For a person who has never liked the attention is now getting all the love from the entire baseball community, as his son shares glimpses of their shared time over 20 years. There are many players with a rapid rise to the majors and a quick fall, and then just disappear. But there are very few who make an impact even during this limited time. We just lost one such Red Sox legend today.

“Pops, my hero man. My best friend & my role model. Thank you… I just feel so dang blessed to have had the best frickin dad a kid could ask for! I love you, Pops,” posted Robby Rowland, son of Red Sox catcher Rich Rowland.

Robby also wrote, “RIP Pops,” on one of the photos showing him as a kid and his father running behind him.

Rich Rowland died at 62, leaving his son Robby with memories that stretched beyond baseball. In announcing his father’s death, Robby called him his hero, best friend, and role model. Those words came before any discussion about home runs, trades, or Rowland’s 98 games in the majors.

And they offer the clearest starting point for understanding the life Rowland left behind.

Before becoming a major league catcher, Rich was first a father to Robby. And his career shows why he was so proud of his father. That memory becomes clearer when looking at how Rowland reached the major leagues.

Garnet Richard Rowland II was the son of Garnet Richard and Annette (née Reisbeck) Rowland, born on February 25, 1964, in Cloverdale, California. Garnet worked as a millwright and foreman in the lumber mill business.

“He instilled a work ethic in me to be accountable and to never give up!” Rich Rowland once recalled.

“She [his mother] showed me how to control frustration when things didn’t go as planned.”

As a child, junior Rowland was nicknamed “Rich.” He played baseball and basketball before his high school years. He attended Cloverdale High and was a star player for the Eagles in three sports: football, basketball, and baseball.

Back then, Rowland was mostly a pitcher and shortstop, earning all-North Central League honors in his junior year. On the gridiron, Rowland was a rifle-armed quarterback, an all-conference pick in both his junior and senior years. He showed the same excellence in basketball, too, earning all-conference honors in his junior and senior years. But there was a negative in Rowland’s baseball journey.

He was removed from the baseball team in late May of his final year for “classroom absenteeism.”

Then, Rowland enrolled at Ventura College in the fall of 1982. After playing one year of baseball, he left the sport. Back then, he was working as a heavy equipment operator for a couple of years in the timber industry before returning to baseball.

Mendocino College gave him another chance. After an impressive spring, batting .462 while playing catcher for the Eagles, he was selected in the 17th round of the June 1988 amateur draft by the Detroit Tigers.

The righty-hitting Rowland was assigned to Bristol (Virginia) in the Appalachian League (rookie ball). He had a solid season, slashing .274/.364/.403 with 41 RBIs in only 186 at-bats.

His progress was rapid, reaching Double-A, Triple-A, and finally the majors during the 1990 season. But reaching Detroit was only the beginning, as staying there became a much harder fight.

In his rookie season with the Tigers, he had an impressive “pop time” of 1.74 seconds, which is still among the majors’ best. But the team decided to send him down to the minors again to sharpen his skills.

Impressed by his strong efforts, the then-Detroit skipper Sparky Anderson called him back to the majors; he batted eighth as the designated hitter against Milwaukee in his first action. Two days after that, Rowland got his first start as a catcher and got his first major-league hit – a double – off reliever Narciso Elvira. One batter later, he scored on Milt Cuyler’s double in a 5-0 Tigers win.

The slash line for his first season stood at three hits in 19 at-bats (.158/.238/.211) in seven games (six starts).

Rowland spent four seasons with Detroit, moving between the Tigers and the minors. Playing time remained very limited, and he finished his Tigers career without hitting a single homer.

The Tigers then traded him to the Red Sox for catcher John Flaherty in April 1994.

That move brought Rowland the opportunity he had struggled to find in Detroit. And for one shortened season, he finally gave Boston a glimpse of his power.

Rowland appeared in 46 games during 1994, backing up catcher Damon Berryhill. He hit all 9 career home runs there and finished with 20 RBIs. His .483 slugging percentage also marked the strongest offensive season of his major league career.

In his first season at Boston, Rowland went 8-for-19 (.421) with three home runs and five RBIs. And had it not been for the strike in that period, he would’ve definitely gotten deeper.

“I was a victim of the 1994 strike. I was on fire at the plate and then (the strike) had to happen,” the Red Sox catcher had recalled.

That season, he ended at .229/.295/.483 with nine home runs in 118 at-bats.

In October 1994, Damon Berryhill went into free agency and signed with Cincinnati. Bill Haselman signed as a free agent a month later. But things got even more complicated when Mike Macfarlane became a free agent in April 1995.

“They changed all [catching] personnel and I was on the bench again,” Rowland said.

By mid-June, Rowland had played in only 14 of Boston’s first 48 games. Yet, he was designated for assignment.

“I never got back to the big leagues after that,” he noted.

Rowland struck out swinging against Paul Assenmacher in his final big league at-bat on June 19, 1995, and had a slash line of .172/.172/.207 in just 29 at-bats.

He was released by the Red Sox after that, and he continued playing in the International League. But at 33, he received another interesting offer.

Milwaukee called him up to play at Triple-A when Rich Rowland decided to return to Cloverdale and be with his family.

Injuries, too, derailed his career a bit, from dislocating a couple of toes during his minor league time in Boston to a broken right thumb in 1989 – they almost never stopped.

Still, Rowland continued playing until 1997 after moving between the Blue Jays and the Giants. But he eventually stepped away from baseball.

The Tigers’ Triple-A manager Tom Gamboa praised Rowland for his strength and determination in his 2018 memoir.

“He would’ve been successful in any business that he had gone into because of his personality and work ethic,” Gamboa shared.

After baseball, Rowland returned to Northern California and went back into the timber industry. But that was not the end of it all.

Rowland stayed in touch with the sport by going to the field with his son Robby. That was the life the father-son duo spent for 20 years straight.

Even though Robby couldn’t make it to the majors, he kept playing in the regional leagues from 2010 in this country and beyond till 2024. And in that phase, both of them developed an unbreakable bond. As Robby recalled in his video posted on his Instagram account,

“I look back at the entire journey for me, personally, in my career, the best memories, the most joy that I had throwing this thing [baseball] was always with Pops.”

Rich Rowland was a joyful character, always having fun sharing goofy smiles with his son and being there for Robby and his brother. One day, while playing catch with his son, he threw the ball so hard that Robby exclaimed, “Holy smokes!” And Rich’s reaction…

“HA HA HA” – imagine that in the most adorable tone, mocking his son.

From playing catch to ping pong, opening fan letters, and building things in the backyard – Rich Rowland was the man for Robby, a family man.

His choice to stay away from the limelight is probably why we don’t know the reason for his death, but his contribution to the community will always be etched in our hearts.

The game remained part of the Red Sox catcher’s family as sons Robby and Richie turned professional ballplayers. Neither reached the majors, but both spent years building careers in baseball. Their journeys do not explain Robby’s tribute, but they add context to those words. When he called Rich his hero, best friend, and role model, baseball wasn’t the only thing he was talking about.