The New York Yankees may have a special place in many Rams’ hearts, but another team has pride of place for one Fordham graduate in particular: Dennis Baker, S.J.
Father Baker, a Jesuit priest, celebrates Mass at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, every Sunday the team plays there.
“I come from what feels like a baseball family,” he told Blakefield Magazine, which is published by Loyola Blakefield, the Jesuit college preparatory school in Towson, Maryland, where Father Baker has served as president since January 2024. “It’s my father’s favorite sport. … [W]e spent a lot of time together with baseball as the centerpiece.”
Father Baker, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in philosophy from Fordham in 2002 and 2009, respectively, leads a pregame liturgy in the Orioles’ pressroom in connection with the group Catholic Athletes for Christ. He became involved thanks to his friend and former mentee Nick Martinez, a Fordham baseball star who was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2011 and is currently pitching for the Cincinnati Reds.
(In 2021, Martinez was one of two Rams to earn a medal at the Tokyo Olympics.)
As they were catching up in 2023, Martinez told Father Baker about the need for a priest to celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium. He signed on, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I just always found myself around the game a lot and loved to play,” he told Blakefield Magazine. “But above all, it’s the people that baseball has brought into my life that I’m most thankful for.”
