In a different scenario, former Orioles Bobby Grich and Don Baylor might have met for the first time on a football gridiron, most likely as featured players in a marquee bowl game.
Grich was headed to UCLA to play quarterback, and Baylor, who was a key player as high school sports were integrated in Austin, Texas, was a halfback for the University of Texas, where he would have become the first African-American football player. However, both ended up pursuing baseball.
So instead they crossed paths for the first time in a Orioles minor league clubhouse in Bluefield, W.Va., where they formed a bond and became roommates on the road, potentially the first African-American and white players rooming together in both the minor and major leagues.
