Jeff Ballard

When the Orioles nearly went from worst-to-first in their “Why Not?” 1989 season, Jeff Ballard epitomized their surprising success. Though he struck out fewer than three batters per nine innings, no major league lefty won more games than Ballard in 1989. By the time Baltimore did return to the post-season seven years later, however, Ballard was out of baseball and lucky to be alive.

Jeffrey Scott Ballard was born in Billings, Montana, on August 13, 1963, the day before his parents’ 10th wedding anniversary. William Wayne Ballard and the former Merilyn Jean Hansen had met in Poplar, Montana, when he was there for a college internship. He also pitched for a local team that summer and met his bride-to-be on a double date arranged by her brother, his catcher.1 After marrying the following year, the couple spent the first decade of their 66-year marriage in Colorado, then Oklahoma, as he pursued his master’s and doctorate in geology.2 Daughter Linda Sue and son David Wayne were born in the mid-1950s, followed by Jeffrey’s arrival in 1963, the same year his father started the Balcron Oil Company and settled the family in Billings.

With no big league team within 800 miles during his childhood, Ballard said, “I probably followed the Orioles more than anyone since Dave McNally was from Billings and everyone followed him.”3 McNally, a 1963 rookie, pitched in four World Series and won more games than any lefty in Baltimore franchise history, but his final big league appearance came the month before Ballard turned 12. By then, Ballard, who’d enjoyed reading about Yankees’ great Lou Gehrig as a kid, had his own baseball uniform in the Boulder (now Boulder-Arrowhead) Little League. He grew up playing at Boulder Field, Lissa Park and Cobb Field in Billings. “I didn’t really follow MLB when I was young because I was so busy playing sports that I didn’t want to sit down and watch it,” he explained. “The only MLB game I ever went to as a kid was a Dodger game in L.A. while my Little League All-Star team was playing in [nearby] San Bernardino at the regional tournament. All the teams got to go to a game at Dodger Stadium.”

Ballard’s father had been an outstanding athlete, attending the University of Oklahoma on a football scholarship during the Sooners’ run of three national championships in seven seasons under College Football Hall of Fame coach Bud Wilkinson. After a severe shoulder injury wrecked the elder Ballard’s chance to start at quarterback as a sophomore, he recuperated enough to play baseball on scholarship instead. “My dad coached me in baseball until I turned 15 and began playing Legion Baseball,” Jeff Ballard recalled. “He is responsible for teaching me my mechanics.”

The Billings Scarlets American Legion clubs Ballard played for were Montana state champions in 1979 and 1982, and runners up the two years in between. At Billings West High School, He also lettered in basketball, helping the Golden Bears win state titles in 1980 and 1981, a highlight of his athletic career. “I was a great shooter and averaged nearly 20 points per game prior to there being a three-point line. However, I was only 6’ 2” and slow, so not much of a chance to go anywhere playing basketball, although the University of Montana offered me to walk on. But everyone knew I was going to Stanford to play baseball.”

The same month Ballard graduated from high school in 1981, the Milwaukee Brewers drafted him in the 16th round. “I never considered signing with the Brewers,” Ballard said. “In fact, they never made an offer. It was during the strike in 1981 and they knew I was going to Stanford. I am not even sure why they wasted a pick on me.” One round later, Milwaukee drafted Billings West’s shortstop, Jeff McNally. “After [Dave McNally] retired and moved back to Billings, his son Jeff went to the same junior high as I did. We hit it off immediately and became great friends,” Ballard recalled. They both played baseball at Stanford University, where McNally studied pre-med and Ballard focused on geophysics. “I majored in that thinking I might need it someday if baseball didn’t work out,” he explained. “Since my family is an oil business family, it was a degree that made sense.”

Before heading to the California campus that fall, Ballard got some tips from his friend’s dad. “[Dave McNally] spent a lot of time with me. Especially before I went away to college, he worked with me. What I remember most about him was his mental approach to pitching. He had a very aggressive attitude. His philosophy was to go get them. Don’t be afraid to take your chances.”

“I’ve watched [Ballard] since he was a kid and the thing that impressed me the most was how he adapted at every level,” McNally observed later. “He did it in basketball and baseball. The better the competition, the better he got.”4

Ballard excelled at Stanford; the Cardinal won three regional championships and competed in three College World Series during his four years playing for Mark Marquess. Ballard’s personal College World Series highlight came as a 1982 freshman. “I came into the game to pitch in the second inning against Texas,” he recalled. “I pitched very well through the ninth inning. We lost the game, but I performed very well against a loaded Texas team that included Roger Clemens and Calvin Schiraldi.”

