John Schuerholz was perfectly happy at his job, teaching world geography and English to eighth graders in suburban Baltimore.
Even so, one day he decided to mail it in.
A letter, that is. A note the one-time Towson University second baseman wrote to the owner of the hometown Orioles, saying he really wanted to work in baseball, that he might be able to do some good.
A half-century after he dropped that note with the post office, the game delivered its biggest prize: Schuerholz was elected to the Hall of Fame.
"And it all started with that letter in that free period at North Point Junior High in Dundalk," he reminisced Sunday.