Making It Big

Ron Herion was frequently told he was too small to make the Big Leagues as a pitcher. The former Baltimore Orioles pitcher proved coaches and scouts wrong, while learning to accept life is about more than balls and strikes.

“Hard work can help you achieve almost anything, and having good friends is priceless,” he said.

Long before moving to Masonic Village at Elizabethtown, Ron grew up in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. At the age of 5, one of his neighbors handed him a baseball for the first time. The neighbor was Charlie McConville, a former pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics. Charlie coached Ron through high school, letting him play with older players, which is “how you learn,” according to Ron. He played baseball at Northeast High School in Philadelphia and for the American Legion. He entered the Pendel League, a collegiate/ amateur baseball league in the Philadelphia, Montgomery and Bucks County area, at age 19, as one of the youngest players.

“Every team I ever played for, I made the All Stars. I never received a trophy, and I didn’t want one,” he recalls. “I just wanted to work hard and get better.”

He played in the minor leagues for Ithaca and Rochester, New York, as well as in Georgia and Maryland. He was always transferred with the same catcher, second baseman and short stop.

“We’re still the best of friends,” Ron said. “With them, I had a great time. They’ve kept me going over the years, and I love being called ‘the kid.’”

The four meet often to sky dive and are up to 94 jumps. Baseball players are known for being superstitious, and they only jump if all four of them are able.

Ron had heart surgery in 2018, and three months later, the quartet was jumping out of a plane. Their goal is to reach 100 jumps once the pandemic is less of a concern.

Getting the Call

Being from Philadelphia, Ron always wanted to play for the Phillies. One of the first scouts to take interest in him was Jocko Collins. When Jocko introduced himself to Ron and said he was from the Phillies, Ron felt his adrenaline rush. After the game, Jocko told Ron he was too small to be a pitcher.

“Every time I played for a new team, I heard from the coaches I was too small to be a pitcher," Ron said. “I worked my butt off, and it paid off. Anytime someone tells a person they can’t do something, they should work harder. Something good will come of it. The alternative is you give up, and you get nothing.”

In January 1961, Ron got the call to the majors to play for the Baltimore Orioles. He contacted Jocko and told him, “it’s the little guy,” before sharing the big news.

“We became good friends,” Ron said. “He said in jest, ‘I told you, you couldn’t hack it.’”

Ron pitched one relief inning in his first game. In his second game, he pitched two innings. In the second inning, donning his black and orange Baltimore Orioles uniform he’d earned after years of practice and determination, he threw a pitch. The hitter fired a line drive across Ron’s elbow, and it was the last major league pitch he ever threw.

“I had worked my whole life to get there,” Ron said. “It was my childhood dream.”

He struggled to accept his fate, and after a troubled year, found himself with a renewed vision. As a young man, Ron had joined the Army Reserves, so he wouldn’t get drafted. Upon the end of his baseball career, Army Col. Wilkinson, who had been like a mentor to Ron, helped him enlist in the Army Special Forces, and he served two years.

“Helping my country made me a stronger person,” Ron said.

At that time, aside from the “stars,” baseball players were required to have a secondary career lined up, and Ron had been working in print shops since he was 12 years old. After being discharged from the military, he worked as general manager of a printing company for 10 years before starting his own printing business for 35 years. Once he sold his business, he spent a year touring Europe.

Driving It Home

At age 70, Ron found his true calling as a school bus driver for Central Bucks School District for 15 years.

“Those were the best years of my whole life being around young people. I’d talk about my baseball years and tell the kids, ‘It was so long ago, the ball was square,’” he said.

Ron worked as a private pitching coach for several years, but never felt he had the temperament to coach an entire team. As a resident of Masonic Village at Elizabethtown, he hopes to volunteer with a local youth team in the future.

He moved to Masonic Village last June. His mother resided at Masonic Village 35 years ago, and “they took fantastic care of her,” Ron said. “When I played ball and when I toured Europe, I visited a lot of nursing homes. I’ve been in some of the most expensive homes, and nothing in the whole country or Europe compares to Masonic Village. I should’ve come here when I was 65.”

Ron knows he’s living a pretty good life. He may not have had the same sentiment the day he was injured playing baseball, but he’s healed in more ways than one.

“Some instance could happen to you. Don’t let it control your life,” he said. “Hard work is the best cure for anything.”