Honoring His Name

The Spring 2023 issue of ONE MARYLAND Magazine will soon arrive in the mailboxes of Terrapin Club members. ONE MARYLAND features stories of strength and perseverance, of determination and spirit. These stories define our athletics program, and this new magazine will allow us to share these stories with you. Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out these stories on umterps.com as a preview of what you will find in ONE MARYLAND. To receive future issues of the magazine when they debut, please join the Terrapin Club. We hope you enjoy.

Before the 2014 season, Maryland baseball had been a program in limbo and one looking to create a new identity before heading to the Big Ten.

In their final season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Terps won 40 games and reached the NCAA Super Regionals for the first time in program history.

Since then, Maryland has flipped the narrative, winning a program-record 48 games in 2022, its first Big Ten regular-season title, and served as the host of an NCAA Regional for the first time ever.

However, the history of Terrapin baseball runs strong, especially in Major League Baseball. No player embodies this more than Charlie Keller, a 13-year league veteran with 189 home runs, the most of any former Terp in MLB.

“I sensed being around him that he was a special person to a lot of people,” Dan Bittle said. “I just always looked at him as a grandfather I wanted to be around, not because he was a baseball player. He taught you the way to do things right in life, whatever it was. His integrity, his honesty and his hard work were who he was.”

Bittle is the grandson of Keller and a longtime Terp fan while being a member of the Terrapin Club. However, it wasn’t until nearly two decades after his playing career finished following the 1952 MLB season that the two formed a strong bond, not from baseball, but his upbringings.

The Middletown native grew up on a farm, surrounded by animals and crops growing up, and his love for animals is what first established a connection between him and Bittle.

“He had a very successful career in the horse breeding industry,” Bittle said. “From 1970-90, we spent a lot of days together. He was teaching me the horse business. Very seldom, he would talk about his baseball career, but he would reminisce once in a while about how lucky he was to play with the Yankees back in the day.”

Eleven of Keller’s 13 seasons spent in MLB were in the Bronx with the New York Yankees, where he was a five-time All-Star and four-time World Series champion.

His best season came in 1941, finishing fifth in AL MVP voting with 33 home runs, 122 RBI, 10 triples, a .298 batting average, and .996 OPS. Over 1,170 games, Keller had a career .298 average and .924 OPS, an under-the-radar pick as one of the best power hitters of the 1940s in baseball.

Keller’s raw power earned him the nickname ‘King Kong,’ though, from Bittle’s recounting of memories, he didn’t like the nickname much.

“He despised his nickname,” Bittle said. “Anyone who respected him never called him that, I can promise you.”

Keller spent two seasons with the Terps, but his passion for Maryland never left him, and the two spent much time at Cole Field House watching Maryland basketball over the years. A former multi-sport athlete himself between baseball and basketball, it was no surprise his passion for the hardwood continued in his post-playing career

They rarely missed a game and got to soak in some of the greatest teams, players, and coaches the program has ever seen.

“He was a big Lefty [Driesell] fan,” Bittle said.

Keller passed away in 1990 but left a strong legacy at Maryland and a substantial impact on Bittle. In recent years, Bittle has been a generous donor of the Terrapin Club, continuing his love of Terps basketball as he contributed toward the building of the Barry P. Gossett Basketball Performance Center, donating in Keller’s name.

More recently, Bittle has gotten involved with Maryland baseball by donating toward the construction of the Stanley Bobb Baseball Development Center to honor Keller’s legacy.

In both projects, Keller’s name will forever be cemented as a testament to his career as a Terp.

“He didn’t talk about it much, but he was proud of this university,” Bittle said. “I thought that myself, having the means to help out and honor his name, he was deserving of it. He represented his college very well. It’s been so many years and he was just a special athlete at this university.”

As Maryland’s success on the field has increased and sustained, Bittle has taken notice in recent years, noting head coach Rob Vaughn and what he’s done with the program.

Bittle continues to support the Terrapins and his philanthropy will undoubtedly help the team take a step forward while taking a step back to remember and honor history.

It’s important to recognize who came before you, and Keller is one of the greatest that there ever has been for Maryland baseball.

“He treated everyone equally,” said Bittle. “The thing I remember most about him is his work ethic and it started as a young boy growing up on a dairy farm.”

While Keller’s Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame plaque hangs in XFINITY Center, his name will now prominently sit for the newest generation of Terps to learn about.