Following his sophomore season, Ballard teamed with other collegiate stars like Mark McGwire and B.J. Surhoff to represent the United States at the Intercontinental Cup in Brussels, Belgium, and the Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela. The more experienced Cuban team won both tournaments, with the U.S.A. earning a silver medal in Brussels and a bronze in Caracas.

The Baltimore Orioles drafted Ballard in the 27th round following his junior season, but he didn’t seriously consider signing. “I wasn’t a high enough pick to command a meaningful signing bonus,” he explained. “I loved playing at Stanford and wanted to finish school before I gave pro ball a shot anyway.” Instead, Ballard pitched for the Cape Cod League’s Orleans Cardinals that summer and hurled five and one-third scoreless innings for the United States in October’s Amateur World Series. The games were played in Cuba, a few months after the host country joined the Soviet-led boycott of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Ballard recalled, “I got to shake hands with Fidel Castro in 1984. It was an intimidating handshake to say the least.” The U.S. team featuring Barry Bonds earned the bronze.

In his final season at Stanford, Ballard went 14-4 and whiffed 121 batters to lead the Cardinal to a number-five national ranking. He earned First Team All-Pac-10 and Second Team All-American recognition for the second time and, with the regional championship and another trip to the College World Series on the line against Pepperdine, pitched his best game as a collegian. “I think I gave up a run in the first and then retired the final 24 outs in a row,” he recalled. “Something like that anyway. It was a great outing.”

Ballard finished his Stanford career with a 37-15 record, a school high for victories that still stood as of 2020. His 316 strikeouts and 428 innings pitched both set records too, though his K mark has since been surpassed. The Orioles drafted him again that June — this time in the seventh round, and scout George Lauzerique signed him for $10,000.5

Ballard joined the Newark Orioles of the Single-A New York-Pennsylvania League, where he went 10-2 with a 1.41 ERA in 13 starts, tying for the circuit’s lead in wins and shutouts. One of his teammates was Pete Stanicek, the Stanford second baseman drafted by Baltimore in the ninth round.

While Stanicek led the Carolina League with 77 stolen bases for the Hagerstown Suns in 1986, Ballard vaulted two levels ahead of his teammate by season’s end. After attending Orioles spring training as a non-roster invitee, he dominated Single-A hitters with 115 strikeouts in 112 innings, a 9-5 record and a league-leading 1.85 ERA for Hagerstown before advancing to the Double-A Charlotte O’s, where he went 5-2, 3.32 in 10 Southern League starts. He lost both of his outings for the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings but finished his second pro season with a 14-9 record and 2.53 ERA overall.

Ballard’s emergence as a top prospect occurred while the Orioles were suffering through their first losing season in 19 years. “Baltimore doesn’t want to rush the 23-year-old left-hander but the Orioles need help on the mound,” reported The Sporting News when Baltimore struggled early in 1987. “With Manager Cal Ripken, Sr. expected to go to a 10-man staff in mid-May, Ballard may soon be in the majors.”6 Indeed, after Ballard got off to a 5-0, 1.18 ERA start in the International League for Rochester, the Orioles summoned him to make his major league debut on May 9 at Comiskey Park.

He lasted only two-plus innings against the White Sox but earned his first win 10 days later against the Mariners at the Seattle Kingdome. Ballard’s record improved to 2-0 when he beat the A’s next time out at the Oakland Coliseum, but he lost his next three starts and returned to Triple-A with a 6.21 ERA on June 8. “I really got my head spun around,” he admitted. “I didn’t know how to react to balls flying over fences, having runners on base all the time. I had to go back to Rochester and get back to feeling positive.”7

Ballard finished the season 13-4 with a 3.09 ERA for the Red Wings, earning a spot on the Topps Triple-A All-Star team and a September call up to Baltimore with Stanicek. In the final month of 1987, his former Stanford teammate bolstered his status as the club’s leadoff hitter of the future (until leg injuries derailed his career), but Ballard lost all five of his decisions to finish his rookie season with a 2-8 record.

