Ryan Long - Class of 2017

Overlake baseball legend, Ryan Long (’17), has spent more than half of his life playing ball. After playing for the Growls during his Overlake years, Ryan went on to play for various A, AA, and even AAA teams and he’s currently pitching for the Bowie Baysox, a AA minor league affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.    

“I still love the game” comments Ryan, though he admits he “gets tired of the day-to-day since [he] only pitches every 5-6 days and has to muscle through workouts on his off days,” reiterating that he “truly loves the sport.”  

In reflecting on his Overlake days with the Growls (our shared Overlake Owls and Bear Creek Grizzlies varsity baseball team), Ryan comments that he’s “never had more fun playing baseball than those years.” He credits coach Mike Davidson and his team for teaching him how to become more athletic and learning how to train. And what’s more fun than playing with your friends? More than 7 years later, Ryan credits his teammates as some of his closest friends, sharing that they still run the fantasy football league that they all began as freshmen at Overlake.   

While Ryan’s more immediate future involves playing the Erie Seawolves as one of his last games of the 2024 season and planning to play in the 2025 season, he’s not sure what life will bring after that. With plans to eventually enroll in law school, touching on his interests in the humanities at Overlake including AP Gov, AP US History, and his English courses, he would love a chance to play in the major league. “Playing in the major league isn’t the single end goal of playing in the minors and I wouldn’t consider it a failure if that doesn’t happen” shares Ryan as he looks to his future. For now, he’s living life season by season, game by game, with lots of bus rides in between.   

Catch Ryan on minor league coverage next spring as he suits up and prepares for another season of pitching. But in the meantime, he plans to delve into one of his other passions – travel. What’s Ryan’s first inning of off-season travel? A trip to Europe including a stop in London where fellow alum Nick Robinson (’17) is based.