bring the entirety of Baltimore sports glory into the daylight, and keep Babe’s hometown legacy alive and well.

ven though he’s wearing enemy colors, Ed Soth is greeted the same way he usually is when he walks into Robbie’s First Base—with some good-natured ribbing.

“We’re going to stop letting you in here with that hat,” says Robbie Davis Jr., half of what might be the most well-known Senior-Junior tandem in the world of Baltimore sports . . . memorabilia. “How’d you get to be a Yankees fan?”

The conversation that ensues is similar to ones that take place in bars, at barbershops, and during ballgames every day: a group of old friends shooting the breeze about sports. The fact that it happens to be taking place in what is likely the world’s only sports memorabilia/mail service store just adds to the fun.

When Robbie Davis Sr., 71, opened the store in this small Lutherville strip mall in 1989, he had no idea that one day he’d be working alongside his sons, Robbie Jr., 43, and Matthew, 32. He didn’t know that the business would morph from dealing primarily with FedEx and UPS packages to making deals for Frank Robinson and Johnny Unitas autographs. He certainly couldn’t have imagined that the family would star in an ABC reality series and be featured in a Netflix show scheduled to drop this summer.

The exchange going down is exactly what has attracted television producers, audiences, and, most importantly, regular old customers to Robbie’s.

“I grew up at the old stadium, used to sneak in all the time,” says Soth, who often comes in to send packages and stays to hang out. “Want to hear a funny story?”

It’s a rhetorical question—everyone at Robbie’s is always up for a laugh.

“One day I was there, I’m 11 years old, and I’m sitting in the stands and Mantle is in the field,” Soth says. “Ball is hit, comes right to me, and I reach over and grab [it]. Ball hits me in the hand and falls to the [warning] track. Swear to God, Mantle walks over, picks the ball up, looks at me, and I think he’s gonna toss it up to me. That sonofabitch turned and walked away.”

Sitting at his cluttered desk behind the counter, Senior, as many people call him, lets out a belly laugh. From his slightly less messy desk a few feet away, Junior does the same.

“We have a lot of people who just come in and talk sports,” Junior says. “We get 85-year-old grandmas in here on a Monday morning talking Ravens. They’ll say, ‘Did you see that play that Lamar made?’ I can’t believe my ears. That’s what makes it cool.”

Robbie Davis Sr. grew up in West Baltimore, where, as he likes to remind people, he was a “really good” baseball player at Edmondson-Westside High School.

“I always tell my son that even though he got signed to a pro contract, I was better than him,” he says. “And he can’t refute it, because I’m the only one who’s seen us both play.”

After graduating, he served as a combat medic in the Army before going into the car business. At one point, he co-owned 12 dealerships in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Among them were All-Star Dodge and All-Star Chevrolet on Route 40. Orioles’ legends Brooks Robinson and Eddie Murray were among the athletes that did commercials for the dealerships, and Davis developed friendships with several guys on the team. When the O’s went on road trips, Davis would occasionally house-sit for Murray.

“Eddie Murray knew me before I knew who he was,” Junior says. “To me he was just a guy who was friends with my dad.”

One of Senior’s partners at the dealership collected baseball cards, and he took note when the man made some money buying and selling them. When he left the car business and opened a postal services store in Catonsville, then another in Lutherville, Senior put out a few boxes of baseball cards on the weekends.

Quickly, he realized that the Topps were topping his sales. He began buying and selling other brands that were hot at the time, like Upper Deck, and closed the Catonsville store to focus on the one in Lutherville.

“. . . THE BEST PART WAS GETTING TO BE AROUND PEOPLE THAT WERE AS PASSIONATE ABOUT COLLECTING MEMORABILIA AS WE ARE.”

“You never have a business where you can make money right away,” he says. “Well, the first month we opened up we were in the black.”

Perhaps his biggest challenge was keeping his sons from playing with his inventory. Where Senior saw an investment, Junior saw a pastime.

“He would buy all these unopened boxes and tell me, ‘Don’t open them,’” Junior recalls. “He would put them in our house in this room, and of course, I’m a little kid, so I’d be in there opening the packs because that’s what kids do. It’s no fun to just sit there and look at a box.”

A baseball addict from a young age, Junior played center field in college and was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers. When his career fizzled out in the minor leagues, he began working with his father in the store. As Robbie’s grew, the Davises began buying and selling all kinds of sports memorabilia: jerseys, autographed baseballs, seats from the old Memorial Stadium and Cole Field House. One of the most expensive items they acquired was a Babe Ruth signed baseball for $20,000. They later sold it for a tidy profit.