He began 1988 at Rochester while the Orioles lost their first 21 games and changed managers. After Ballard worked into the ninth inning to beat the Mariners at Memorial Stadium in his season debut on May 21, new Baltimore skipper Frank Robinson left him in the starting rotation for the remainder of the year, citing the “luxury of time to develop without pressure.” “It was an important year for [Ballard],” Robinson observed. “He found out he belonged, that he could get major league hitters out.”8

On Ballard’s 25th birthday, he blanked the Robin Yount– and Paul Molitor-led Brewers in Milwaukee for his first shutout, followed by a complete-game, four-hitter to defeat pennant-winning Oakland in his next start. Ballard was the only left-handed starter to win a game for Baltimore all year, and his 8-12 record topped the club in victories despite not joining the roster until late May. “I learned three things,” Ballard explained. “First of all, I learned that you need more concentration in the big leagues. There’s no cruising like the minor leagues. Second, you realize what quality pitches really are, because you don’t get away with mistakes anymore. And third, you start feeling confident and comfortable. That only comes with time.”9

Nevertheless, after a 54-107 season, the Orioles didn’t guarantee Ballard a roster spot entering 1989. He trained all winter with his former Stanford teammates and met Baltimore’s new pitching coach, Al Jackson, at a January workout. Jackson immediately sized up the 6’2”, 215-pound Ballard’s delivery and adjusted it to help him sink the ball and keep his pitches lower in the strike zone. “I was concerned that he was a sinkerball pitcher with a power pitcher’s mentality,” Jackson explained. “We had to convince him that he was a finesse pitcher, not a power pitcher. He accepted it.”10 When Jackson noticed Ballard’s pitches running away from right-handed hitters in spring training, he moved him to the third-base side of the pitching rubber to improve his location. “I’ve never had anybody work on [such things] with me before,” Ballard said. “He is a left-handed pitching coach. That’s the way he pitched, and he stays on me about it.”11

Ballard won all five of his April starts in 1989 with a 1.46 ERA. After he beat the Royals, 2-0, on April 20, Kansas City third baseman George Brett (a .130, 3-for-23 career hitter against Ballard) remarked, “Last year he had a straight fastball, a curve and a changeup. Now he’s got two breaking balls, a change that’s a screwball and a fastball that moves.” Even in 1969, when Dave McNally won his first 15 decisions for Baltimore, no Orioles pitcher had ever gone 5-0 in April before Ballard. The American League named him Pitcher of the Month, and his record improved to 9-1 by the first week of June. “He’s the type of guy hitters go back and say, ‘How did I go 0-for-4 against him?’” Robinson observed.12

“I don’t deny the sinker has made a big difference, but to me, the biggest change is confidence,” Robinson said. “When he runs into a problem now, he doesn’t panic.”13

Ballard agreed. “When I throw it, sinking like it is, I feel I’m going to get batters out. I have so much more confidence. It’s my out pitch. I’m like a kid with a new toy,” he said.14

After the Rangers’ Pete Incaviglia smoked a line drive off his collarbone on May 31, however, Ballard struggled through a stretch of 13 starts in which he won only twice and posted a 5.85 ERA. “He says he’s not hurt, and I’ll take his word on it,” reported Robinson after meeting with the pitcher and Jackson.15

Ballard’s hot start helped the Orioles move into first place just before Memorial Day, and the surprising club remained there for more than three months with a hustling, young roster full of what he called a “bunch of no names”16 plus Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr. By mid-August, however, Baltimore’s lead — once seven-and-a-half games — was down to a game and a-half over the Blue Jays and Brewers. When Toronto arrived at Memorial Stadium on August 17, Ballard beat them in the series opener. Then he shut out Milwaukee on three days’ rest in his next start.

The Orioles’ improved defenders committed only 87 errors in 1989, a key ingredient to success for a contact pitcher like Ballard. “Since I don’t strike out six or seven a game, that means six or seven balls that could be hits, and I need for those plays to be made,” he said. “The difference is like night and day — especially in the outfield.”17 Robinson, an outfielder for four Baltimore pennant-winners, insisted, “Our outfield defense is the best I’ve ever seen as an Oriole. On thoseother great defensive teams we had, the outfield was basically Paul] Blair. Now we have four guys who can be outstanding outfielders — Brady] Anderson, Mike] Devereaux, Steve] Finley and Phil] Bradley. And Joe] Orsulak is good. They can all play.”18

