PressBox: HS Confidential: Reed Enjoys Texas-Sized Homecoming

HS Confidential: Reed Enjoys Texas-Sized Homecoming
By Keith Mills

Texas head trainer Jamie Reed looked into the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards and liked what he saw.

Severna Park's Mark Teixeira, Texas first baseman, was doing an interview with PressBox's Mallory Rubin, former Oriole outfielder Gary Matthews was talking with a Washington television reporter and a gang of Texas Rangers were lounging in the middle of the room listening to shortstop Michael Young talk about his game-winning triple in the All-Star game.

"This team is very similar to the Orioles team we had here in 1989," Reed said. "They enjoy playing together and they love sitting around talking to each other. I usually get to the ballpark around noon and half the team is already here. They love spending time together away from the park. That camaraderie away from the field carries over onto the field."

Reed spent nearly 20 years in the Orioles organization, including eight years as assistant trainer to Richie Bancells. He is a graduate of St. Mary's High School in Annapolis, where he played lacrosse and football. He will be back in the area again in October when he will be inducted into the Anne Arundel County Sports Hall of Fame.

"I am very surprised and very honored," Reed said.

The Anne Arundel County Sports Hall of Fame was created 16 years ago and has honored an army of high school coaches and players. Among the honorees are coaching legends Al Laramore and John Brady of Annapolis, Jerry Mears, Bernie Walter and Buddy Hepfer of Arundel, Lil Shelton of Severna Park and Dick Hart of Andover. One of Hart's former basketball players, Steve Steilper, is in the Hall as well as Andover grad and former New York Yankee first baseman Jim Spencer. The impressive list also includes Duke assistant basketball coach Steve Wojciechowski of Severna Park, Olympic gold medal swimmer Theresa Andrews of Annapolis and former Oakland Raider Louis Carter, an Arundel High grad.

"It's special when you're honored by the people you grew up and worked with here," Reed said. "To come back and be recognized is exciting."

Reed is 45 years old and even though he now lives in Grand Prairie, Texas with his wife and three children, he will be a Marylander for life.

"The hardest thing about living in Texas is not being around the water," he said. "I grew up in Annapolis, on the Magothy River water skiing, crabbing, sailing."

Reed also grew up playing baseball, always playing for his dad, James.

"My dad was a huge influence on my life," he said. "But I must have done something to my parents, because in eighth grade they sent me to St. Mary's and they didn't have a baseball team."

Instead he played lacrosse at St. Mary's for legendary coach Mason "Daffey" Russell and Doug Macy. He also played football for Mike Busch, now the Speaker of the House in the Maryland General Assembly. Both Busch and Russell are members of the Hall of Fame as well.

It was also at St. Mary's where Reed met Rusty Romo, whose dad Red was the long-time trainer at the U.S. Naval Academy. It wasn't long before Reed started hanging out with the younger Romo in his dad's training room. When he graduated from East Carolina University in 1982, Reed began working for Red Romo and the football and basketball teams at Navy.

"Not a bad time to be at Navy," said Reed, who was there from 1982 to 1984 and again in 1988. "We had Napoleon McCallum in football and David Robinson in basketball. Red Romo was a legend at Navy and he shaped my career. Trainers work some really crazy hours and he taught me how to balance my professional and personal life. He was a huge influence on me."

And Bancells was too. In June of 1982, just one month out of college, Reed was hired by the Orioles as the trainer for their Rookie League team in Bluefield, W.Va., and a 17-year marriage with the Birds was born.

"I used to bleed orange and black and blue and white," Reed said. "My dad used to take me to a lot of Orioles and Colts games at Memorial Stadium all the time when I was a kid. To work for them was unbelievable."

''Jamie is like the brother I never had,'' Bancells said. "We had a relationship that was far more than just baseball, You can't create what we had. We did things off the field, and our families were also very close.''

Reed flew through the Orioles farm system going from Bluefield to Hagerstown, Charlotte to Rochester and eventually to Baltimore. In 1989 he became the assistant to Bancells, who is considered one of the premiere trainers in all of professional sports.

"How lucky was I to work with both Red Romo and Richie Bancells? What an education," Reed said.

He left the Orioles after the 1996 season to be the head trainer for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In 2002, he left Tampa to join the Texas Rangers, where he has watched the maturation of Teixeira, Young and third baseman Hank Blalock help the Rangers become pennant contenders.

"Mark and I have a lot in common," Reed said. "We both grew up in Anne Arundel County and his dad is a Naval Academy grad so we're always talking about that. It's been fun to watch him play every day and Michael Young reminds me so much of Cal (Ripken) on the field and in the clubhouse. He's always polite, from the bellman to the clubhouse guy to the flight attendant."

As the Rangers battled for the American League West lead last weekend at Camden Yards, Reed could not help but turn back the clock to 1989, the Orioles' "Why Not" season. The year prior to that, the Orioles lost 21 straight games to start the year and finished with 107 losses. The next year, they led the AL by 7 1/2 games at the All-Star break only to finish two games behind Toronto, battling the Blue Jays all the way to the final weekend of the season.

"That's still my most favorite year in baseball," Reed said. "We cranked it up again in 1996 and made the playoffs, but '89 was special. Cal, Billy (Ripken), Chris Hoiles, Mike Mussina, Ben McDonald, Steve Finley, Brady (Anderson), they were all great guys and we had a great year"

And then there was October of 1991, the last game the Orioles ever played at Memorial Stadium.

"I'm not a big memorabilia guy, but Brooks (Robinson) and Johnny Unitas threw out the ceremonial first football and baseball during that last game and I have a signed print of it," said Reed. "It's hanging up on the wall in my office. My wife won't let me hang any baseball stuff in there, but she let me put that one up and every time my father comes to visit he tries to steal it."

And every chance he gets, Reed steals a few minutes to think back his days in Annapolis and Baltimore.

"I've been very lucky," he said. "To associate yourself with the Baltimore Orioles and the U.S. Naval Academy, that's some pretty solid company. I am really proud of my resume and really blessed to have worked with so many great people."

Issue 1.13: July 20, 2006