Robert Ramsay

The story of Robert Ramsay is one of dedication and love of baseball. He had the rare opportunity to play for his hometown major-league team and his nearby university, and to coach his local high-school baseball team. He was devoted to baseball and to his family. “I think he was a model of humility in a world, in a profession that people don’t necessarily know what humility is traditionally about and a society where we glorify and don’t always keep what is important in perspective,” said his wife, Samantha.1

Ramsay’s major-league baseball career lasted parts of two seasons, 1999 and 2000, both with the Seattle Mariners. In 43 games pitched, he earned a single victory. His ERA was 4.19 and his weakness was his control; he walked 49 batters in 68⅔ innings. 

Ramsay was a native of the Pacific Northwest. Born on December 3, 1973, and raised in Vancouver, Washington, across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, he graduated from Mountain View High School in Vancouver, attended Washington State University, and pitched for the Seattle Mariners. During and after his professional baseball career, he primarily lived in the Moscow, Idaho-Pullman, Washington, area where he raised his family with his wife, Samantha.

At the age of 42, Ramsay died of a seizure on August 4, 2016, leaving behind Samantha, his wife of 17 years, and two sons, 11-year-old Ryan and 8-year-old Reidar. Samantha described Rob as honest, sincere, and down to earth.

Growing up in Vancouver, Ramsay pitched for his high-school baseball team. (He became the only player from Mountain View High to pitch in the major leagues.2) At age 16, he also pitched in the Babe Ruth League, leading his Vancouver team to the national championship in the Babe Ruth 16-year-old World Series, and was named its most outstanding player.3

It was clear that in his high-school years, Ramsay was a well-regarded pitcher. He was 6-feet-5-inches tall and weighed 230 pounds. Scouts rated his fastball as fair, but they suggested that his easy arm action and loose wrist provided potential to add arm speed and a capable curveball, making him a promising starting pitcher.4 In the 1992 amateur draft, he was taken in the 31st round by the Houston Astros, but did not sign because he planned to attend Washington State University.

Ramsay was a four-year letterman (1993-1996) at WSU.5 In 1996, his senior year, he led the team in ERA (3.93), innings pitched, and strikeouts, and was co-winner of the Buck Bailey Award as the top pitcher on the team.6 He became the career leader at WSU in innings pitched. In his junior year, Ramsay was the opening starting pitcher in the Pacific-12 Conference postseason championship series against the nationally seventh-ranked, hard-hitting USC Trojans.7 “He’s been a guy that has been leading off for us most of the year on the mound, and his consistency has been getting better and better with his mechanics, so he’s spotting the ball much better,” said WSU head coach Steve Ferrington.8 Ramsay held the Trojans in check before leaving with a 6-4 lead with one out in the eighth inning. Cougar relievers failed to protect the lead as the Trojans rallied to defeat the Cougars.

In the 1996 draft, Ramsay was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the seventh round, the 211th player chosen, just ahead of future major leaguer Mark DeRosa. His teammate, Mike Wetmore, was also drafted in the seventh round that year.9 Eleven days later, Ramsay signed his first professional contract.

Ramsay’s minor-league career was one that showed a consistent movement up the ladder toward the major leagues. After signing, he joined the Red Sox squad in the Gulf Coast League. After just two games, he was promoted to Sarasota of the Class-A Florida State League. He stayed in Sarasota for the entire 1997 season, when he started 22 games and ended up with a 9-9 record. His 4.78 ERA was above the league average, but it earned him a promotion to Trenton of the Double-A Eastern League for 1998.