“I used to try to make such a good pitch with two strikes that I’d make a bad one and get hit,” Ballard said. “Now if I don’t get any strikeouts it’s all right.”19 At Yankee Stadium on August 25, however, a trio of Ks gave Ballard one of the most memorable nights of his career. Though his fastball topped out at 83 mph, he used his sidearm curve, cut fastball and slider to whiff Yankees’ star Don Mattingly thrice in a single contest — something no other pitcher had ever done.20 “You could just see it in his face how upset he was,” Ballard said. “He couldn’t believe that a thumber could strike him out three times in one game. He was just pissed.”21

From August 21 to September 23, Ballard started seven times on three days’ rest as the Orioles went 14-2 in games started by him or rookie right-hander Bob Milacki. Nevertheless, Baltimore trailed the red-hot Blue Jays by a single game entering the final regular-season series at Toronto’s SkyDome. In the Friday night opener, Ballard delivered a 1-0 lead to relief ace Gregg Olson with one on and one out in the bottom of the eighth. But Olson, the 1989 A.L. Rookie of the Year, bounced a curveball to allow the tying run to score. Baltimore lost in extra innings and was eliminated by another one-run loss the next day.

Ballard finished the year 18-8 with a 3.43 ERA and only 62 strikeouts in 215 1/3 innings. No other pitcher had earned that many wins with so few Ks since 1941, when the Red Sox’s Dick Newsome went 19-10 with only 58 strikeouts.22 Though Ballard missed out on 20 victories, he was the only man to defeat both A.L. pitchers that did reach that milestone in 1989 — the Athletics’ Dave Stewart and Bret Saberhagen of the Royals. He also outdueled Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson.

When Ballard underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow on October 10, a spur was discovered, necessitating a second operation. “Any time you get cut on, it’s not good,” he said. “I’m a little down, but I will be ready for spring training.”23

A labor dispute delayed and shortened spring training in 1990, however, and Ballard — as Baltimore’s player representative — was involved with the negotiations and fell behind on his physical rehabilitation program. “It was a stupid thing to do,” he admitted later. “I wasn’t in a good enough physical state to be doing all of that.”24

When the season finally began, the Orioles scored a total of 12 runs in his first seven starts and Ballard lost his first five decisions. After winning his first game on May 27, he got clobbered for most of the next month and had a 1-9, 5.28 record by the end of June. With Baltimore down to one healthy lefty in the bullpen, Robinson moved Ballard into a relief role.

The bullpen stint was initially expected to last only a few weeks, but Robinson kept Ballard in the pen for the rest of the season, convinced it was best for the balance of the Orioles’ pitching staff. “[Ballard] hasn’t complained at all,” Robinson said. “His reaction has been to do whatever he can to help the club”25

“I’d rather be starting, but it’s not such a big thing,” Ballard explained. “It’s not such a big deal, as long as it’s not a permanent thing. I can’t be concerned about it. There are too many other things to worry about. I’ve done everything they’ve asked me to do. I just want to pitch.”26 The sub-.500 Orioles finished in fifth place in 1990, but Ballard helped them beat the reigning champion Athletics on August 8 in Oakland by starting a triple play. After entering with two on and nobody out in the seventh inning, his first pitch to Willie Randolph was lined back at him. After he gloved it and threw to Cal Ripken to double a runner off second base, the shortstop fired the ball to Sam Horn at first to complete the triple killing. Ballard had also been on the mound when the Yankees’ Steve Balboni lined into a first-inning triple play in Baltimore on June 15, 1989.

Despite Ballard’s disappointing 2-11, 4.93 record, the Orioles avoided arbitration by raising his salary $175,000, to $465,000.27 It was the second straight off-season he’d received a significant increase after earning $97,000 during his 18-win season.28

He started the final Opening Day at Memorial Stadium in 1991, but lost, 9-1, to former Stanford teammate Jack McDowell and the Chicago White Sox. Ballard also allowed the first of two long balls Sammy Sosa hit that day in the first of 69 multi-homer games in the Dominican’s career. When the last-place Orioles fired Robinson in late May, Ballard’s record was only 2-6, and he continued to scuffle under new skipper Johnny Oates. One week after the champion Athletics knocked Ballard out in the first inning on July 27, he was demoted to Rochester with a 6-11, 5.34 record. Mike Mussina — Baltimore’s first-round draft pick in 1990 after tying Ballard’s single-season Stanford record with 14 victories — replaced him in the Orioles’ rotation.

