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Lou Gorman defines the angel nature of a hall-of-famer. He deflects celebrity and quietly goes about the business of giving others a boost with selfless satisfaction his only remuneration. The Boston Red Sox, The Boys & Girls Club of America, and his alma mater, Stonehill College, are among many halls of fame that honor him with membership. The LaSalle Academy, New England Heritage, and Rhode Island Gridiron Club halls of fame inducted Gorman for his many years of dedicated service. His public obituary someday will cite his two decades and counting with the Boston Red Sox front office; his launch of the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Mariners as their debut general manager; his Navy career as Captain Gorman and his authorship of two books about professional baseball; the days he signed Jim Palmer and traded away future hall-of-famer Jeff Bagwell, and the night at Shea Stadium in 1986, when as Red Sox GM, he watched the ball and the World Series trickle past Bill Buckner.  Two decades with the Red Sox and finally a ring. But private conversations will remember him as the man who came home to South Providence, Rhode Island to help save his Catholic grammar school from going under; his love-labor for the Jimmy Fund and pediatric cancer research; his long work for the Boy Scouts of America; or while in his 70s, how he took on teenagers as a Sunday School teacher. Lou Gorman has likely forgotten the countless gratis speeches he's made at turkey dinners for this scholarship or that charity in the last 40 years. But the people and kids' whose lives he's touched don't forget. Baseball and betting are decidedly bad bedfellows. But I dare wager that when the Damons and the Bonds conclude the cold business of their kind of baseball, they won't be fretting about the fate of their childhood grammar schools or church Sunday schools. We'll leave that up to the Lou Gormans. Hall of Fame Magazine editor John Budris reported for the nation’s most prestigious publications. You can contact him at
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