‘Mr. Baseball,’ longtime Anne Arundel coach, dies at 50
Spalding graduate’s life was dominated by sport
Laura Martin met Eric Selckmann three decades ago, as a teenager, working in a store opposite his atMarley Station mall.
“He used to call us over there, the managers, everybody. He tookonhis girls tomake surewe were allOK. Hewas awesome,” Martin said.
Selckmann married, but time passed, and he became a widower. He and Martin both needed friends.
“We connected and started talking and got really really close. He became something really special to me,” Martin said.
When friends talk about Selckmann, it’s all blissful memories filled with baseball, karaoke, fun nights, and a good, reliable friend.
Selckmann died Sept. 26 at the age of 50. No cause of deathwas given.
Selckmann grew up in Pasadena and graduated from Archbishop Spalding in 1988, where he played baseball. Hewent on to earn a criminal justice degree from Anne Arundel Community College.
When he couldn’t play baseball any longer, Selckmann began coaching. He assisted for the
Northeast baseball program from 2007 to 2017 before joining the Spalding staff the last three years. Selckmann also coached recreational teams such as Pasadena Baseballand Maryland Orioles Baseball and the BaltimoreWashingtonMetro League.
“He was Mr. Baseball,” said Chris Daly, Selckmann’s best friend of 13 years. “Every story he toldwas about baseball. If youwere talking about anything going on in your life, he would somehow turn it into baseball, and he’d followup with baseball.”
Martin said Selckmann would only take jobs with hours that allowed him to coach. That love of baseball trickled down to his players, too. It was rare, Martin said, to go out with Selckmann and not be greeted at some point by one of his former players.
“His players, when they saw him, they would just light up,” Daly said. “I don’t know what he was doing, but they would love seeing him. Theywouldmake it a point to come talk to him when they’d see him at the bar.”
The fact that Selckmann left an impact on so many players “spoke volumes” to formerNortheast catcher RyanDove.
“You could talk about anything,” Dove said. “Personal stuff at home youwanted to get off your chest, tips or tricks in baseball, or you could just crack jokes and have a good time.”
Both Dove and fellow former Eagles catcher Daniel Howell, who called Selckmann a big brother-type, recall winter conditioning sessions where the two selfdescribed bigger guys on the squad ended up last on the team’s two-mile runs each time. Selckmannwas always cheering them on.
“He was the type of person you could go ask him anything,” said Howell, who, like Dove, stayed friendly with Selckmann after
high school ended, “but you were afraid of the answer because hewas brutally honest. … That’s hard to find in some people.”
Baseball was Selckmann’s passion but not his only one. On the night of Oct 2., his friends put up a shelf in his friend Mike Root’s garage. Root met Selckmann six years ago throughDaly.
Atop the shelf, Root will place a photo of Selckmann, two bottles, a shot glass and a cooler. Thoughhis friendswereallBaltimore Ravens fans, Selckmann carried a Pittsburgh Steelers cooler wherever hewent.
The glass represents a tradition between the friends, who’dtake a shot ofpeppermint schnapps and Goldschläger cinnamon liqueur at midnight.
“That was totally his idea. I don’t know how he came up with it. It just became a famousshotbetweenour group, andwehad a lot of good times after them,” Daly said.
Fun was an emphasis on Selckmann’s life. Traveling, like to the Outer Banks in North Carolina with Daly or nights out, were his favorites. He knew how to spread the cheer to others, too.
“He wasn’t one of those who would overtake a room,” Martin said. “He didn’t have to be noticed. He was a little bit quiet. But once you engaged him, you had his attention. He made you feel like, right in that moment, you were that important person. People tended to gravitate towards him.”
Oneof the brightestmemoriesofthemall came the day of Daly’s wedding. Per his bride’s orders, Daly wasn’t permitted to drink before the wedding at 4 p.m. Instead, Selckmann took him down to the beach and sat there all day until itwas time.
“He was just there to keep me company. Just me and him, sitting on a beach,” Daly said. “He was a good, reliable friend that was always there. Iwent out with him every singleweekend for, I’d say, about 10 years.”
Root recalls that day most of all too, and howhappy Selckmannwas.
“Hewas just smiling ear to ear the whole time,” Selckmann said.
Selckmann’s friends and family are working to arrange a remembrance of him at a baseball field. No formal funeral arrangements have been finalized.
“Have people focus on all the good stuff. That’s how I want to remember him, that’s howIwant everyone else to rememberhim. How much he loved his family, his friends, how much he loved baseball,” Martin said. “I just want to make sure his legacy, for a lack of a better way to put it, is just focused on whatwas important to him.”
Selckmann is survived by his three siblings, Jim Selckmann, Susan Selckmann and Denise Branham, his nephew, Timothy Branham, and his great-niece, Ella Branham.
“He adored his great-niece Ella. She adored him. She called him his ‘Unc,’” Martin said. “Of course, his nephew, too. He had a lot of friends.”