As their reputation continued to grow, more and more athletes started stopping by the store. Al Bumbry has been friends with Senior since they met in the mid-’80s. The Orioles Hall of Famer, who was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in the Army during the Vietnam War, still drops in often.

“The store presents a very social, laidback, easygoing atmosphere,” says Bumbry, the 1973 American League Rookie of the Year and a member of Baltimore’s 1983 World Series championship team. “People don’t feel pressured there because Bob’s a people person. Once he connects with you and becomes friends with you, he’s one of those guys that I would take in the foxhole with me.”

Lewis Brown was a 15-year-old kid when he first went to Robbie’s.

“Senior, he likes to take chances on people,” he says. “I didn’t grow up the richest, so sometimes I’d be in there and I’d go, ‘Mom, I want to get this,’ and she’d say, ‘Well I don’t have the money for it.’ There was a Barry Bonds-signed baseball. It was like a hundred and some dollars. He was like, ‘Just take it, and when you get the money just come in and pay for it.’ Ain’t nobody does that.”

It took Brown, now 35, a few weeks to scrape together the money. When he returned to the store, Senior offered him a job. He’s been working there ever since. When he was trying to save $10,000 for a down payment on a house, Senior asked how he was going to do it.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know. I’ll figure it out,’” Brown says. “He goes, ‘I’ll lend you the money and you can just pay me back when you get it.’ That’s the type of guy he is.”

In 2010, the producers of the reality show Pawn Stars contacted the Davises with an idea. They wanted to film a series about the business and its cast of characters. The core four in the show would be Robbie Sr., Robbie Jr., Brown, and Robbie Reier, another longtime employee. There was only one problem: way too many Robbies. Thus, Senior became Senior, Junior became Junior, Brown became “Sweet Lou,” and the then-baby-faced Reier became “Shaggy.”

In 12 episodes of Ball Boys, the guys goofed on each other, debated sports, negotiated with buyers and sellers, and interacted with greats from the sports world. They played basketball with former University of Michigan Fab Fiver Jalen Rose. Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon fired footballs at them. The legendary running back Jim Brown came to the store, but of all the sports royalty they met, baseball’s hit king, Pete Rose, was their favorite.

After shooting a segment, Rose asked for a restaurant recommendation for lunch. When Senior told him the production company would only pay a pittance for their food, Rose whipped $10,000 cash out of his pocket.

“He’s the kind of guy that if you go to a bar you want to hang out with,” Senior says.

When Sweet Lou asked for a personalized autograph, Rose wrote, “To Lou, you big fat piece of shit.”

“I loved that,” Brown says.

The show ran for just one season in 2012, but it was rebroadcast for years after that and is still available on ABC’s app. It raised the store’s profile both locally and nationally—they still get customers who say they heard of Robbie’s from Ball Boys.

“It was awesome,” Junior says. “I liked being on TV, but the best part was getting to be around people that were as passionate about collecting memorabilia as we are. We met people from all around the country, and we got to share our stories.”

Bob Windsor, aka Burger King Bob, is milling about the store, going back and forth with Senior about . . .something or other. The two are old friends. They get together on Sundays to watch football at Windsor’s house, where he makes sure Senior always has chips to snack on and Hennessy to wash them down.

An avid collector, he’s bought everything from a Babe Ruth-autographed baseball to Michael Jordan’s shoes at Robbie’s. But the products aren’t what keep him coming back.

“If there was a pot belly stove and an old dog, you’d be there for hours every day,” says Windsor, whose nickname stems from his job as a “financial guy” for several Burger King franchises. “It’s that homey.”

That’s never changed at Robbie’s, but the preferences of memorabilia consumers are ever-evolving. After a down period in the ’90s and 2000s, cards are back in vogue. And not just baseball cards. These days, Pokémon is as popular as Paul Molitor.

“I had a kid buy two $8 packs and he got a $700 card in there,” Junior says. “That’s what these cards are all about now. It’s all about the gamble.”

That being said, there are some athletes whose appeal is timeless in Baltimore. Cal Ripken Jr., Brooks Robinson, Gary Williams, and Ray Lewis items always sell quickly. But there’s one athlete whose popularity Junior says is unprecedented.

“Nothing’s been like Lamar,” he says of the Ravens quarterback. “[Jackson] has been the biggest craze that we’ve seen in this business since we’ve been open. People can’t get enough of him.”

Although the Davises are hometown fans—they live and die with the Orioles and the Ravens—and love sports memorabilia, the business requires a sort of cold lack of sentimentality. Anything they acquire could be gone the next moment.

“People say, ‘Is this for sale?’” Senior says. “I say, ‘Come on, if it’s got a price tag on it, it’s for sale.’”