In Trenton Ramsay showed the potential that would lead him to the major leagues. He compiled a 12-6 record, his 3.49 ERA was among the league leaders, he finished tied for second in strikeouts and walked 50 in 166⅔ innings. He averaged six innings per start and was named the Red Sox’ top minor-league pitcher.10 With this success, Ramsay began the 1999 season at Pawtucket, the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate. In four months at Pawtucket, he started 20 games and was 6-6. Ramsay suffered from the long ball; he was tagged for 21 home runs in 114⅓ innings. On July 26 Ramsay was traded to the Seattle Mariners for outfielder Butch Huskey, and was assigned to Tacoma, the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in the Pacific Coast League.11

Ramsay’s stay in Tacoma was brief. In his five starts, he was 4-1 with an ERA of 1.08, earning him a promotion to the Mariners. Barely a month since he had been traded by the Red Sox, he was making his initial major-league appearance, relieving starting pitcher Gil Meche with one out in the fourth inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. “It was pretty crazy,” Samantha Ramsay said. “It was like his dream. He always imagined being there and there he was. That’s probably when I realized this is a big deal.”12 Upon his call-up, Ramsay became the third former WSU Cougar on the Mariners’ roster, joining teammates John Olerud and Aaron Sele.

Adding to the pressure of making his major-league debut, Ramsay entered the game in a stressful situation. The Mariners were trailing 4-0 and the Yankees had runners on first and third. He immediately walked Derek Jeter, loading the bases, then threw a wild pitch to Bernie Williams that advanced all runners, increasing the Yankees’ lead to 5-0. After intentionally walking Williams to reload the bases, he struck out former Mariner Tino Martinez for the second out. But Chili Davis followed with a single through the left side, scoring two more runs. When the inning ended one batter later, the Yankees had a commanding 7-0 lead. Ramsay pitched two more scoreless innings.

Ramsay was very low-key and known as a jeans and polo shirt type. Soon after he joined the Mariners, manager Lou Piniella saw him in a hotel lobby and told him, “Son, you can’t wear tennis shoes in the lobby. You need to get better clothes. You’re going to be in the big leagues, you need to wear better clothes.”13

Ramsay finished the season with Mariners, ending with a 0-2 record and an ERA of 6.38. He started three games late in the season; his best was a five-inning appearance in which he surrendered only two runs. 

After starting the 2000 season in Tacoma, Ramsay was recalled on April 26 to start a game against the Cleveland Indians, replacing the injured Freddy García.14 It was an emergency start and, after his appearance he was expected to move to the bullpen. “We can use him as a second left-hander in relief,” Piniella said.15 Ramsay represented himself well in the start, holding back a powerful Cleveland lineup for six innings, allowing one earned run on five hits and leaving the game trailing 1-0. He did not get a decision; the Mariners lost 5-3 in 10 innings. It was Ramsay’s only major-league start of the season. He remained with the Mariners for the rest of the season, outside of a two-inning injury-rehab start for Class-A Everett.

On June 15 Ramsay entered the game against the Minnesota Twins in the fifth inning in relief of Paul Abbott, who had to leave the game with cramping in his right hamstring.16 Ramsay was given a 7-1 Mariners lead and became the pitcher of record. After throwing 2⅔ innings, giving up two earned runs, he was awarded the victory in a 12-5 Mariner win. “It’s not the typical first win you want to get,” said Ramsay, who became the first Mariner reliever to win a game in nearly a month. “You want to earn it a little more, maybe start the game and go six or seven innings.”17

Ramsay pitched in 37 Mariners games, in 2000 throwing 50⅓ innings, with an ERA of 3.40. With his lone victory, he added one loss. While he generally pitched to contact, striking out only 32 batters during the season, his control continued to be a problem, as he walked 40. He made two relief appearances against the Yankees in the ALCS, facing seven batters in 1⅔ innings without yielding a run.

Ramsay failed to make the major-league roster in 2001 spring training and spent the entire season in Tacoma. During spring training, he was hobbled by a sore knee and didn’t appear in a live game until March 10. He was in a battle with veteran Norm Charlton to be the additional left-hander out of the bullpen. “If they decide to go with a second left-hander, that’s what I’m aiming for,” Ramsay said. “I just have to be myself and not try to strike everybody out.”18 At Tacoma he pitched as a starter all season. With an ERA of nearly 5.00 in 26 games, he continued to struggle with his control and surrendered 26 home runs in 149⅓ innings. He was never called up as the Mariners rolled through a record-setting 116-win season. After the season, he was released.