Ballard’s future with the organization was in doubt after he pitched fewer than six innings following a September recall. “I told them the place I want to play most is here, but I don’t want to spend next year at Rochester,” he said. “If you go to a new organization and you do well, they’re all excited.”29

When the Orioles sent him outright to Rochester, Ballard chose free agency, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals, and pitched very well for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds. His 12-8 record tied him for the American Association lead in victories in 1992, and his 2.52 ERA in 24 starts remained the best ever by a southpaw starter for Louisville as of 2020. The Cardinals never brought him up, however, and released him after the season.

In 1993, Ballard went to spring training with the Oakland Athletics, but was released before Opening Day. The Pittsburgh Pirates signed him in late April and promoted him after he won six of seven decisions with a 2.29 ERA in the American Association for the Buffalo Bisons. At the Astrodome on July 6, Ballard won his Pirates’ debut, pitching into the ninth inning to defeat his former Orioles’ teammate, Pete Harnisch. Ballard never won another major league start, making only four more starts along with 20 relief appearances as he finished 4-1, 4.86 for the Pirates.

He did collect his first two big league hits on July 28 against the Expos’ Ken Hill, jumpstarting the .385 career batting average he compiled in just 13 at bats. He’d hit for himself at Stanford and took batting practice with the Pirates’ regulars instead of the pitchers. Though Pittsburgh manager Jim Leyland never called on him, he twice told Ballard to be ready to pinch hit.30

Ballard opened the 1994 season in the Pirates’ bullpen and earned his first save by striking out San Diego’s Tony Gwynn with the tying runners aboard on April 14. He allowed an earned run only once in his first dozen outings. When his ERA ballooned from 1.59 to 6.66 between May 10 and July 8, however, the Pirates returned him to Buffalo, where he struggled to a 3-7, 4.82 mark while the strike-shortened major league season ended prematurely.

The Indians made the 31-year-old Ballard an offer that off-season and other teams expressed interest, but his career ended suddenly on January 7, 1995. Ballard was driving the 1988 Ford Bronco he’d owned since his Orioles’ days through a swirling snowstorm on U.S. Route 20 in Island Park, Idaho, when a tractor trailer swerved into his path on the two-lane highway. “I was driving to Stanford to get ready, like I always do, in case they settled [the strike] in time for spring training,” he recalled. “A semi came across the median line and, I guess, hit me almost head-on. I really don’t know what happened. I don’t remember anything about it.”31

Ballard spent three days in a hospital with four crushed ribs and extensive bruising before heading to his parents’ home to recuperate. Back in Billings, he discovered that he’d also fractured a vertebra in his neck. “It was a severe fracture that left his spine unstable,” said Dr. Steve Rizzolo, leader of the orthopedic team that operated on Ballard, adding that “the injury was potentially capable of paralyzing Jeff from the neck down” without correction or if there had been more force on impact.32 “He told me he was wearing his seat belt and I think that’s what saved him,” remarked Corporal Ismael Gonzales of the Idaho State Police.33 “After seeing pictures [of my Bronco], I’m lucky to be breathing,” Ballard said. “I’m very fortunate.”34

With his vertebrae realigned and held together by a plate, wire, screws and a bone graft from his pelvis, Ballard spent months with a protective collar around his neck and retired from baseball with a 41-53 record over seven seasons. “I took all of 1995 off of work and just played golf once I healed up.”

Since beginning his Balcron Oil Company in 1963, Ballard’s father had started several renditions of the company in ensuing years. “While I was playing professional baseball, I helped my father and brother raise investment money for the company they started,” Ballard explained. “I mostly put them in contact with some Stanford-affiliated people I knew.” While he recovered from his injuries, his father offered him a Senior Vice President position with the rebranded Ballard Petroleum Holdings, LLC and Jeff has been there since January 1996. “I decided it was a great opportunity and better than my other options of getting back into the game in some capacity like coaching or announcing.”

The Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame inducted Ballard in 1998. Since 2001, he has served as the chairman of the Billings American Legion Baseball program. When the Orioles celebrated 50 years in Baltimore in 2004, Ballard was named one of the 50 most popular players of the club’s first half-century.

