Rich Rowland, the former Boston Red Sox catcher whose only major league home runs came in a Red Sox uniform, has died at 62.
His son, Robby Rowland, shared the news in an Instagram post.
“RIP Pops,” read the text overlay on Robby Rowland’s post. “Pops, my hero man. My best friend & my role model.. Thank you. Words simply cannot express.. and if they could I wouldn’t know which ones to use..I just feel so dang blessed to have had the best frickin dad a kid could ask for! I love you, pops.”
A cause of death was not immediately available.
Rowland spent two seasons in Boston after the Red Sox obtained him in a trade that still stands as the defining move of his big-league path. The club acquired the right-handed hitting catcher from the Detroit Tigers in April 1994 in exchange for catcher John Flaherty.
That year proved to be his best in the majors. Rowland appeared in 46 games for the Red Sox as a backup to Damon Berryhill and produced all nine of his career home runs. He finished the strike-shortened season with a .229 batting average, 20 RBIs and a .483 slugging percentage that far outpaced the rest of his résumé.
Those nine homers arrived after years of waiting. Rowland had never gone deep in the majors during four earlier seasons in Detroit. Once he put on a Red Sox jersey, the power showed up at Fenway Park and on the road.
He played 60 games in a Boston uniform across 1994 and 1995, more than half of his 98 career major league appearances. The Red Sox used him almost exclusively behind the plate, with occasional time as a designated hitter or pinch-hitter.
His last major league game came June 19, 1995, against Cleveland. He went hitless in his only at-bat that night. Boston sent him back to Triple-A Pawtucket for the rest of the season and released him after the year ended.
Rowland was a native of Cloverdale, California, a small town north of San Francisco. The Tigers selected him in the 17th round of the 1988 draft out of Mendocino College. He moved fast through the system, jumping from Double-A to Triple-A to the majors in 1990 alone.
He spent most of his professional life at Triple-A. From 1990 through 1997 he played 552 games at that level and hit .251 with a .342 on-base percentage and .457 slugging percentage.
After Boston let him go, he signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays and spent 1996 with their Triple-A club. In December 1996 he signed another minor league contract, this time with the San Francisco Giants. He played 19 games for their Triple-A affiliate, hit .237, and then stepped away from the game.
Rowland returned to Northern California and went to work in the timber industry, the same line of work that had supported his family before baseball. According to his Society for American Baseball Research biography, that is how he spent his post-playing years.
His sons Robby and Richie both chased professional baseball careers of their own. Each spent years in the minors. Neither reached the major leagues.
In Boston, Rowland will be remembered as a spare part who delivered a surprising burst of power during one shortened summer. The Red Sox never made him a regular. They did give him the only stage on which he ever hit a major league home run.