Ramsay soon found a job with the San Diego Padres, but just after he signed his contract, he began to experience headaches and nausea. One November day, after returning from bird hunting, he told his wife that his headache was severe.19 She had been urging him to see a doctor, but now she insisted, although she didn’t enjoy nagging her husband. “At first I didn’t think it was my area to press him on,” said Samantha. “He’s a grown man, an athlete. He knows his body better than I do. But when we would do things we’d always done, he just wasn’t the same. Something was wrong. Finally, I put my foot down. Do something about this or face my wrath.”20

Ramsay agreed that his wife had persevered in telling him to see a doctor. “I said no. But she persisted and she persisted, and finally after a month and a half I realized I needed to get this thing checked out. It was debilitating. I couldn’t work out. I didn’t know what it was.”21 His family doctor found a mass on his brain. Then a neurologist in Spokane diagnosed him with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of brain cancer, one that, even years later, in 2019, offered only a 5.5 percent chance of survival of more than five years.

The standard treatment for the cancerous tumor is surgery, followed by daily radiation and oral chemotherapy for 6½ weeks, then a six-month regimen of oral chemotherapy given five days a month. Ramsay was ready to get to the next step. “I was like, OK, let’s go, let’s get this thing out,” he said, describing his motivation as bordering on excitement. “I just wanted to get after it. I read the Lance Armstrong book, which was very inspirational for me. After reading that, I was like, man, let’s go.”22

Ramsay underwent brain surgery on January 23, 2002, performed by neurosurgeon Mitchell Berger, a 10½-hour operation at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center.23 The bulk of the tumor, on the right side of his brain, was removed, but the tumor had sent tentacle-like runners deep into the brain, and they could not be removed.24 It was then the job of chemotherapy to keep the remaining cancer from retaking the brain. 

Ramsay knew he would sit out the 2002 season, as he recovered from the surgery and focused on his chemotherapy. However, he had no intention of giving up on baseball, and one year after the operation, he signed a minor-league contract with the Padres.25 The Padres had supported him during his surgery and recovery and in November 2002, re-signed him as a minor-league free agent – something they had no obligation to do.

“We are so grateful for the support both teams showed,” Samantha said, speaking of both the Padres and the Mariners. “I don’t think there’s any other team that could have done what the Padres did for us. I’m going to be a Padres fan forever. They absolutely just put their arms around us.”26

By April of 2003, just a few months after his surgery, Ramsay began working out again. In late spring, he was cleared to go full speed.27 Gaining confidence, he was considering calling Padres general manager Kevin Towers to discuss his comeback. “I was feeling real good doing that, getting ready to let Kevin know I’m ready to go,” Ramsay said.28

Then, during a regularly scheduled routine MRI, the cancer was back. “I was feeling really positive, and the recurrence brought me back to earth,” he said. “It was like, OK, baseball can wait. Let’s worry about my health and deal with that later.”29 He underwent stepped-up chemotherapy to fight the cancer and gradually began to feel better. In October, he took a quail-hunting trip with friends, but had trouble walking a straight line.30 He returned to the neurologist, who discovered a blood clot. Another brain surgery was performed on November 4.31

Since then, despite undergoing chemotherapy treatments every six weeks, he had worked himself back into playing shape, so he signed another minor-league contract with the San Diego Padres, then reported to spring training. From the moment he reported, he went through all the drills with the other players. “It was amazing,” said Rick Sutcliffe, the Padres’ roving minor-league pitching coach. “He must have gotten tired, but he never showed it.”32

Ramsay made an early spring-training appearance on March 4, when he was scheduled to pitch an inning against the San Francisco Giants, even though, several days before, he had undergone his regular chemotherapy treatment and could not work out for two days afterward.33