Still, there are a few items in which they seem to take special pride. Near Senior’s desk hangs a signed photo of Orioles Mike Morgan and Fred Lynn from the mid-’80s. Lynn’s note reads, “To Bob, the second-best ballplayer I know.”

“That’s because I always told him I was as good as him,” Senior says, chuckling.

Above Junior’s desk is another framed photo, this one with Lynn and Eddie Murray standing over Senior, who is sitting in a chair with his then-eight-year-old son, Robbie Jr., on his lap.

Neither of those items have a price tag.

Cooperstown, a small village in central New York that’s home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the legacy of 19th century writer James Fenimore Cooper (his famous Leatherstocking Tales include “The Last of the Mohicans”), is one of the most American places in the country.

Nestled in a bucolic paradise of farmland with rolling hills and mirror-like lakes, the village is like a movie set for a romanticized ideal of small-town American life. Mint-condition 19th century homes like life-size dollhouses surround a Main Street that is three blocks long, punctuated only by a single stoplight and a tall flagpole, and often filled with kids and dads in baseball caps doing Norman Rockwell things like eating ice cream or playing catch.

The village of 1,800 is the most-visited in America, luring more than 400,000 people each year. Summer is the height of tourism season—thanks to induction weekend at the National Baseball Hall of Fame (July 19-22 this year), two popular baseball tournament camps for players 12 and younger, lake activities, and the renowned Glimmerglass Festival of opera and musical theater.

Here, we break down must-see sights, where to stay, and what to do during a visit to the idyllic destination—which is about an hour drive from the Albany airport and a five-hour drive from Baltimore.

Baseball Galore

A reverence for the romanticism of baseball reaches fever pitch at The National Baseball Hall of Fame, which attracts legions of sports lovers more than willing to make the pilgrimage to the somewhat secluded village.

Joining the ranks of the very exclusive club of inductees at this year’s ceremony on Sunday, July 21, are three former Baltimore Orioles. Perhaps most notably is pitcher Mike Mussina, who split his career between the Orioles and the Yankees. Also being inducted are one-time Orioles Harold Baines (an Easton native) and Lee Smith. The other inductees in this year’s class are game greats Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez, and Mariano Rivera.

An interview with Cal Ripken Jr.—whose 2007 induction attracted the largest crowd—opens the short film “The Baseball Experience” shown every half hour in the second floor Grandstand Theater, where the Hall recommends visitors start their experience. He tears up talking about the honor of following in the footsteps of greats like Lou Gehrig, and by the end of the 15-minute movie, it’s hard not to also be inspired by the beauty of the game.

Areas of interest for Orioles fans include a modern-day locker with artifacts like Chris Davis’ baseball cap from 2017 and Matt Wieters’ mitt. Camden Yards is highlighted as breaking the stadium mold by inspiring a trend in retro design for ballparks, and record-breakers like Eddie Murray, Brooks Robinson, and Ripken Jr. are featured. Babe Ruth’s Baltimore beginnings are explained in his exhibit.

The Hall is at the far end of Main Street, which is packed with more baseball souvenir shops than you can dream of. If you can’t find a jersey, hat, or Lego version of your favorite baseball player, you’re not searching hard enough. Check out Mickey’s Place, which carries caps with many of the Orioles’ logos throughout the team’s 118-year history, as well as Negro League and Minor League baseball team caps.

History and Culture

References are everywhere to Cooper’s five novels that make up the Leatherstocking Tales, which are set in the author’s native Cooperstown. His father, a judge from New Jersey, founded the village in 1789. Various nods to the books are apparent around town, including Glimmerglass, the name Cooper gives Otsego Lake in the books.

Between July and August, the Glimmerglass Festival, with a campus on Otsego Lake about 10 miles from the village, presents the most performances of any opera company other than the Metropolitan Opera. It attracts emerging and established artists from all over the country.

This season includes hits like La Traviata and Show Boat, as well as Blue, a world premiere opera by Broadway music hitmaker Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home, Caroline or Change, Shrek the Musical) and librettist and director Tazewell Thompson—who has recently directed plays at Everyman Theatre, as well as dozens of shows in Arena Stage and other D.C. playhouses. Blue, about a modern-day, middle-class black couple whose teenage son is killed by a white police officer, will be presented in 2020 at the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, whose artistic director, Francesca Zambello, is also the artistic director of Glimmerglass.

In addition to opera and musical theater, this year’s festival includes speakers such as Baltimore native Ta-Nehisi Coates and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has been speaking at the event about her love of opera and her perspective on law in the arts since 2011. Her event has been sold out since January, with a 15-page waiting list.

