BALTIMORE — In the stuffy fourth-floor attic of a historic Baltimore academic building, amid discarded furniture and dusty filing cabinets, Larry Pitrof discovered treasure.
The trove isn’t worth millions. But it’s a fascinating relic and a historic bridge between fact, lore and baseball.
Archibald “Moonlight” Graham played two innings of right field in a major league baseball game in 1905 and had zero at-bats. That was the extent of his big league career, a forgettable footnote in baseball history.
Then, years after his death, author W.P. Kinsella included Graham in his 1982 novel “Shoeless Joe,” which became the inspiration for the 1989 film “Field of Dreams.” The film that immortalized the phrase, “If you build it, he will come,” and which is beloved by American fathers and sons, launched Graham into folk hero status.
But Graham is no tall tale. He spent most of his life as a doctor and attended the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore in the early 1900s.
Pitrof is the medical school alumni association’s executive director. He’s also a baseball fanatic who’s long been intrigued by Graham.
Every few months, for one reason or another, he’s visited the fourth floor of the school’s Gray Hall, a 182-year-old building less than three blocks from Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Each time, he’d pass a few cabinets, and each time, for 28 years, he’d half-pause and half-wonder if anything from Graham’s past was inside.
After Major League Baseball played its first “Field of Dreams” game on Aug. 12 next to the filming location in Iowa, Pitrof — on a hunch there might be some trace of Graham — decided to peek in the cabinets. There, within a stack of documents dating from 1812 to 1916, he found a dozen letters between the school’s dean and one Archie Graham, one of baseball history’s most unassuming legends.
“There was that tingling feeling,” Pitrof said.
The Graham documents span 1903 to 1905, the years Graham attended medical school in Baltimore while continuing his baseball career in the summers. They include Graham’s matriculation cards and correspondence with the school.
Writing from Scranton, Pennsylvania — where he played in the minor leagues after his MLB appearance with the New York Giants — Graham noted he was enclosing $30, which he owed to the institution. In one letter, he sought a recommendation. In another, he asked whether there was “any chance for me to get into Bay View” in a training position, likely referencing the current Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center east of the city.
BEFORE THIS discovery, there were only a handful — as few as five or six — known Graham signatures. In the letters, Pitrof found four more.
Graham went on to become an adored doctor, as depicted in the movie. He also made essential contributions to medical research. It was his 1945 study that prompted pediatricians to begin regularly monitoring blood pressure in children.
There’s a bounce in Pitrof’s step and a thrill in his voice when he discusses Graham, who some categorize as a “cult figure.”
“No,” Pitrof protests. “He was a role model.”