Padres manager Bruce Bochy called for Ramsay to start the bottom of the seventh inning. “I ran out to the mound, but bam!” Ramsay said. “I didn’t stop to think that our catcher, Wiki Gonzalez, had been the last batter in our half of the inning. He was still putting on his gear, while I’m standing out on the mound without anyone to throw to. I felt kinda silly. I should have waited. I guess I was a little excited. I was pumped.”34

In the stands down the first-base line sat Samantha Ramsay, two months pregnant. “There was a lot of excitement,” she said. “I know Rob was dreaming of this, and while I pray, I pray for health, mainly, but I wouldn’t be a pitcher’s wife if I wasn’t hoping that he’d have a good outing.”35

As he prepared to face the first Giants batter, an anxious Bochy leaned forward on the dugout bench. “I didn’t just want him not to have a ball hit to him,” Bochy recalled. “I also didn’t want him to get bombed, to have them score five or six runs off him. I know he doesn’t have quite his stuff back. I just didn’t know how fragile his confidence might be.”36 For protection, Ramsay wore a John Olerud-style helmet while on the mound. 

Ramsay retired the side in order, throwing only five pitches. “I think I was floating,” he said of how he felt as he walked off the mound. “I appreciated the moment, but, since the diagnosis, I appreciate the little things, like getting out of bed in the morning.37 Two days later, he began the sixth inning against the Colorado Rockies. After he retired the first two batters, the third reached on an error. A walk and a hit batsman later, Bochy removed him. “He did his job, should’ve been out of the inning except for the error,” Bochy said, “and I just didn’t want anything more to happen out there for him.”38

Soon after his appearance against the Rockies, Ramsay was sent to the minor-league camp. As a minor-league free agent, he was not eligible to pitch in the major leagues until May 15. “Rob needs to get work,” Bochy said. “It’s hard to get innings now with our starters getting stretched out.”39 Ultimately, Ramsay spent the entire 2003 season in the minor leagues, primarily with the Lake Elsinore Storm of the Class-A California League, where he appeared in 27 games and threw 71 innings with a 3.57 ERA.

As the season concluded and Ramsay approached the continuation of his comeback, he now knew he was cancer-free. He had had clear brain scans for over a year and no longer needed the energy-sapping, intravenous chemotherapy drip treatments.40 The Baltimore Orioles offered him a minor-league contract, and he reported to spring training. “I’ve had clear scans for over a year now,” he said. “I feel great.”41

Ramsay noted that he had lost at least 5 mph off his fastball. “Basically, I have to pitch a different way that I used to,” he said. “That’s fine. If I can still get guys out, that’s the name of the game anyhow.”42 It wasn’t enough to impress the Orioles, however. On May 7, 2004, his professional baseball career ended when the Orioles released him from extended spring training.43

After retiring, Ramsay went back to school and earned his master’s degree from the University of Idaho. He taught secondary school for three years and coached baseball at his high school. Despite being cancer-free, the effects of two craniotomies, chemotherapy, and radiation caused seizures that he treated with medication. “Usually, he could feel them coming on and could abate it and recognize it and do things to pull out of it,” said Samantha.44 In 2012, he became a stay-at-home dad. 

On August 4, 2016, at the age of 42, Ramsay suffered a seizure that claimed his life. 

Before the Mariners game on Monday, August 8, 2016  the Mariners held a moment of silence for their one-time reliever. “It’s easy to say that he was valued and loved by all, and he’s the kind of person that even before we met in college, people loved him,” said Samantha, then a University of Idaho food and nutrition professor. “He was a good guy.”45 

He was a doting father and husband. Samantha said, “With Rob, it didn’t matter who you were, what you did, where you were, what you were doing, he would treat you the same. He never wanted fame or recognition or anything, but just to do the things he loved to do, to play the game he loved, to have a family, a wife and healthy kids and go enjoy it. I hope he got what he wanted.”46 

This story would not be complete without a follow-up on Samantha, who was a mountain climber and outdoor enthusiast. Her friend, SeAnne Safaii-Waite, described her as more determined to continue her outdoor activities after the death of her husband. “I would say that she was more intense after that,” said Safaii-Waite in a phone interview. “[Being active] was like a lifeline and a way of feeling alive, too. She would always run [in races] for Rob and climb for Rob. It was just part of her spirituality.”47 On July 30, 2017, just five days short of the first anniversary of Robert’s death, Samantha was struck by lightning and killed as she approached the summit of the Matterhorn, in Switzerland.48

Sources

All sources for which hyperlinks are provided were accessed on January 6, 2022.