The Fenimore Art Museum is another must-stop for art and history lovers. With nearly 900 objects in the Thaw Collection, the museum houses one of the largest collections of American Indian art and artifacts. It is also noted for its impressive collection of American folk art, which began with gifts from Stephen C. Clark—a founding member of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and heir to the Singer Manufacturing Co. Clark was also responsible for establishing the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Across from The Fenimore is the Farmers’ Museum, which Clark founded shortly after the creation of the Hall of Fame as a living history museum inspired by genre paintings depicting 19th century American farm life. Here, visitors can witness a blacksmith making an anvil in the historic village or take a ride on the vintage Empire State Carousel.

Where to Stay and Play

Seemingly captured in time is the lakefront colonial-style grand dame of a luxury resort hotel, The Otesaga—which, like Cooperstown, hasn’t changed much since its opening in 1909. The hotel maintains an early 20th century nostalgia thanks to impeccable décor. It offers activities like tennis, boating and golf (on the property is the picturesque Leatherstocking Golf Course). To stay closer to nature, check out a selection of glamping sites on the lake and in the woods. Like many quaint towns in the country, Cooperstown has a wealth of bed and breakfasts. Cooperstown Lakeview Lodge offers log cabin-styled suites right on Otsego Lake with amenities like fireplaces and a jacuzzi.

It’s also possible to rent an entire house on the lake. Cooperstown Luxury and Cooperstown Stay list weeklong and nightly full home rentals on Otsego Lake, as well as nearby Canadarago and Goodyear lakes, each of which are about 20 minutes from the village. The lakes are a major part of life in and around Cooperstown, and will make your Instagram followers envious. (Search #OtsegoLake and drool.) Boat, kayak and other water crafts can be rented at Sam Smith Boatyard and Canoe and Kayak Rental and Sales.

Where to Eat and Drink

At the seasonal Origins Cafe just out of town, diners can savor vegan dishes or paninis with chicken and beef from local farms in a greenhouse surrounded by flowers and plants native to New York. Serving inventive and homey dishes like grilled pork loin with rhubarb peach chutney in the first-floor of a Victorian-style house, Rose and Kettle in nearby Cherry Valley is a favorite for opera goers. Another well-loved spot is Alex’s World Bistro, which embraces a global menu with options like a banh mi sandwich, Egyptian falafel, and Thai duck red curry.

One of the best options to take full advantage of the postcard views of Otsego Lake is the Hawkeye Bar and Grill at the Otesaga Resort Hotel. The Hawkeye—with a consistently solid menu of elevated casual dining items like fish tacos, meatloaf and burgers—has an outdoor patio overlooking the lake, as well as the Fire Bar, popular with locals and tourists. The dining porches at the Blue Mingo Grill, located at Sam Smith’s Boatyard, is one of the only spots where you can dine directly on the lake. It’s a favorite for lunch, with a range of salad and sandwich options—including a respectable crab cake.

This area of upstate New York once produced 85 percent of the hops for the country’s beer. That legacy continues with several breweries that can be visited on the Cooperstown Beverage Trail. You can collect a pint glass for visiting all nine locations on the trail, which include wineries, a cider mill, and a distillery. The Duvel-owned Brewery Ommegang produces Belgium-style ale that is distributed in 48 states. The brewery is like an amusement park for beer lovers, with tours, tastings, a gift shop, weekly live entertainment, an outdoor bar, and a 200-seat cafe that’s family friendly with corn hole and other lawn games.

Less than a mile away from Ommegang is Red Shed Brewery, which has ample outdoor seating and is committed to using New York State hops and grains. About a five-minute drive from both breweries, in nearby Milford, is the Cooperstown Brewing Company. Located in a former creamery behind antique Delaware and Hudson Railroad cars (which are still in service for special events, including the weekly live music cruise Cooperstown Blues Express), it serves a line of sodas and serves ice cream floats—including an alcoholic version with the Benchwarmer Porter. The company also has a variety of baseball-themed beers like the Bambino American Amber Ale, which it created with Babe Ruth’s grandchildren. Though you might be five hours from our own shrine to the Sultan of Swat, sipping the beer—much like visiting the Orioles exhibits at the Hall of Fame—serves as a nice reminder of home.

When the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame arrived on the sports scene 60 years ago, it didn’t tiptoe into existence. It jumped in with both feet. The first class of inductees included baseball legends Babe Ruth, Frank “Home Run” Baker, Jimmie Foxx, and Olympic champion Robert Garrett.

