Bird Tapes Podcast: Bobby Grich Explains How It All Began

To get my recent interview with Bobby Grich rolling, I asked what I thought was a straightforward ice-breaker question about the decisions he made coming out of high school in Southern California in 1967:

“You signed with the Orioles but … I know you were were a very good football player as well. How close did that come to happening?”

I never expected what happened next. Clearly in an expansive mood, Grich launched into a vivid and hilarious recounting of his origins as a pro athlete.

Now 76, Grich is 58 years removed from the choices that set him on the course that brought him to Baltimore at the start of his stellar career in the major leagues, which lasted nearly two decades (17 years). But even though he is a retired grandfather — still living in Southern California — any typical old-guy jokes about failing memory are wholly inappropriate in his case. Grich remembers everything in rich detail.

My straightforward ice-breaker question sent him down a storytelling road that featured a fateful dinner with a Heisman Trophy winner, a curious visit from a Yankees scout right before the 1967 draft, his dad’s kitchen negotiations with the Orioles, and best of all, his epic overnight flight from California to Bluefield, West Virginia, to begin his pro career. (Warning, there’s barfing.)

Upon finally reaching Bluefield’s ancient wooden clubhouse, he went and found the manager, who was none other than Joe Altobelli, the venerable baseball man destined to lead the Orioles to a World Series victory years later.

Their meeting effectively served as Grich’s introduction to pro baseball. He hasn’t forgotten a single detail.

“Joe is smoking a Camel cigarette with no filter. He’s got nicotine on his fingernails from smoking since he was probably 16 years old,” Grich recalled. “He’s got a wife-beater on with underwear and shower shoes. Joe was from Rochester, New York. He had his black hair combed straight back, like Al Pacino in The Godfather. He had a three-day, four-day beard on him. Honest to god, if he didn’t look like a mafia hit man, I’ve never seen one.”

As he sized up the callow newcomer from California standing in front of him, Altobelli slowly blew smoke rings and drawled, “So … you’re Grich, huh?”

Having masterfully set that scene in our interview, Grich went on to explain, with harrowing precision, what it was like to flounder as a kid away from home for the first time before slowly growing up, both as a player and a young man, until he reaches Baltimore and promptly gets blown off by Earl Weaver — a memory that still burns him decades later.

But we didn’t get around to talking about Weaver and Grich’s time with the Orioles until the interview was almost an hour old.

We ended up speaking for so long — nearly two hours — that I’m going to divide the conversation into two Substack posts.

Today’s first part features Grich’s origin story. Next week, I’ll post Part 2, about his years in Baltimore and beyond. Both are being delivered as podcasts, making them available for downloading and/or consumption on Apple Podcasts.

It takes a paid subscription to listen and — apologies for the sales pitch — if you’re looking for a good reason to upgrade to paid, here it is: my interview with Grich, a member of the Orioles’ Hall of Fame, is immediately one of the best of the 45 conversations that now comprise the Bird Tapes archive. (It’ll be followed by new interviews with Ken Rosenthal and Mike Boddicker, both coming soon, and more surprises.) Just click on the “subscribe now” button below if so inclined.