In June 2008, he wed the former Kristen Callison. “I met my wife at the health club where I worked out. She worked there, and we became friends that turned into a beautiful relationship.” Kristen is a certified primal health coach with her own business, reNEW Compleat Wellness. The Ballards welcomed son Kyren a year into their marriage, followed by daughter Kennley three years later. In 2019, Ballard managed Kyren’s Boulder-Arrowhead 9-10 Majors team to victory in a local Tournament of Champions. They also helped Kyren — a right-handed pitcher/first baseman — and a team of Billings All-Stars win the state Little League championship. Kennley was ready for girls’ softball after two summers playing coach-pitch baseball with the boys. “Although I don’t look back a whole lot in regards to my playing days, I am living my childhood again with being involved in Little League,” Ballard said.

Ballard’s major league baseball career is like a previous life that doesn’t come up often in his busy household. “It’s almost surreal to some degree,” he said. “Most of my reminiscing comes from people asking me questions. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it anymore.”35 For his children, born long after his final major-league pitch, memories of their father in an Orioles uniform come mainly from playing with his 1990 Kenner Starting Lineup action figure. On August 9, 2019, however, they donned their own “BALLARD 29” Baltimore jerseys as the whole family went to Oriole Park at Camden Yards for a ceremony honoring the 1989 “Why Not?” team. “A lot of people remember how fun a year it was,” Ballard said. “I am grateful I got to experience a pennant race. It was a fantastic year.”36

Last revised: September 17, 2020

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Jeff Ballard (e-mail correspondence with Malcolm Allen on July 26, 2020). This biography was reviewed by Paul Proia, Rory Costello, and Norman Macht and fact-checked by William Lamb.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted www.baseball-reference.com and www.retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 “Merilyn Jean Ballard,” Billings Gazette, January 20, 1920.

2 Allyn Hulteng, “Rock Solid Foundations,” Billings Gazette, Holiday 2011:75.

3 Unless otherwise cited, all Jeff Ballard quotes are from E-mail correspondence with Malcolm Allen, July 26, 2020

4 Jim Henneman, “Another Star Rises from Billings.” The Sporting News, June 5, 1989: 12.

5 U.S. Baseball Questionnaires; Ballard-Allen e-mail

6 “Around the Minors,” The Sporting News, May 11, 1987:38.

7 Henneman, “Another Star Rises from Billings.”

8 Henneman.

9 Henneman.

10Henneman.

11Henneman.

12 Ballard’s 1991 Score baseball card.

13 Henneman, “Another Star Rises from Billings.”

14 Henneman.

15 “A.L. East,” The Sporting News, July 3, 1989:19.

16 Bill Bighaus, “Big Night Ahead for Billings’ Ballard Family at Baltimore’s Camden Yards,” www.406mtsports.com, August 2, 2019.

17 Jim Henneman, “Orioles Defense Does Complete Turnaround,” The Sporting News, June 12, 1989:19.

18 Henneman.

19 Henneman, “Another Star Rises from Billings.”

20 After Mattingly developed back problems, Mark Langston of the Angels and the Mariners’ Randy Johnson –both of whom threw in the 90s—whiffed Mattingly three times in 1993 and 1995, respectively.

21 Bill Bighaus, “Jeff Ballard Reminisces on Experiences at Yankee Stadium,” Billings Gazette, June 6, 2008.

22 Moss Klein, “Evans in Hall? Look at Immortals He’s Passed,” The Sporting News, November 20, 1989:45.

23 “A.L. East,” The Sporting News, October 23, 1989:41.

24 Jim Henneman, “On Lonely Idaho Highway, Ballard’s Career Hits Crossroad,” The Baltimore Sun, February 5, 1995.

25 Jim Henneman, “Orioles Ballard: A Fall from Grace?” The Sporting News, September 3, 1990:12.

26 Henneman.

27 “Orioles Generous; Ballard in Back,” The Sporting News, January 14, 1991:37.

28 “’89 Pay: 20 are $2 Million Men,” The Sporting News, April 24, 1989:25.

29 Peter Schmuck, “Baltimore Orioles,” The Sporting News, October 21, 1991:20.

30 David Seideman, “Big Leaguer Recovers ‘Priceless’ Baseball 25 Years Later,” forbes.com, January 11, 2018.

31 Henneman, “On Lonely Idaho Highway, Ballard’s Career Hits Crossroad.”

32 Henneman,

33 Henneman.

34 Henneman,.

35 Bill Bighaus, “Jeff Ballard Reminisces on Experiences at Yankee Stadium.”

36 Bill Bighaus,“Big Night Ahead for Billings’ Ballard Family at Baltimore’s Camden Yards.”