Today, as it was in 1956, the MDSAHOF honors the legendary athletes of our state for their widely recognized achievements. Glancing through the 200-person-plus MDSAHOF archive is a trip down memory lane. Gene Shue, Lefty Grove, Chuck Foreman, Cal Ripken Jr., Pam Shriver.

Those who worked tirelessly behind the scenes form an elite group as well. Charley Ellinger, Chester O’Sullivan, Jack Scarbath, John Steadman, Vince Bagli—right on up to legendary high school baseball coach Bernie Walter, who has chaired the MDSAHOF since 2011.

“Our state offers a multi-faceted sports program that includes but is not limited to true amateurs, collegians, and professionals,” says Walter, who points out MDSAHOF inductees range from major sports down to niche sports such as skeet shooting, bowling, and badminton.

In 2012, Walter’s MDSAHOF board revised the rules that had only allowed people born in Maryland to be inducted. Now “adopted Marylanders,” like Johnny Unitas and Brooks Robinson, who not only starred as Maryland athletes, but became a part of the community after retirement, could be elected.

At Walter’s urging, more women were named to the board and a wider selection process saw X Games standout Travis Pastrana inducted in 2011 for action sports and the first four-legged inductee Native Dancer in 2014.

What sets Maryland’s athletes apart?

“For such a small state, the quality and quantity of athletic achievement is incredible,” says Walter. “This was reflected in these past Summer Olympics. If Maryland were a country, it would have ranked second on the gold-medal list.”

Walter and what he calls the “incredible group of doers” who comprise his MDSAHOF board are thrilled to celebrate the organization’s 60th birthday.

This year’s induction class, which will be honored Nov. 3 at Michael’s Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie, includes the Hall’s first female soccer player and a cross-section of talent:

Brady Anderson

Orioles Hall of Famer, three-time American League All-Star.

Twenty years ago, Anderson hit 50 homers, which was the most by an Oriole until Chris Davis had 53 in 2013. His name still appears all over the Orioles career leader list. Now vice president of baseball operations for the team, Anderson was asked if he aspires to one day run the team. “If I do my job really well, it will help the current GM keep his job,” Anderson says. “If you’re focused on things like that, you would have to be thinking about the current GM not doing well. To me, that would be a very twisted thought.”

Wheeler Baker

Ten-time winner of the American Power Boat Association National Championships.

Five-mile races in hydroplanes weren’t for the faint of heart. “We’d get to the turn and sometimes four or five of us were going at the same time, and you don’t slack up. You slack up, you lose,” recalls Baker, a native of the Eastern Shore. He went on to serve as a county commissioner and in the House of Delegates. He is president of the Kent Narrows Racing Association and chairs the Chesterwye Foundation, which helps adults with developmental disabilities.

Louis Carter

Running back for the University of Maryland and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Carter led the Terps in rushing for three seasons in the 1970s, went to the NFL, and threw the first touchdown pass in Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ history. He has gained insight from late wife’s illness, battling cancer himself, and counts his blessings. He recalls life after the NFL playing flag football with his Maryland classmates. “It wasn’t the NFL, but it doesn’t give you brain damage, either.”

Gary Jobson

World-class sailor, television commentator, and author based in Annapolis.

A three-time All-American collegiate sailor, Jobson was part of Ted Turner’s crew (tactician) that won the America’s Cup in 1977 aboard Courageous. He became a sailing analyst for the likes of ESPN and NBC and won two Emmys. Once a sport for the rich, sailing “has done a good job of opening the doors wide,” Jobson says. “Right here in Annapolis, there are eight high schools with sailing teams.”

Laurie Schwoy

Rewrote McDonogh record book in 1990s as four-sport star.

Parade magazine national soccer Player of the Year, Schwoy went on to North Carolina, winning three national soccer titles. Injuries kept her off U.S. national team as peers like Mia Hamm made history by winning the 1999 World Cup. “It was a bitter pill to swallow,” Schwoy admits. “It made me a much better human being because of that heartbreak.”

Jack Thomas

All-time lacrosse great at Hopkins.

On the last freshman team not allowed to play, Thomas made it to the national championship the next three years, finally winning as a senior. He was the only player in JHU history to average more than 70 points per season. At Towson High, he was a three-sport star under his dad, Bill Thomas Sr. Thomas taught in Howard County schools for 40 years and “learned it makes a tremendous impression on kids when you have a Wikipedia page.”

In addition, longtime sportswriter and Camden Yards official scorer Jim Henneman is being honored by the MDSAHOF as winner of the John F. Steadman Lifetime Achievement Award. A former batboy, usher, and more, Henneman confidently says, “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen more Orioles games than anybody alive.”