Photo credit: Robert Ramsay, courtesy of the Ramsay family.

Notes

1 Anthony Castrovince, “Ramsay’s Life Not Measured by Stats,” MLB.com, August 8, 2016.

2 Mountain View High School (Vancouver, Washington) – The Baseball Cube.

3 Babe Ruth League (www.baberuthleague.org) Honor Roll of WS Champions.

4 Montreal Expos “N-Z” scouting reports, 1992, National Baseball Hall of Fame. This report was provided to SABR by Roland Hemond, who procured it on behalf of the Scout of the Year Foundation and used it in the Diamond Mines Exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013.

5 “Washington State Cougar History,” 07mghistory.pdf (sidearmsports.com).

6 “Washington State Cougar History.”

7 Laurence Miedema, “Ramsay Draws Opening Assignment Against USC,” Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Moscow, Idaho), May 16, 1995: 10.

8 Miedema, “Ramsay Draws Opening Assignment Against USC.”

9 Laurence Miedama, “Arizona Picks WSU’s Ryan in 26th Round,” Moscow-Pullman Daily News, June 6, 1996: 1D.

10 Former Baseball Player Robert Ramsay Called Up To Pitch For The Seattle Mariners – Washington State University Athletics (wsucougars.com).

11 Associated Press, “Huskey to Boston for Ex-WSU Pitcher,” Spokane Spokesman-Review, July 27, 1999.

12 Garrett Cabeza, “Rob Ramsay Left a Lasting Impact on Those Around Him,” Moscow-Pullman Daily News, August 12, 2016.

13 Cabeza.

14 “Ramsay Gets Call from AAA, Starts vs. Cleveland tonight,” Seattle Times, April 26, 2000: D11.

15  “Ramsay Gets Call from AAA.”

16 Larry Stone, “Cameron Crushes Twins – Outfielder Hits Grand Slam in Easy Road Win,” Seattle Times, June 16, 2000.

17 Stone: D1.

18 Kirby Arnold, “Mariners Notebook,” Bremerton (Washington) Kitsap Sun, March 10, 2001.

19 Ira Berkow, “Baseball; for Pitcher, a Spring to Appreciate,” New York Times, March 17, 2003: D2.

20 David Andriesen, “Rob Ramsay’s Game of His Life,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 3, 2003.

21 Andriesen.

22 Andriesen.

23 Andriesen.

24 Andriesen.

25 Associated Press, “Ramsay Continuing His Comeback from Brain Surgery,” Bremerton Kitsap Sun, February 25, 2004.

26 Andriesen.

27 Andriesen.

28 Associated Press, “Ramsay Navigates Long Road Back,” Bremerton Kitsap Sun, March 2, 2003.

29 Andriesen.

30 Andriesen.

31 Andriesen.

32 Berkow.

33 Berkow.

34 Berkow.

35 Berkow.

36 Berkow.

37 Berkow.

38 Berkow.

39 Berkow.

40 Steve Kelley, “Ramsay Again Talks Baseball, Not Cancer,” Seattle Times, January 28, 2004: D1.

41 Larry Stone, “Postcard from Florida,” Seattle Times, March 1, 2004: C7.

42 Stone, “Postcard from Florida.”

43 Transactions, 2004, Baltimore Orioles Transactions | MLB.com.

44 Castrovince.

45 Cabeza.

46 Castrovince.

47 Cindy Boren, “After Her Husband’s Death, She Found Peace in Climbing. A Year Later, She Died on the Matterhorn,” Washington Post, August 7, 2017.

48 Boren.